Swampscott's basketball cheerleaders are an athletic and enthusiastic group. They put those talents in motion at three recent competitions culminating with a second place finish earlier this month at the Ultimate National Pure Competition in Orlando, Fla.   The Massachusetts state champs in Div. 3 earned their national ranking in the advanced varsity cheer level. Now it's our turn to cheer.  A cheer goes out to the team for their spirit and skill. Big Blue cheerleaders: Captains: Kelsie Mayo, Kristin Wheeler, Colleen Meagher, Senior Courtney LeBlanc. Juniors: Caitlyn McNally, Mariah Hanson…

Victoria (Tori) Wharff is wrapping up her time at Swampscott High School with four years on the SHS Dance Team, the last three serving as one of the captains. “I made the team as a freshman and I was elected captain as sophomore, and I served as captain as a junior as well, I’m one of the co-captains this year with my friend Alexa (Baldacci) as seniors,” Tori said. “Dancing is great, if I’m having a bad day at school, or just in a bad mood, I dance and then I feel great,” Tori said. “Any aggravations of frustrations I have melt away when I’m dancing.” Wharff lives on Brooks Terrace with her …

  Movita Harrigan broke ground for herself and fellow METCO students with her induction to the National Honor Society last week. Movita is the first METCO student at Swampscott High to become an Honor Society member, said Tara Sisco, Swampscott's METCO director. Students have come close, within a point, but Movita was the first to make it, the director said. The 16-year-old was nervous as she and 28 students awaited their induction at the March 13, ceremony in the school auditorium. She found herself thinking in Japanese as upperclassman William Ross was introducing her, including remarks …

Athletes at Swampscott High School have come to know that if Gino Cresta’s on the team, there’s a solid chance you’re heading to the MIAA playoffs. Cresta manned second base for coach T. J. Baril’s Big Blue baseball team last spring, and the team put together a good season with several big wins over Bishop Fenwick and Marblehead. The team qualified for the state tournament, but the club fell flat and lost to Austin Prep. The Cougars whipped the Blue, 9-3 ending their season in round one. “It was incredibly disappointing to lose in the opening round last year,” Cresta said from his family’s …

  Swampscott High School senior Dan Bromberg has an extremely bright future ahead of him, all of the colleges he’s interested in, are interested in him. When The Patch caught up with the 17-year-old, he was waiting at Panera Bread to talk to a representative from Cornell University, about the possibility of heading to upstate New York for his college career. “All the schools I’ve applied to are giving me interviews,” Dan said. “Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, M.I.T., it would be great to go to M.I.T., my dad works there and I did an internship there for two years while I was in high school.” The …

  Alexa Baldacci moves. The Swampscott High senior’s energy and enthusiasm bound and spill forth on land and water. She captains her school swim team. She started swimming as a freshman and discovered she was pretty good. “So since then I’ve been swimming like crazy,” she said. Alexa, an NEC all-star, swims sprints — 50- and 100-yard freestyle sprints. The events fit her personality, straight ahead and energetic. On the dance floor, her excitement pours forth, says Swampscott High Dance Team Coach Danielle Lannon. “She completely lights up on the stage; I could watch her dance all day!” Alexa…

  Trevor Whelan sweats the small stuff. He's organized and chases goals, too. It's minutes before the Swampscott High senior and indoor-track captain joins teammates for practice the first week in January. He's wearing spotless boots, neat rolled-up jeans and a wrinkle-free jersey. Nearby, on the field house's rubber track, teammates train — doing sprints, runs and distance running. Some look over and smile when they pass Trevor. He has never run a 5-minute mile in his four-year track career. “I’m hoping to break five," he says. That would make him the fifth miler on the team to break that …

  Swampscott High junior Dennis Averin has traveled broadly, much of it inspired by his connection to the natural world and conservation. That connection began at a young age on hikes with his father in the Presidential Range in New Hampshire's White Mountains. And it has continued. This past summer he joined students from Texas, Ohio and New Hampshire on an internship in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. They slept in tents and rose early for days of swinging pickaxes, shoveling earth and marking trails — protecting critical environments from the trampling feet of lost travelers. The …

  Big Blue junior Robert Serino couldn’t hide his disappointment when Swampscott fell to Marblehead on Thanksgiving Day, knocking the football team out of the playoffs. “It was tough, really tough, but me and the other returning juniors told the sophomores and freshman that this is never going to happen again, we’re going to move ahead, work hard and change the ending next time,” Serino said."We start working right now." Robert lives on Burpee Road with his mom and dad and his younger sister Callie, a freshman at Swampscott High School. His uncles, his dad and his grandfather have all been …

  Sixteen-year-old Alexa Steriti was a field hockey All-Star last season, bouncing back from a serious knee injury, but she’s making her marks off the field with her work helping other students and other people in her community. Steriti, a junior, will turn 17 next May, and helped the Big Blue to a good season last fall, making the post-season high school tournament. Steriti used to play softball and basketball, but suffered a serious injury to her left knee, damaging the ACL and tearing the meniscus. Steriti is a member of Best Buddies and the MVP’s, Mentors for Violence Prevention at SHS. “…

