The first external training session for Heatwave & Ignite and the first showcase for Inferno as well as a surprise for the team!
Hello!
We are Emily (this year’s Treasurer) and Megan (this year’s Secretary) and it is our second year on the Firebirds team for both of us!
Emily Treasure and Megan secretary
Here is a little insight into what are job roles consist of and how we support the team through these committee positions:
The role of a treasurer is to manage the clubs’ finances, so I collect subs from all athletes and then go on to spend it on exciting things such as bows, uniforms, and training for the team. The role of a Secretary involves a lot of organisation and admin tasks such as planning committee meetings and recording anything discussed so we as a committee can support the team to our full extent.
Catch up with what us Firebirds have been up to recently!
Each training season, the Firebirds team has the opportunity to go to an external training venue as our university gym does not have a full-sized sprung floor. Therefore, we go to Unity HQ (UHQ), a large gym with sprung floor and tumble tracks specifically set up and kitted out for cheerleaders. We go there on average about once a month from December to March so we can gain full exposure to how the routine may feel at competition. There we get to do our full outs and perform to our full extent!!
We went to our first session at UHQ on the 11th of December.
It is always so intimidating going there and watching all the all-star teams training.
The UHQ sessions are very intense, we don’t often get long on the mat and therefore we have to make the most of the time we have.
This first session of the season at UHQ always feels very hectic, as for many of our athletes it is their first opportunity to run the routine on a full-sized sprung floor. However, it is so amazing to see the progress and hard work finally coming together.
The growth of the team really comes to light at this point in the season, all the effort put in by our coach Libby and external coach Naomi definitely does not go unnoticed. Going to UHQ creates a real buzz within the teams and is a chance to really show everyone’s full abilities and talent. It is also a great chance for both teams to support each other and really bring the atmosphere and mat talk alive!
The main goal for our first session was perfecting the spacing of our routine. Starting with the opening section, working through main stunt, jumps through to tumbles for our tumble Level 1 team Heatwave and then onto the all-time favourite yet energy demanding – pyramid.
It is a very meticulous process but so important to ensure each section flows effortlessly into the next with the hope the overall visual appearance and aesthetic will wow the audience and judges. At this point in the season, we do not have our dance section yet, but once that is choreographed, we would also need to sort spacing for it. We were given our music the Thursday before UHQ which is SO EXCITING because it meant we got to do run throughs with our very own music meaning we could really bring the enthusiasm and energy to the floor – the feeling was electric.
For a few of the team members that cross over onto both Level 1 and Level 2 teams (known as “crossovers”) the three-hour UHQ session is really tough and strenuous. It is very physically demanding but is also so rewarding to see the progress and development of both teams who are being equally challenged in both levels for different reasons. Both of us are crossovers, Megan as a flyer on both teams and Emily as a base for Level 2 and a back spot for Level 1. We can both agree that each team has its challenges but when it comes to solving these challenges everyone remains on board with the main target which is perfecting the routine to put on a great show.
Both of us started with Firebirds last year and we can already see the massive amount of progress between this time last year and this year. We can vividly remember our first UHQ with Heatwave last year and feeling so lost and underprepared but this year it has been so much better. The stunts we are putting forward this year are far more complex and yet are being picked up much quicker and efficiently than last year’s easier stunts. We are also honoured enough as to have some ex-Firebirds return for this season which is so exciting to see.
Here are some testimonies from Myah (Level 1 Base) and Georgia (Level 2 Backspot) so you can get an insight into what being on the Firebirds teams are really like:
Myah
“I’m Myah, I study Paramedic Science and I am a fresher base in the Firebirds Level 1 stunt team. For me, I found the first UHQ training session really exciting as I had never performed on a sprung floor before – it was definitely a weird feeling. The session was about allowing us as a team to make sure that our spacing and stunts were correct on the larger floor. As well as giving us a chance to get a feel for how each of the sections would look through marking routines as well as full outs, especially now that we know what music that the routine will be to. It was also really nice to train somewhere other than uni as a team, it definitely made the thought of performing in competitions in 2023 more real!”
