Last modified: Friday, October 16, 2009 2:17 AM EDT Members of the Coastline Show Chorus rehearse recently at the South Attleboro Knights of Columbus Hall. (Staff photos by Tom Maguire) Show time! BY SUSAN LaHOUD SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO - 'Hold that chord! Snap!" Joe Connelly yells to the women on the risers during a recent rehearsal of the Coastline Show Chorus. The singers respond by crisply bringing their arms down at the end of the song verse. "There was a lot of good stuff in there," he says at last, an hour into a rehearsal where the women, about 80 of them, repeated sections of their routine again and again in attempts to nail them. The chorus ranges in age from their late teens to their 70s, and members come from around New England as well as a few other states. They are one of 600 chapters of Sweet Adelines International, a barbershop harmony organization. Now, the Coastline Chorus, which rehearses at the Knights of Columbus Hall in South Attleboro, is preparing to bring their a cappella act to the annual international competition taking place Oct. 22 in Nashville, Tenn. Coastline is a three-time finalist at the competition and has placed as high as fourth in two of those sing-outs, the most recent in 2007. This time, they're going for the gold. 'We need to deliver' "No one is any better prepared than you," Connelly, a barbershop quartet coach and a competition judge, tells the women, who respond with hooting and applause. "Now we need to deliver, because it does not mean jack if we don't deliver," he says. After all the song and sweat, the members are pumped. "We're not settling for fourth," said Terri Javery of Norton, who recently re-joined the chorus after having a baby. In returning, she took a place next to her mother, Cindy Leston, 62, of Mansfield, who has sung with Coastline for more than a decade. "I missed it terribly," said Javery, 42. "It's so much fun and there's so many dedicated women of many ages and from many backgrounds." Along with singing, camaraderie strikes a central chord with members. The competitiveness and practice time strengthen friendships. "We're really a dynamic group," said Javery, adding she had no experience before joining the chorus, which is always open to new members. "It's a sisterhood," said Connie Stark, 63, of Attleboro, who has sung with Sweet Adeline choruses for nearly three decades. The last nine have been with Coastline, where she is in the lead section. "There's camaraderie there." Sense of community Stark, an expediting manager for an international fabric company, said members include teachers, nurses, social workers, lawyers, single moms and teenagers. The chorus brings together women "who might not otherwise be friends," said Kathy Amaral of Seekonk, a member of the Sweet Adelines for 13 years and of Coastline for the last eight. "This one thing brings them together. "It's a great place to meet people and find a community." They all work at it. Stark, said members definitely have to do their homework, which entails practicing the choreography as well as the tunes hours each day in addition to regular practice sessions. "You get so pumped up and invigorated," she said. Stark likens the physical part of the performance to "low impact aerobics," stepping on and off the risers and doing the dance moves, keeping in character with the piece while also keeping harmony. "A lot of what we do is acting on stage to sell the story behind the song," said Amaral, 50. By the end of rehearsals, which take place every Wednesday evening from 7 to 10, "you feel you've had a workout," she said. There are also some weekend workouts when visiting coaches help prime the chorus in advance of competitions. "It's a lot of work and time commitment, but it's worth it," said Javery. To maximize her practice time, she sings songs from Coastline's repertoire while transporting her 4-year-old daughter back and forth to pre-school. The girl, she adds, "knows all the songs." Amaral said the group was "wide-eyed" when it attended its first international competition in 2003 in Phoenix, where the chorus placed ninth. Members credit Coastline director Gail Jencik for finishing in the top 10 each of the three times they have qualified for an international competition, particularly because they are a younger chorus than others that qualify. "She's very demanding but also very open to communication from assistant directors or special coaches," said Amaral. "We're always moving forward." "If she wasn't tough, we would not have been fourth at the competition," Stark said. She and other members say they find the music, from American classics to Broadway hits to modern jazz, "exciting." The international competition gives the group "a way of showing off our stuff for the whole organization," Stark said. And it's a matter of pride, of course. "We don't want to be fourth again - we're striving for No. 1," she said.