Sport

Cheerleaders celebrate new highs in both size and competitions

By Chris Rogan
Published: 29/04/2010

The University of Sheffield cheerleading squads have enjoyed success over recent months, including being highly placed at international competitions.

The Sabrecats stunt squad, which is the more gymnastic-based team, and the Pom cats and Sabrecats Pom squads, both of which are more dancing- orientated, have all entered and secured places as high as third against some of the best cheerleading squads in the country.

The University of Sheffield’s cheerleading has progressively increased in size over the last few years to be one of the biggest societies at the University.

The club boasted of upwards of 200 newcomers at the start of the current academic year, which may well have had an impact in the results of their recent competitions.

Sarah Laycock, a third year medicine student and coach of the Sabrecats stunt team alongside Beth Mills, noted how well the team had done this year in the face of such tough competition.

“We have entered two competitions this season, and done really well in both of them, especially the International Cheerleading Coalition (ICC) British Open, held at Nottingham in March, where we competed alongside the most talented cheerleaders in the country.”

The British Open attracts thousands of specatators as well as the best cheerleading teams in the UK. The stunt squad secured third place in the third tier of the competition.

Laycock was keen to emphasise that this was in the face of relatively poor training facitilies:

“We had hundreds of students interested in cheerleading at the start of the year, but Brookhill Hall, where we train, really struggles to accommodate these numbers.

“For the stunt squad to finish third in such a major competition in Nottingham is really impressive because of these training problems.”

If the squad continues to increase in size then there certainly is hope that the club will secure another venue for training.

The Sabrecats performed at the Sheffield Arena for the Ice Hockey Varsity, as well as at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium yesterday for the men’s and women’s football Varsity final.

www.cheerleading.union.shef.ac.uk.

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