Tough luck for Killingworth’s Camille Kostek, Hartford Colonials cheerleaders

By JOE PELLETIER
Assistant Sports Editor

8/18/2011

MIDDLETOWN – One week removed from the announcement that the Hartford Colonials would not have a season this year, most of the players have already found another home. The UFL held a dispersement draft last week that sent most Colonials to another one of the four franchises, and other free agents (like former UConn running back Andre Dixon) were signed after that.

For the Colonials cheerleaders, though, contraction of the Hartford franchise meant an abrupt end to their season. No games. No practices. No time in front of 14,000 fans at Rentschler Field.

Killingworth’s Camille Kostek, 19, was one of those cheerleaders, and got the email from Colonials cheerleading coach Brittany Bonchuk just before the formal announcement on Aug. 10.

“My heart sunk,” Kostek said. “I got a text from one of my friends, and I was already sick to my stomach when I opened the email.”

Rumblings of reducing the struggling UFL to four, not five, teams had been in the air for a few months. Kostek and teammates, though, hadn’t been given any word until the contraction announcement.

“I really had no idea,” said Kostek, a rising sophomore at Eastern Connecticut State University. “We had learned things about the UFL and the Colonials players, but as far as financial things, we had no idea.”

The timing was tough for the cheerleaders, who had their professional photoshoot the week before. The announcement came only days after their official headshots and portraits went up on Facebook. [click here]

Several supporters of the “Hartford Colonials Cheerleaders” group (which has 1,190 members) wrote posts of thanks and sorrow on the group wall.

“So sorry to all of you that your dreams and hard work end like this,” Darien’s Doug Cooke wrote. “To the veterans from last year – thanks for some awesome memories. To the new girls on the squad and Brittany – sorry you won’t have your chance to shine this season. Good luck to all in whatever the future may bring.”

On Aug. 11, the day after the announcement, more squad pictures went up on the page.

“Ugh! Guys, you are all so beautiful….it makes me wanna cry,” wrote cheerleader Jessica Bella. “ I feel so happy to have met all you beautiful, talented, fun loving women. Xoxo.”

The squad practice each Monday and Thursday this summer at Goodwin College (East Hartford), and even had a promotional event right outside of Rentschler Field, the Colonials former home, on Aug. 7.

“We were all there, all glammed up,” Kostek said. “It was almost like a taste of glory. This was our home field. We were right there.”

Kostek took it hard (“I’m surprised I haven’t cried yet,” she said wistfully during the interview), especially because this was her first professional cheerleading squad. She had previously tried out to be a Patriots cheerleader and Celtics dancer to no avail.

Hope is not entirely lost for Colonials cheerleaders – UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue said he has not closed the door on the Hartford franchise: “(We) will review the viability of returning to the city at the end of this season.”

And if they do, Kostek said she and her teammates would be ready to go.

“One hundred percent,” she said.er the announcement, more squad pictures went up on the page.