On April 23 over 9,000 cheerleaders representing over 13 countries traveled to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida to compete in the All Star Cheerleading World Championships.
All Star Cheerleading is much more than mere courtside cheering for other teams. Cheerleading gyms are unaffiliated with schools or other sports teams, and cheerleaders must have extraordinary strength, coordination, and agility in order to master the complex routines. The athletes who compete at “Worlds” and other All Star competitions are scored on their tumbling, stunting, and dance routines, with deductions for falls, dropped stunts, and errors in tumbling.
Wilson senior Kyah King competed at Worlds with the Maryland Twisters Reign, a coed cheerleading team out of Hanover, Maryland.
“It’s no rah-rah cheerleading, it’s a lot of tumbling and lifting each other, it’s a lot of trust,” said King. King has been cheering for six years, three of which she has spent with the Maryland Twisters. She has also ran track at Wilson and cheered on Wilson’s cheerleading team.
The road to Worlds wasn’t an easy one. King’s team had a rough season. “It was a rocky year, we could never hit our routine,” she said. “Hitting” a routine means performing all the stunts and tumbling flawlessly, so the judges don’t deduct any points. Despite their struggles, Reign placed in the top five at some of the largest competitions in the country. One of the highlights of King’s season was coming in first place in front of a hometown crowd at the “Battle at the Capitol” competition in March.
The greatest honor for most cheerleaders is competing at the World Championships, an honor King has had more than once. “This would be my fourth year at Worlds,” she said. On the second day of this year’s competition, Reign ‘hit’ their routine with zero deductions.
“It was a big thing for us, ‘cause Day Two at Worlds was the first time we hit,” said King. Reign placed second overall, their highest ranking ever at the event, beating out 30 other teams. “It was a dream come true,” King said. “Who knew that’d I’d be getting a Globe coming out of my senior year?”
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
