Roscoe teen to cheer at Pro Bowl in Hawaii
ROSCOE – Pittsburgh Steelers Ben Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Alan Faneca and James Harrison won’t be the only southwestern Pennsylvanians on the field for this year’s Pro Bowl today. Sara Treser of Roscoe will be taking the field at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu for her second time as a participant in the All-American Cheer and Dance Pro Bowl pre-game and half-time performances. The 16-year-old California Area High School Junior was also supposed to be competing for a scholarship, but like Steeler Troy Polamalu who had to bow out of the Pro Bowl due to an injury, an injury is keeping her out of that competition.
“I broke my foot playing ultimate Frisbee in gym class,” she said.
Her mother said the broken foot should be able to handle the dance routine, but the competitive cheering would have been too much.
“She’s a tumbler. Maybe if she didn’t tumble, she could have worked around it, but it’s too much stress on it,” Candice Treser said.
The Tresers are hoping the foot won’t get in the way of Sara learning and performing the dance routines for the pre-game and half-time shows.
“I can take pain fine,” Sara said.
Candice and Sara Treser said the scholarship competition is really just a nice bonus, not the reason for the trip.
“It’s just a nice opportunity to meet girls from all over the country, and it is Hawaii,” Candice Treser said. “It’s a lovely vacation, but Sara’s really tied up with the practices.”
Sara said she had hoped other members of her competitive cheering squad from home would be going on the trip as well, but she is the only member that decided to go through with the trip.
“It’s just a really nice experience, just to go to Hawaii as it is. Then to get to meet all the football players and to cheer in front of all those people is really exciting,” she said.
Tickets to the Pro Bowl are part of the All-American Cheer and Dance tour package. Candice Treser said she’s a Steelers fan and has come to like football over the years.
“Sara’s cheered since she was in second grade, so I’ve been to a lot of football games along the way,” Treser said.
Sara, her 14-year-old sister, Amanda, her mother and her grandmother, Laverne Hamilton, will be spending 10 days in Hawaii. Candice Treser said four years ago the girls took their schoolbooks with them, but airline regulations are more strict now, making that more difficult.
Candice Treser said she spoke with the assistant principal at the high school and the girls spoke to their teachers to make arrangements for work they will do to make up for the absences. She said her younger daughter’s science teacher gave her an assignment to go to an observatory in Oahu and the family will be going to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor as well.
Candice Treser said being in Hawaii during the week of the Pro Bowl adds yet another dimension to being a tourist.
“You look for nicely-dressed, big men and try to figure out which football players they are,” she said.