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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

T&T Cheerleading Championships triumphantly returns!

by

Dr Safeeya Mohammed
675 days ago
20230716

Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

More than 300 ath­letes cel­e­brat­ed in spec­tac­u­lar fash­ion, the glo­ri­ous re­turn of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cheer­lead­ing Fed­er­a­tion (TTCF) Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships 2023 last Sun­day.

This marked the first cham­pi­onship held in three years since the pan­dem­ic hit. With the theme Re­turn of Cham­pi­ons, the event show­cased the tal­ent, ded­i­ca­tion, and re­silience of the cheer­lead­ing com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Teams from var­i­ous schools and clubs com­pet­ed in dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories, de­liv­er­ing thrilling per­for­mances that ex­hib­it­ed so­phis­ti­cat­ed skills, team­work, and show­man­ship. The au­di­ence was cap­ti­vat­ed from be­gin­ning to end!

“We won!!!” said Ja­da Ma­son, mem­ber of the win­ning team (Cheer Se­nior Cat­e­go­ry) Stu­dio 7- Spar­tans. “It was an amaz­ing feel­ing to know that all our hard work, tears and frus­tra­tion fi­nal­ly paid off.”

“Cheer­lead­ing is part of my holis­tic de­vel­op­ment, per­son­al­ly. I like stay­ing ac­tive, get­ting fit and cheer­lead­ing al­lows me to do that, while still hav­ing fun!”

Win­ners Line-up

Team Cheer Se­nior - Lev­el 1

• Stu­dio 7 (Spar­tans)

• St. Au­gus­tine Girls’ High School (Starfirez)

• Bish­op Anstey High School POS (Vipers)

Team Cheer Ju­nior - Lev­el 1

• Rose­wood Girls (Tigers)

• Stu­dio 7 (Spar­tans)

• Scholas­tic Acad­e­my (Hawks)

Hip-Hop Team Dance

• St. Joseph’s Con­vent, POS (Scor­pi­onettes)

• Stu­dio 7 (Spar­tans)

Hip-Hop Trio Dance

• Stu­dio 7 (Spar­tans)

• Breath of Dance

• Dance For­ev­er Young Em­pire FX

Stunt Group - Se­nior Lev­el 1

• Stu­dio 7 (Spar­tans)

• Bish­op Anstey High School POS (Vipers)

TTCF at a glance

Trinidad and To­ba­go Cheer com­mu­ni­ty joined the In­ter­na­tion­al Cheer Union mem­ber­ship of 119 Na­tion­al Cheer Fed­er­a­tion Coun­try mem­bers which in­cludes oth­er re­gion­al part­ners - Ja­maica, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, and Bar­ba­dos as a mem­ber of the In­ter­na­tion­al Cheer Union (ICU). TTCF has been pro­duc­ing ath­letes since 2009.

The Na­tion­al Cheer­lead­ing Cham­pi­onships in Trinidad and To­ba­go were es­tab­lished with the vi­sion of pro­mot­ing cheer­lead­ing as a com­pet­i­tive sport in our coun­try. The Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onships had its hum­ble be­gin­nings in 2013. It start­ed as a small-scale event, bring­ing to­geth­er a hand­ful of teams from dif­fer­ent schools and clubs.

“The pri­ma­ry goal was to pro­vide a plat­form for cheer­lead­ers to show­case their skills and pas­sion for the sport,” said Koya Bar­ri­mond, pres­i­dent, and co-founder of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cheer Fed­er­a­tion. “Our jour­ney in de­vel­op­ing this sport has been an ex­cit­ing one, dri­ven by a pas­sion for de­vel­op­ment, team­work, shar­ing new ex­pe­ri­ences and op­por­tu­ni­ties.”

Cheer­lead­ing, tra­di­tion­al­ly seen as a side­line ac­tiv­i­ty, has evolved in­to a dy­nam­ic and de­mand­ing sport world­wide. Rec­og­niz­ing its po­ten­tial to grow in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the TTCF set out to cre­ate a plat­form where cheer­lead­ers could show­case their skills, ath­leti­cism, and artistry in a recre­ation­al and com­pet­i­tive en­vi­ron­ment.

“Our ini­tial fo­cus was on build­ing aware­ness and un­der­stand­ing of cheer­lead­ing as a sport with­in the schools. We con­duct­ed work­shops, demon­stra­tions, and train­ing pro­grams to ed­u­cate ath­letes and coach­es about the tech­ni­cal as­pects, safe­ty mea­sures, and per­for­mance el­e­ments in­volved in cheer­lead­ing.

“Over time, we wit­nessed the growth of cheer­lead­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go through com­mu­ni­ty clubs and groups. More teams emerged, show­cas­ing in­cred­i­ble ath­leti­cism, in­tri­cate rou­tines, and cap­ti­vat­ing per­for­mances. With each pass­ing year, the lev­el of com­pe­ti­tion in­creased, push­ing ath­letes to progress tech­ni­cal­ly and rais­ing the pro­file of cheer­lead­ing as a le­git­i­mate sport.”

