Senior Ava Pasquesi recently decided she was going to continue her cheerleading career next year at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Pasquesi was a three year varsity cheerleader for the scouts, so there is no doubt she will continue her great legacy as a cheerleader for the badgers.

As if that’s not exciting enough, she is headed down to Madison with her twin brother Luke by her side. The Pasquesi twins are the youngest of five children, with two of their older sisters having attended Wisconsin. Miceala graduated in 2020, followed by Gianna in 2025. Brains clearly run in the family as their other sister Jessica graduated from Northwestern in 2022.

Paquesi’s teammates, friends, and family had a large impact on her cheer journey not only during her high school career, but in the evaluation to continue at the collegiate level. 

“My cheer team has become a second family and having their support going into Wisconsin tryouts made me feel more confident in myself,” said Pasquesi.  “And my parents have been my number one cheerleaders. They’ve shown up to every game I cheer at and all my competitions wearing their sparkly sequin jackets.” 

Game days in the fall will surely be special for the Pasquesi family. 

During the end of Pasquesi’s junior year is when she realized she wanted to continue her cheerleading career. 

“Going into my senior year I didn’t want that to be my last year cheering, so that’s when I started to look into college programs and started preparing for the tryout process,” said Pasquesi.

The tryout included multiple rounds of evaluations and cuts. Sunday morning was the official tryout morning, with stunts, tumbling, fight song, and coach interviews.

After Pasquesi finished her tryout, she had two days until the results were announced. After those two days, which felt like years, she got the email that confirmed that she had been accepted to the 2026 roster.

 “When I opened the email I was ecstatic when I saw the word “Congratulations.” I immediately started playing “Jump Around” and ran downstairs to tell my family,” said Pasquesi.