– Myah Paramedic Science first year
Georgia
“Hi, I’m Georgia a first-year Paramedic Science student. In December I joined the rest of the Firebirds for our first UHQ training session this year. Initially it was very daunting to try and work out things such as spacing in this session on the different mats but as a team we all joined together to get there. It was amazing to be able to finally start to see the routine start to come together even more and to be on a sprung floor! Training in this session made me even more excited for the season ahead of us and to see us all continue to work together and build on the friendships already made!”
Georgie Paramedic Science first year
New Pom Uniforms for Inferno and an upcoming showcase!
The pom team Inferno has also been doing some incredible things. The team will be going to a showcase at the end of January to show off all the skills they have developed so far and their incredible routine choreographed by their coach Ellie Buck. Before Christmas, the girls all received a huge surprise which greeted them at the start of their penultimate session before Christmas… an arrangement of glimmer and glitter was placed in a heart shape on the floor. You guessed it, their uniform and bows for the season were ready!
We cannot wait to see Ellie’s vision of the routine executed onto a large floor and brought to light by the pom girls. We are sending all the Firebird love to the floor for their upcoming performance.
Here is a testimony from Alice on her time on the pom team so far.
Alice
“Hi, my name is Alice and I am a third-year Paramedic student. Taking up pom has been a fun challenge for me as I wanted to try a style of cheer more similar to dance. Since October we have learnt how to turn, jump and definitely bring the sass. Building on our routine each week brings a lot of fast paced choreography, but we can look back and feel proud of how far we’ve come since week one.” – Alice
Alice Third -year Paramedic
As you can see our busy cheer life means our Christmas break is well deserved but we are so excited to come back in January and work towards the best routine for competition season. We cannot wait to show you what else we get up to in the upcoming months as competition season gets closer day by day.
Every win does feel like the first. One thing we’re definitely not is complacent. We understand that our division gets tougher each year. Gone are the days of thigh-stands; level 1 has become so creative! We know we’re never going to score in the top bracket in tumbles, so the main thing we work on is being clean. Whilst we do have a good track record of winning, I’d like to think we’re still a humble team. The relationships and bonds between athletes are so important and I think that gets highly overlooked. We really are a cheer family who support each other throughout the season.
Chester’s quite a small university, yet we do get a high turnout each year! We have three teams, Level 1 Cheer (who just get known as ‘Cheer’), Pom, and Prep Squad. Prep Squad are our development/performance team who cheer and perform weekly at basketball games. Unlike other universities who have access to high-level coaches, we coach everything ourselves. In the past Prep-Squad have created routines that are similar to Pom.
They said it was difficult because unlike Cheer and Pom where we have rules and scoresheets, they didn’t know where their boundaries were. This season I created almost a ‘rulebook’ so they could execute things safely and have targets. It’s basically a mix of Pom and Level 0 cheer. Whilst some people join Prep Squad as a fun way of being involved in cheerleading without the pressures of competing, others are completely new to cheer and hope to get onto our Level 1 team in the future. We’re hoping with the introduction of basic stunts and tumbling, we will see more progress from our athletes in Prep Squad.
Historically, we’ve always competed BCA and Future Cheer. Our routines tend to be more suited to Future Cheer. We love the atmosphere and always do well at FC, that’s why we always compete there. In recent years we’ve not placed so well at BCA, so this past season we thought we’d try our luck at ICC Nationals, which proved a fantastic move for Pom! Myself and my Vice Captain have always been big fans of ICC, their scoresheets, the atmosphere and their reputation, so we’ve decided to go back this season.
Absolutely! Like I’ve already mentioned, Prep Squad don’t compete and perform at basketball games. Aside from actual cheerleading we go out on weekly, fancy dress themed, Wednesday night Socials. This year we’re hoping to do some more sober daytime socials and team-bonding activities. We also do an awful lot of charity fundraising. This year we raised £2000 for a wide range of charities! We hosted evenings at our SU, participated in a Mud Run, operation Christmas child and did a Sponsored Sleepout for Chester’s Aid to the Homeless – to name a few!
