AUBURN — Lorelai Noonan didn’t have much time between the end of cheering season and the opening of softball practice this spring.

“Tryouts started the week after we competed (at the New England Interscholastic Spirit Championship) that weekend,” said Noonan, a recent Scarborough High graduate. 

She finally had a break between sports seasons this summer. The Red Storm wrapped up their softball season on June 11, and practices for this year’s Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic football game didn’t start until July 12. 

Noonan is among the cheerleaders representing their schools at the 36th Lobster Bowl on Saturday at Lewiston High. 

For many, this is the first time they’ve cheered in a competitive setting since February at the state championships in Augusta. 

“I’m very happy to come back and cheer one last time after graduating high school, and I feel like it’s just a good way to close that door and just end on a good note,” Noonan said.  

Lily Alley, a four-time state champion at Ellsworth, said the first couple practices at Central Maine Community College in Auburn were difficult as athletes got to know each other. 

“My high school team, we’ve been cheering together since we were about 5, and then it’s so hard to go from not cheering with each other to cheering with each other and cheering with kids we’ve never met,” Alley said. 

Slowly but surely, though, routines come together, and the cheerleaders spent most of Wednesday polishing.

“It feels amazing because now all we have to do is put it all in motion and make sure it all goes smoothly because we’re already running full-outs, which is incredible. I didn’t think we were going to be running them until tomorrow afternoon, and that we’re doing them today is actually insane,” Alley said. 

Several cheerleaders have family ties to the game, including Mount View graduate Idella Spaulding. Her uncles, Christopher and Clint Spaulding, became the first set of twin brothers to play in the Lobster Bowl when they did so in 2014. 

“It’s definitely a lot of pressure, but it’s been a dream of mine since my uncles were in the game, and same with my aunt,” Spaulding said. “Since I could remember, I was talking about it with my grandmother like, ‘Oh, I want to do that.’ And then she recently passed, in 2023, so it’s also in memory of her. So it’s a lot of pressure to make sure I do good for them. I love it.”