T&T cheer­lead­ing teams in Or­lan­do

The An­nu­al Na­tion­al Cheer­lead­ing Cham­pi­onships be­came the pin­na­cle event for the fed­er­a­tion, serv­ing as a plat­form for teams across the coun­try to come to­geth­er and demon­strate their ded­i­ca­tion, skill, and cre­ativ­i­ty. This pres­ti­gious com­pe­ti­tion al­so acts as a gate­way to qual­i­fy­ing for both re­gion­al and glob­al cham­pi­onships.

“In 2019, Trinidad and To­ba­go were proud­ly rep­re­sent­ed by its cheer­lead­ing and dance teams at the In­ter­na­tion­al Cheer Union and Uni­ver­sal Cheer As­so­ci­a­tion Cham­pi­onships. At the High School World Cham­pi­onship in Or­lan­do, two teams from Trinidad and To­ba­go par­tic­i­pat­ed: St. Au­gus­tine Girls’ High School and St. Joseph’s Con­vent.

“In the all-star di­vi­sion, three teams show­cased their tal­ent: Holy Name Con­vent POS, Rose­wood Girls Tigers, and Blue Ea­gles Cheer Club. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, at the Pan-Amer­i­can cham­pi­onships 2019 in Cos­ta Ri­ca, three teams rep­re­sent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go: Stu­dio 7 - Spar­tans Club (Ari­ma), St. Joseph’s Con­vent POS, and South­ern Scar­let Club (South). These teams show­cased their skills and ded­i­ca­tion on the glob­al stage.

“In 2020, pri­or to the on­set of the pan­dem­ic, the last qual­i­fied team from 2019/2020 sea­son was Wood­brook Sec­ondary, who de­fied the chal­leng­ing cir­cum­stances and show­cased their ex­cep­tion­al tal­ent. Against all odds, they se­cured the bronze medal, earn­ing a re­mark­able third place out of the sev­en com­pet­ing coun­tries. This achieve­ment stands as a tes­ta­ment to the ded­i­ca­tion, per­se­ver­ance, and skill lev­el ofheer­lead­ers from Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

COVID-19 im­pact­ed com­pe­ti­tion

Un­doubt­ed­ly, the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic pre­sent­ed sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for the sport. The ab­sence of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties for three years re­sult­ed in a de­cline in in­ter­est and par­tic­i­pa­tion with­in the cheer­lead­ing com­mu­ni­ty. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the pan­dem­ic led to the un­for­tu­nate loss of some of their most skilled ath­letes as they pur­sued stud­ies abroad.

“De­spite our best ef­forts to main­tain en­gage­ment through on­line work­shops and train­ing ses­sions, it proved in­suf­fi­cient in com­pen­sat­ing for the lim­i­ta­tions posed by the pan­dem­ic. The im­pact of these cir­cum­stances on the sport has been pro­found, re­quir­ing us to nav­i­gate un­prece­dent­ed ob­sta­cles and adapt our ap­proach to en­sure the fu­ture growth and suc­cess of cheer­lead­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” said Koya Bar­ri­mond.

The fu­ture of Cheer­lead­ing in T&T

Adapt they did! Since their re­turn to the field of play in Sep­tem­ber 2022, they have em­barked on a steady jour­ney of re­build­ing.

“Un­der the ban­ner of ‘Re­build­ing and Be­yond,’ our fo­cus ex­tends be­yond mere re­cov­ery. We are ded­i­cat­ed to build­ing ca­pac­i­ty, en­hanc­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty, and fos­ter­ing lead­er­ship with­in the cheer­lead­ing com­mu­ni­ty.

“Em­brac­ing di­ver­si­ty is a cru­cial as­pect of our ef­forts, en­sur­ing that cheer­lead­ing be­comes in­clu­sive and rep­re­sen­ta­tive of all back­grounds. With a stead­fast com­mit­ment to these prin­ci­ples, we aim to pro­pel cheer­lead­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go to new heights, cre­at­ing a vi­brant and in­clu­sive space for ath­letes, coach­es, and en­thu­si­asts alike.

“As we re­flect on the jour­ney of the Na­tion­al Cheer­lead­ing Cham­pi­onships, weare proud of the growth and achieve­ments we have wit­nessed. From its mod­est be­gin­nings to be­com­ing a promi­nent an­nu­al event, the cham­pi­onships have played a vi­tal role in el­e­vat­ing cheer­lead­ing as a com­pet­i­tive sport in Trinidad and To­ba­go. We are ex­cit­ed about the fu­ture and look for­ward to fur­ther ex­pand­ing the hori­zons of cheer­lead­ing in our coun­try.”

For more in­for­ma­tion:

Con­tact TTCF: (868) 353-7076 | in­fo@ttcheerfed­er­a­tion.com

Face­book:

https://www.face­book.com/TTCheerFed­er­a­tion

In­sta­gram: @tntcheerfed­er­a­tion

Twit­ter: @ttcheerfed


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