Aside from the fact we win things, we’re such a welcoming team. We cater for all abilities! Whether you just want to try something new, or you’ve competed at worlds. You’d honestly be surprised how creative and difficult Level 1 can be! Aside from cheering, we’re such a supportive community socially, most of our best friends at uni are cheerleaders. We volunteer and fundraise too, which all looks great on your CV!
Our lives would be super boring without cheer. Without tagging each other in bomb dance sections or cheer fails, without getting all prepped for comps or even that questionable Wednesday night dance-off on third floor Rosies (a Chester nightclub), our lives would be super empty. For a lot of us at university, cheerleading not only serves as a sport we love, but as a distraction and release from university work and stress. More than any other sport I’ve participated in, there’s such a huge rush of excitement when you hit a routine you’ve been working your backside off for all season surrounded by your teammates.
One thing I would like to share with CFHTT readers is to not overlook your uni team if you’re an All Star cheerleader. We may not be able to max out tumbling and stunting difficulties, or have the best training facilities. But at uni you realise that your cheer team are worth way more than just your teammates. A lot of big names in the cheer world started as a uni cheerleaders. When you think about how short our season is, and the constant conveyor belt of athletes, you’ll realise just how impressive both our athletes and the sport in general actually is.
This season my favourite UK Cheer Team was Ignite, Coventry Dynamite. I love their choreography and stunting creativity. Super sad to see them go, but as excited to what they have planned for the new season, especially with Ammunition. My favourite international team has to be Cali, Reckless. Level 6 gives me life, it’s like watching the circus with the insane stunts. Also, the programme has such a good ethos, the athletes are so hardworking and humble.
We have 2 training sessions a week at the unsociable hours of Friday night and Sunday morning! Our teams have one 3-hour session a week that’s compulsory, and then various opportunities to train more throughout the week.
I usually decide which competitions we go to before the season starts, as we have to plan as far in advance as we can, in order to ensure we have the training space and funds to compete. We plan out as much as possible, including charity events and socials, so we have a near complete calendar. This really helps our members in terms of payment deadlines, and arranging their workload from their courses. This helps our students plan their time effectively, especially our medical and dental students who have such demanding schedules. We are very limited when it comes to travel and budget, so tend to stay close to London if possible, and also look for opportunities for our teams to compete across a big division and against other universities.
Winning Grand Champs at ICC was absolutely insane, as we honestly did not expect it at all. At University competitions, it is so common that Grand Champs goes to a lower level team that maximises on the scoresheet, and so we had no idea we had any chance of winning such a title. We took the decision to compete our most skilled team at Level 4, as we wanted a challenge and to push the possibilities of University cheer. It was our first time at ICC, and we went alone without the rest of our team. It was nerve-wracking to compete in such a new environment, and quite late at night as we were one of the last teams of the day, but the team were so focused on putting out a clean and energetic routine with as much skill and difficulty as we could. They exceeded my expectations with their performance. We were so happy to have hit our routine and then win our division that we were celebrating and taking photos when they announced it, and when we heard our name we were thinking – did they mean us? When the staff waved us over, I was shocked and thought there may have been a mistake. Our athletes were absolutely overwhelmed. For many of them the thought of winning a jacket just wasn’t a possibility for us this season, or possibly ever so it really did mean so much to us all. We felt so privileged for this honour and probably still aren’t over it! We all wore our Grand Champs jackets on the coach back to London that night (despite them being pretty thick – it was a sweaty ride!). I wouldn’t say there is even one individual that does Cheer at QMA for the awards and trophies, our athletes train with us to be part of the team, and anything else is a happy surprise. We have such a humble and inclusive team ethos and they had worked so, so hard to get level appropriate tumbles and stunts and to perfect the routine, so I truly believe they deserved it. None of our tumblers could tumble before joining QMA, and some of our athletes were on our level 1 and 2 team last season, so I was utterly thrilled to see them rewarded for being role models for the sport, as well as fabulous athletes.
