The Cheer News

Check out the 2008 Cheer Air Dates page for Aprils All-Star and College cheerleading dates.

 The Lightning cheer team from Peoria, AZ came from 3rd, down 20 points, to take home the Cheersport national championship in Atlanta, GA.

From The Arizona Republic:

Before competing the next day, Goldman changed the team’s whole routine in an effort to catch up, even adding a “basket toss,” in which one team member is flung in the air and caught by other members.

The team was only able to practice for an hour, but it proved to be enough when competition resumed.

Read the full story…

From the Times Herald-Record:

The senior group won the national championship in February in Orlando, Fla., and the youth team went undefeated competing in local competitions. The Cheerdome Angelz have participated in the Challenge in Poughkeepsie, at Cornwall High School and are looking forward to competitions in Wildwood, N.J., and Hershey Park, Pa.

Read the full story… 

News from the Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle

Like many team sports, a cheerleading squad’s success is usually the result of how well the team worked together at practice and during competitions.

The Generals will compete in the National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, Florida, on April 5and 6, joining Narragansett Regional as the two teams representing the state in the Division 4 event. Cheerleading teams from Attleboro, Gloucester and Natick will also compete in other divisional competitions.

 Read the full story…

Jenn Smith with American Cheerleader Magazine has a blog post about the new cheerleading video game coming out this fall from THQ called All-Star Cheer Squad.  She got a chance to hang with the choreographer and the cheerleaders as they rehearsed before heading into the studio.

From and article in the Billings Gazette online:

It’s not easy being a cheerleader, but West High’s cheerleaders proved this weekend they have the drive, determination and athleticism to be national champions. The squad brought home a first-place trophy from the Cheerleading of America national competition in Orlando, Fla.

Read the full article…

 The Medford High Schools Cheerleader have won three national championships to date.  Those championships came in 1998, 2000 and 2004.  In 1998 they won both the state and national title.

From  the Medford Transcript online

The undefeated Medford High School Cheerleaders squad captured its fourth national championship by beating St Laurence High School of Illinois, 290-266, at the Cheerleaders of America (COA) Ultimate National Cheerleading Championships at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, Fla., March 21-22.

Read the full article…

Salon has a great writeup on author Kate Torgovnick’s book “Cheer! Three Teams on a Quest for College Cheerleading’s Ultimate Prize,” including a interview with Kate.

 while researching an article for Jane about cheerleader injuries, Torgovnick got sucked in. She discovered in competitive college cheerleading — one of the only sports in which men and women compete together — “a fervent subculture filled with people willing to take their bodies to the limit … I was blown away by the gravity-defying women and Herculean men. The glimmer of passion in their eyes was so intense that it was sometimes startling,” she writes. “These are not just pretty women shaking pom-poms.”

Read the full article including the interview… 

Looks like Namco Bandai has filed a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office for We Cheer. There is not word from Namco Bandai on a release date yet but this is a definite challenge to THQ which announced the release of All-Star Cheerleading earlier this month.

Both games will be available on Nintendo’s Wii.

225 team entries from 73 clubs generated the largest ever cheerleading event held in Britain.  3,386 entrants, larger even that the 2007 BCA Internationals, further underlined the [dramatic] growth of this athletic spectator sport.  The 2,600 seat arena was sold out purely on advance ticket sales to member clubs.

Easter Saturday was the 5^th annual BCA University Cheerleading Championships.  Over a third of Britain’s 150 universities now have having cheerleading sports programs, and almost all were competing at Telford this weekend.  This competition is unique in being the only such event solely for university based teams.  This has now developed into one of the largest events on the cheer calendar.  98 teams from 47 universities entered. 

Easter Sunday saw the BCA Midlands Classic regional competition, which also showed significant growth.  124 teams from 47 clubs entered, including some university teams who had signed up for both competitions.  1,800 entrants.  BCA ‘Classic’ regionals are held across the UK with an equal opportunity ranges of divisions to suit teams of all ages and skills ability levels.   

It was an incredible two days of athletic skills.  Each routine was the culmination of countless hours of dedicated training and conditioning.  Performing standards continue to rise as so many divisions are closely contested.  Some were won by a single point out of a maximum of 300 from the judging panel.  One required two stages of tie break in the scoring system to decide the champions. 

Cheerleading is a competitive athletic discipline, one of Britain’s fastest growing sports.   A dynamic fitness activity involving cheers; chants; jumps; tumbling; dance partner stunts and pyramid building.  The most rapidly growing sector of the sport is now in schools where it is increasingly seen as providing a popular fun fitness activity with almost no set up costs.

The British Cheerleading Association is a non profit organization with a membership of over 400 clubs throughout the UK, founded in 1984.   The sports excellent competing safety record was again upheld this weekend.   386 NCSSE coaches safety training courses were sat over the last month at venues around Britain.