The St Michael School’s cheerleading squad captured silver at the Cheer In The Sun cheerleading competition at the Magdelena Grand Golf & Beach Resort
in Trinidad and Tobago last week.
Co-coach Gavin Jordan told NATIONSPORT he was confident about the team’s abilities going into the competition but wasn’t so pleased with the time with which they had to practise.
“I feel really good about the silver, and going into the competition I was really confident in the girls.
“In terms of their preparation, I was a bit concerned because we would have only started to prepare at the end of September. The information got to us pretty late,” he said.
The five-member team comprising Ria Blunte, Shaniqua Gittens, Ayanna Bailey, Amaya Howard and Megan Murrel didn’t let the lack of training sessions keep them off the podium. Not only did they place second overall but they also won the Golden Squad award.
“That was a really good experience. There were seven teams involved and we were the only international team competing. [That award] was for the most exciting and hard-working team,” Jordan said.
He added that going into the competition they worked on strength and technique training which served them well.
“On competition day, they did shine. There were a few minor errors but I can’t fault them for that,” said Jordan.
The team was also accompanied by coaches Marisa Paris, Desiree Chrichlow and Dana Dear.
The team have been making steady progress since their formation. They won the Barbados Cheerleading Federation National Competition in 2014 and 2015 and placed second in 2016.
The coach said their previous performances were just the beginning and he was expecting “big things” for the team. Next year they will be looking to win Nationals and compete in Canada. (RG)