We really enjoyed ICC last season, everyone was very welcoming to us as a new team. We also enjoy BCA Uni Comp in Telford – great atmosphere and a nice end to the season to compete over two days. We also attended FC Uni Nationals as we like seeing so many other Uni teams all together, and competing in large divisions. It used to be a small competition, so everyone would sit close to the front and you could really feel the crowd’s energy whilst performing, and was really good at nurturing emerging teams. Now it has changed venue and is very grand. It’s our freshers’ first experience of being on the mat and I think sets the tone for how competitive the sport is which is equally as good.
Our team is very close, despite being so huge! We have weekly socials with loads of different activities – bowling, lazer quest, food, pub golf, more food, and nights out at our Union bar, the infamous Drapers (if you know, you know). We also have Hail Mary once a month. This is where all the sports teams social together at Drapers to celebrate our sporting achievements. There are lots of traditions in this event such as ‘Session’ where we all wear matching social tops (a different colour for each sport) and play games and enjoy the delights of Red Beer. One team hosts it each month and at Midnight shows a spoof video of their club and mocking the other clubs (Rugby and Football are prime targets). It’s unique to Queen Mary and always a brilliant night. We also do fundraising and charity events through the year. I think what we mostly do outside of training is attend open gym!
We are fortunate to have open gyms available at East London Gymnastics club and Talent Central (Ascension Eagles’ gym) almost every night of the week. During the season and over the summer, you will almost always find QMA athletes there, probably in blue and white QMA merchandise training hard because they just love the sport. We also run open sessions at the University called ‘Get Active’ where any QM students can drop in and train throughout the year. So although our teams only train together one session a week, we see each other about five times a week!
Why do I think you should join QMA? Because there is a place for EVERYONE and you won’t regret it! I’ve worked and been part of many teams over the years and I can promise you that QMA is special. You will have the time of your life and do things you never thought possible. You will be challenged, you will be supported, you will have fun, you will get fitter, and generally it will take over your life – and complete your University experience. You will be part of one of the most diverse, and biggest clubs that will value you for being you.
Life without cheer? Is there such a thing!? Boring I guess! Less fulfilled. I had done many sports before but Cheerleading is something I haven’t been able to leave behind. I think it’s the same for our club. We have a huge number of people who stay with us and compete and train as alumni, and even those who do move on always come back to visit and train with us! Even from as far as Scotland and Prague!
I think our inclusivity and willingness to teach anyone from the ground up has led to us being so successful, and to year on year having a high proportion of male athletes. I think we are one of the biggest Uni teams in the UK with 4 cheer teams, and have won many divisions and titles at many levels. We have also achieved Grand Champions twice for Coed Level 3 at BCA and once with ICC at Coed Level 4. We are really proud of our team for all our successes and the routines we put onto the floor, but also for the enjoyment of our members. We also emphasise the importance of Sportsmanship toward others, and have had some really lovely messages from other coaches saying how supportive our members have been to other teams – I think that in itself is success. I believe it is important to give our members the best during their short time at University. Through the hard work and commitment of the members to bettering their skills, we have been able to, over the years, compete at higher and higher levels with our most advanced team.
We started off in Coed 2, then moved to Coed 3, are now Coed 4 and competed in Coed 6. There is always a lot of conversation about teams being level appropriate, and maybe because of this University cheer has not been able to come into its own. Safety is the number one priority of course, but for many of our athletes, they only have a short window to cheer (3-4 years) before it ends. That, coupled with a much shorter season that Allstar cheer (ours is October to April,) means we have much less time to progress. We have always tried to push our more advanced athletes to compete at the highest level they can, and believe me they rise to the occasion! The decision to compete at Level 6 was a difficult one to make, but we believed we could do it and wanted to Cheer in a more Collegiate appropriate way (Universities internationally all compete with Open/Level 6 rules). We believe University Cheer should not follow the Allstar development, but rather develop down its own progressive path. Many teams do Varsity events and matches where they can perform these skills at a game or performance, but we do not have a Varsity match against another Uni to take part in. As a result of taking the plunge to put out a Collegiate routine, QMA have been very lucky in the opportunities we have been afforded by many generous event producers and companies.
