Cromwell dancer performs with 2016 New England Patriots Cheerleaders

By Kathleen Schassler
The Middletown Press
April 8, 2016

CROMWELL >> Football fans may be surprised to find the head cheerleader for the 2016 New England Patriots Cheerleading Squad scooping ice cream at a local restaurant.

Known as “Captain Tory” to the squad, Victoria Spadaro, a Cromwell dancer and the manager of Mortensen Dairy Ice Cream, is beginning her third season with the team, her second as captain, Spadaro said Friday.

Being a part of the team has taken the Cromwell High School graduate to many exciting places, like the sidelines of the 2015 Super Bowl XLIX when the Patriots won the championship, and a 2016 swimsuit calendar shoot with the squad in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

The squad performs before nearly 70,000 fans at home games. Patriots cheerleaders have also visited deployed military troops in more than 25 countries and appeared on local and national television, according to Michael Jurovaty, assistant director of media relations for the team.
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“It took me three years to make the team,” said Spadaro, who is one of 420 dancers who vied to win one of 33 spots. A competitive dancer, Spadaro got inspired to try out for the squad by former Coach Brittany Bonchuk, who led Spadaro’s dance team at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. Bonchuk was in her fourth and final year on the Patriots squad when the CCSU student was a rookie.

“When you audition more than once, you have to ask yourself, ‘Am I improving?’” said Spadaro about the challenging, six-week audition process that includes an optional clinic to help newcomers enter the process. Though she progressed further with each audition, she questioned herself, and ultimately is thrilled that she stuck with it.

“You’re in a sisterhood,” said Spadaro, who travels throughout the region making appearances with the cheerleading team. “We get to see what is happening in New England. We meet so many people who care enough to do wonderful things in their communities.”

The cheerleaders are talented, expert dancers with years of experience, said Spadaro, who got her start in a Rocky Hill studio. The squad dances on the sidelines at games, with some tumbling added in, she said. Prior to joining the group, Spadaro coached a competitive dance team at Cromwell High School that she also helped to start, she said. “They were the favorite team I ever worked with or coached,” said Spardaro, who served as assistant coach to Cromwell teacher Alishia Coleman before stepping up to coach in 2012-13, prior to making the Patriots squad.

“Those kids are dedicated. They want to compete,” Spadaro explained.

The cheerleader dedicates herself to the part-time job with the Patriots, one that requires “a full-time commitment,” said Spadaro, who also works another part-time job in addition to managing Mortensen’s — as a dance instructor at New England Dance in Cromwell. The two local jobs offer her the needed flexibility to travel three days a week to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, for practices and home games in the fall.

“I love it,” Spadaro said of her work with the squad.

This year, the more than four-hour, round-trip commute to Gillette will be a bit easier since several rookies from Connecticut have joined the squad. “Now we can carpool,” said Spadaro, who uses the travel time to listen to books, music or NPR.

Proud parents Kathy and Jonathan Spadaro have come to see their daughter perform many times, she said. “Every time [Dad] comes to New England, he wears green,” said Spadaro, of her father, a fan of the New York Jets, a Patriots rival. “Everyone knows.”