New Zealand All Star Cheerleaders Brings Home First-Ever Worlds Title
New Zealand All Star Cheerleaders Brings Home First-Ever Worlds Title
It has been nearly 20 years in the making for New Zealand All Star Cheerleaders. Catch up with the team as they reflect back on being named World Champions.
It has been nearly 20 years in the making for New Zealand All Star Cheerleaders on the big stage at The Cheerleading Worlds. The program first came to The Cheerleading Worlds back in 2005. They were one of the very first international teams to compete on the big stage, and they always had big dreams.
"When we came in 2005, we were one of the first international teams at Worlds. There was only two divisions and maybe only like 20 teams. So it has definitely grown a lot and we've learned a lot," said Kimberley Ramsay, New Zealand All Star Cheerleaders all-star director/founder.
The program has multiple locations throughout Auckland, New Zealand. Each season, they put in plenty of hard work and great thought to travel plans to be able to compete at some big competitions in the United States, including The Cheerleading Worlds.
"We love coming to the U.S. It's just so exciting. It's very different from New Zealand, and we love being able to compete against the best teams in the World," said Ramsay.
The program's L5 International Open team, Academy All Girl, knew they had a big opportunity ahead of them this season. Most of the girls were on the team that was planning on attending Worlds back in 2020, but that never happened due to COVID-19. There's been plenty of ups and downs since then, and Ramsay says the real win was being able to get on a plane to go back to The Cheerleading Worlds in 2024.
Most of the athletes also competed with Team New Zealand at the ICU World Cheerleading Championships. After a successful showing at The ICU Worlds, they had a good feeling heading into The Cheerleading Worlds 2024.
"We were really surprised. We had competed at ICU a couple of days beforehand and had come in second place. We were hoping for top 5. We knew we had done a lot of work and had the routines, and were just excited to show it all," said Ramsay.
After semi-finals, Academy All Girl finished in second place. But they knew they still were in a good spot with the highest raw score in the division. The coaches reminded the girls to remember the journey, and to just go out there and do their best.
"I think what we said was, 'Just go out there and do your best. It's all about the journey. Let's not worry about the placement, but just enjoy the opportunity that we have,'" said Ramsay.
The team gave it their all out on the floor, then stood hand in hand at the awards ceremony anxiously awaiting the results. It came down to the final two teams. A dream finally became a reality as Academy All Girl was called out at the 2024 World Champions in the L5 International Open division.
"Honestly, it was like out of disbelief. Myself and the other coaches kind of fell to our knees. We were just so overwhelmed with emotion. We've been coming to this event for almost 20 years and this was our first win so it was super, super exciting," said Ramsay.
The accomplishment is a big deal given some of the differences in the all star cheer season overseas in New Zealand. Ramsay explained that their program wraps up their season in December. They choose their brand new teams in January, then get their new routines in February. They also do two routines - one for the ICU World Championships, and one for The Cheerleading Worlds. They truly only have two months to make their routines perfect. It's a tough task, but Ramsay says the athletes feel a great sense of pride to be able to represent their country.
"It's really cool and the kids really feel that pride in representing their country. We come from a really small country of cheerleading. There's probably only around 1,000 to 2,000 cheerleaders in our whole country so the fact that we did this well is really impressive," explained Ramsay.
The girls on this team has been together about five to six years across different teams. Most of them come from Auckland, but some travel as far as up to three to four hours away just to practice. The journey they've all been on together the past few years makes this win even more special.
"It was a really special time with them all. They didn't train regularly, so we had lots of extra practice, lots of bootcamps and I think it was just that every athlete was on the same page. Everyone wanted to do well and everyone worked extremely hard," said Ramsay. "It was also our first year of homegrown talent in both the athletes and the coaches. So this was the first time myself and Dan didn't have an international coach with us, so we were really proud of what we were able to put together with these incredibly talented athletes."