We have competed at the European Championships for BCA in Cheer Coed 6 and Coed Group Stunt. We attended ICU University Worlds in Florida for Future Cheer which was a once in a lifetime experience. Four of our coaches recently attended UCA Spirit Camp in Wisconsin that Varsity UK helped us to organise, to better understand Collegiate style Cheerleading. We would love the University cheer scene to work more collaboratively, so that we can develop the sport more effectively throughout the UK. This season we hope to reach out to other Uni teams, so we can share our respective experiences, train together and create more of a community.
Tell us about Leeds Celtic cheer history.
We have 1 Match Team, 1 competitive Pom Dance Team and 3 Competitive Cheer Teams. Our Match Team support the University American Football and Basketball Teams, whilst all our Competitive teams train hard for their competitions throughout the season.
Last year was one of our most successful seasons with our Level 1 team placing 1st at Future Cheer University Nationals. Pom had a dramatic improvement and went from 9th place in their first competition of the season to an impressive 2nd place for the final two competitions. Level 3 were crowned National University Champions at Legacy Dream Extreme and finally a Leeds Celtics clean sweep with all our cheer teams placing 1st at Circus Spectacular, including Grand Champions for our level 3 team.
As Celtics we pride ourselves on our enthusiasm, determination and commitment. Whether you are a seasoned dancer, or completely new to the sport, we have a spot for everyone!!
Cheerleading has taught me how important team work, communication and dedication is, to pull off a routine. But it has also taught me how important it is to not be too hard on yourself, as sometimes things go wrong or don’t go to plan, and it is important to pick yourself back up and make sure to smash it the next time.
Our society is an extremely social one, we have a social every other Wednesday, from Glitter Socials, to Otley Sails, to Christmas Meals (and ofc many more).
Our favourite UK cheer team has to be Carniege Black and Purple, who are also part of the AV family! Even though in some of our divisions we are against each other, we have a great relationship and always support each other!
We have been a team for over 10 years, collecting various trophies across nationwide competitions, including ICC Grand Champs for consecutive years in 2014 and 2015. Building each year in numbers. We gained an amazing new Head Coach in the last few years that has helped to transform the reputation of the club across the UK as ones to watch! Like many university teams that has really built itself from humble beginnings and reaches a new peak every single year.
We currently have 3 teams. performance team: Develop a series of skills including dance and stunting in order to produce a well-executed routine. They perform at various events throughout the year including our university’s charity run ‘RunNTU’
“I would personally say that our favourite competition of the past season was ICC in Nottingham as a lot of our Tigers from our varsity and performance team were able to come to support us due to it being down the road from our main university campus. This created a fantastic atmosphere for us whilst we were performing and it really made us want to hit and to win even more, and we did! There is no feeling that can compare to everyone hitting their stunts and the almighty roar from the crowd that you could feel throughout your body.” – Committee Member 16/17
Yes we do! As well as compete our teams perform throughout the year at other events including Notts Varsity Series. We also spend a fair amount of time fundraising for charities and supporting local events including hosting a food bank, bag packing and in previous years we have volunteered at the children’s hospital. And of course we love to socialise! With socials every week and going on tour in April!
It’s that time of year where you guys will be recruiting what you are looking for from student?
Cheerleading has taught us so much! It has taught us to be disciplined, a team player and to work well with others but it has also taught us that sometimes you just have to work hard on your own personal goals which will therefore benefit the team as a whole. It has taught us about balance and how to keep up with uni work, exams, manual work, training and still managing to find time to eat, sleep and shower! It has taught us that we can 100% achieve anything that we want if we put our minds to it and that hard work and perseverance are the best traits to becoming an all-rounder.
“Cheer is 100% who I am. It has made me the person I am today. I have met so many amazing people throughout my years of cheer and people who I will always be life-long friends with. It has shaped me into a character that knows how to work hard and knows that things don’t always go your way, but sometimes you just have to pick yourself up and tell yourself it will be okay. I am who I am today because of cheer and I genuinely would not want to be anyone or be anywhere else”. – Committee Member 16/17
Performance: 2 Hours
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