Isabella Franzella is far from your average freshman. As a member of the Cali Black Ops cheer team, she’s a two-time winner of the global cheer competition Worlds.
Her mother, who cheered in middle and high school and later became a cheer coach, introduced Isabella to cheer at three years old.
Even though it’s the beginning of the season, she still has cheer about 16 hours a week. Isabella’s favorite part of cheering is the feeling of being thrown into the air.
“I love stunting,” Franzella said. “I’m a flyer, so I love being in the air and doing cool tricks.”
Franzella developed several time management methods ensuring that she can keep up with her studies. Franzella optimizes her time by doing her homework during her short periods of free time, such as during long car rides and Flex Time.
“[Balancing my schedule] has been [hard], but I’ve gotten used to just doing [homework] in the car because [practice] is in Livermore,” Franzella said.
Despite her busy schedule, Isabella loves the diversity of people she gets to meet and see outside of school, many sharing the same passion as she does.
“Some things I dislike [about cheerleading] is that my schedule can get pretty busy, and sometimes I’m not able to hang out with my friends because I have practice or competitions,” Franzella said. “But I love it because I get to [meet] friends from everywhere, not just school friends.”
Black Ops was one of the selected teams to receive an invite to Worlds in 2017 and 2018. Isabella went both of those years and won first place both times.
“Everyone comes from around the world, like the best teams, and you have to get invited to it, so it’s kind of hard to get into the competition,” Franzella said. “But it’s crazy because you compete with everyone from everywhere.”
Isabella also takes pride in representing Aragon and being part of the junior varsity cheer team, especially since she’s new to public schools.
“It feels honestly awesome because I came from a private school and it’s different from a public school,” Franzella said. “But it’s awesome because Aragon’s a good school.”
Franzella’s life is packed, but she manages to soar through the struggles with a smile.