  One of the great holiday traditions is seeing a performance of The Nutcracker, and recently, Swampscott’s Gia Dilisio took the stage to perform in the holiday classic as a member of the Northeast Youth Ballet.  DiLisio is a fifth grader at the Swampscott Middle School. Hundreds of people jammed the Lynn Memorial Auditorium earlier this month to see DiLisio and the rest of the cast dance their way through the story of Clara, a young girl in Germany in 1835 who makes her way to a magical palace of sugary sweets in a winter wonderland. The Swampscott 11-year-old had a number of roles in the …

  Swampscott High School senior Jesse DePaolo has her resume ready, her goals in mind, and has had an independent spirit in her since her mom took her to her first day of classes at the Machon School a few years back. “She was four years old, and I brought her to the first day of school and she said, “Mom you wait here, this is my school and not for parents,” her mother Jan said. At age 10, Jesse read an article about Lance Armstrong and wanted to participate in bike races and triathlons.  Jesse wakes up each day with two things in mind, how to improve herself and improve the world around her…

Swampscott High School senior Sam Gold goes about his business leading the Big Blue football team as one of the 2011 co-captains, working the trenches on the offensive line. If Gold and his fellow linemen don’t do their jobs, the Big Blue backs can’t do their jobs and the team won’t be successful on the field. Gold and his teammates are doing just fine this season, the Big Blue has raced out to a 7-1 record and they sit atop the NEC/CAL League 2 Tier at 3-0 after Saturday’s very impressive win over Beverly. “I’m on the field for the offensive series, I just try to give it my all and do my …

When Frank Legere was a little boy, his grandfather, Howard Lord, would take him out in the backyard and toss him every kind of ball until Frank would pick one he liked, and they’d work on that one. “He spent a lot of time with me, he was a very good man,” Frank said. Howard Lord passed away this past week at age 91, and Thursday afternoon Frank said he was dedicating the rest of the football season to his grandfather. Friday night, he left his Grampy’s wake and scored the first touchdown of the game, in a 28-7 win by the Big Blue over Salem. The offensive line told Legere they’d get him to …

Eighteen-year-old Aidan Lang has one of the best jobs in town, catching passes from Mike Walsh at slot receiver for the Big Blue football team. Lang was busy this weekend with two nights of football against Malden; unfortunately he was doing a lot of punting as the Big Blue lost their first game of the year. The Lang family hosted the football team last week for the team dinner and Aidan helped picked out the fare. “Chicken fingers, chicken parm, chicken broccoli ziti, lot of salad,” Lang said. “We’ve got a couple of vegetarians so we wanted to have something for everybody.” The team and the …

This week’s Whiz Kid features a young adult, college student Cailah Moschella. Cailah is a sophomore at Suffolk University in downtown Boston where she is studying criminal justice. She spent from June to the end of August on her summer internship at the Middleton House of Correction, doing a bit of everything. That included shadowing employees during prisoner intakes, office work and tutoring. She returned to school last week. Cailah is in interested in police work.  The Swampscott HIgh School graduate, Class of 2010, traces her interest to another internship-like experience. As a student at…

Swampscott’s Ben Pitman had a cool summer job; he worked for the town on the beach and open sea as a C. I. T., counselor in training, with the summer sailing program. “This was my first year as a C. I. T., my dad (Peter) grew up in Swampscott and he loved sailing and he shared that with me, it was pretty cool to have a job with the sailing program this summer,” Pitman said at the awards cookout earlier this month that wrapped up the town program's sailing season. “My family owns a 25-foot sailboat (Buoys Away) and we’ve had it as long as I can remember,” Ben said. “I saw how much fun my mom (…

Park League counselor Michael Bagarella dedicated himself to making sure the second and third graders in his charge this summer had fun. Sometimes when he got home from the 9 a.m. until noon playground program he was so worn out that all he could do was watch TV for a couple hours. Playing games with kids and keeping them happy was rewarding but draining, it turned out.  “I want to have them go home with smiles on their faces and say to mom or dad, ‘I had fun playing four square today or capture the flag,’ he said earlier this summer on the Abbott Park grounds. He felt like he was an older …

Everything 18-year-old Allyson LaConte does revolves around kids. She has taught dance and religious education to children, and tutored them, too. In the fall, the Boston College freshman will study elementary education.  This summer, on mornings at Abbott Park, the Park League counselor teaches arts and crafts to fourth-and fifth-grade girls and boys. “All the things I did at high school and church ... all the main activities I’ve been involved in revolved around children,” she says. It’s fun when she bumps into a kid in public and they are excited to see her. “That’s the best,” she says. …

Swampscott’s Devon Wall is heading into the eighth grade at Swampscott Middle School, and he’ll be 14 when January rolls around. But, while the weather is warm and the sails are unfurled, Devon is a sailing C. I. T. (counselor in training) for the Recreation Department. Devon and his group are at Fisherman’s Beach Monday through Friday, learning the ins and outs of sailing. Wall, and his family are members of the Pleon Yacht Club. Wall was born while his parents lived in Revere. He moved to town with his mom and dad, brother Jared and sister Jillian, to their home on Charlotte Road seven …