Welcome to the UKCA Scotland Cheerleading Page
Leadership and Basic Skills Courses in Motherwell on the 17th and 18th of September. Please click here to book your place.
Introducing your rep: Alison
Hi Everyone! My name is Alison Sinclair and I am your Scotland Rep/Ambassador for the UKCA. I was thrilled to be invited to fill this role and my aim is to really increase and improve the awareness, attendance and progress of Cheerleading in Scotland. I have my own dance school called Cherry Dance Studios where Street Dance and Cheerleading are the most taught styles of dance and seem to be the most popular in Scotland with children aged 5-16 years old. Following my position as National Manager for Fitness Scotland (the Governing Body for Health and Fitness ran alongside Scottish Gymnastics Association) and my subsequent employment with North Lanarkshire Leisure/Council whereby I delivered a variety of dance styles as part of the curriculum in Secondary schools across the county, it became clear how popular Cheerleading had become and the overlap between that and so many other areas including gymnastics and other genres of dance. Now I have my own business I have a lot more control and freedom and can therefore put my ideas into place with the help of UKCA.
Currently there are 102 qualified UKCA coaches in Scotland and this is as a result of 3 courses being run up here (with a recent one taking place in Aberdeen, these figures are excluded from the following). Of these 102, the majority (38%) are in the Glasgow area followed by 28% in Aberdeenshire. 18% in Edinburgh, 5% in Dundee, 4% in Stirlingshire, 4% in Renfrewshire and 3% in Ayrshire. From these statistics it is my primary goal to set up and deliver courses in other niche areas in Scotland that havent yet had the opportunity. Firstly we will look at Lanarkshire as this is accessible across the central band of Scotland, followed by Dumfries & Galloway/the Borders regions and then Ayrshire. Once our coach database is developed I would look to host a competition and even open it up nationally, targeting the North East and North West regions in England.
Upcoming courses… Leadership award Saturday 17th September 2011 at Braidhurst High School, Motherwell 10-4pm and Cheerleading Basic Skills on Sunday 18th September at same venue, same time. Please click here to book.
Scotland Advisory Committee…I am looking for assistance in Scotland so wish to advertise and allocate a rep for each main area/region within Scotland. (Ideally Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh and the Lothians, Dumfries and Galloway, Borders, Highlands and Islands, Tayside and Fife, Glasgow, Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute and Stirlingshire).
Applications/notes of interest should be sent to me (alison @ukca.org.uk) detailing what your involvement with Cheerleading/UKCA is at present, why you are interesed in helping moving Scotland forward and what skills you can bring to the panel. Once all members are appointed, quarterly meetings will be scheduled and held at rotating locations across Scotland where coach education, competitions, events, tutor training opportunities, funding, equipment, community/local authority links, etc will be discussed.
Scottish News
Great coaching weekend in Motherwell
A successful and fun weekend was had in Motherwell, Braidhurst High School for both the Leadership Course and Basic Skills Courses.
UKCA continues to develop the sport of Cheerleading and educate around the Four Nations and Scotland is flourishing under the direction of UKCA.
Keep updated for all Cheerleading activity in Scotland via the ukca website
Scotland and N.Ireland worked in Partnership over the weekend to educate new coaches and have exciting plans to offer the first National Cheerleading summer camp for 2012.
Here are some pictures from the weekend:
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Lanarkshire were proud to host the International Childrens Games 2011 and this proved to be a hugely successful event. The opening ceremony included a dance performance fusing highland and hip hop dancing and I was so proud to see some of my girls being a part of this following a difficult audition and demanding training schedule.
ICG 2011: Children’s Games opening ceremony
Thousands turned out to see the two-hour spectacular
By Alison McCallum
Pic: © STV
Motherwell’s Fir Park was awash with flag and fireworks on Thursday night as the International Children’s Games officially kicked off in Lanarkshire.
The two-hour spectacular featured music from the North Lanarkshire Pipe Band and Skerryvore, as well as an impressive dance display featuring hundreds of Lanarkshire youngsters.
All of the 1500 young athletes taking part had their chance to have a moment in the spotlight during the welcome parade, which received a very warm welcome from the 7000 strong audience.
Check out our picture gallery from the opening ceremony.
Good luck messages from Scottish superstars such as Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Chris Hoy and Andy Murray were played as the area marked the beginning of the 45th International Children’s Games.
President of the Games, Torsten Rasch, said the opening celebrations were “first class”.
The event was a truly international affair, with many in the crowd as well as the competitors having travelled many miles for the four-day event.
Kim Munro and Nanette Zumwalt both travelled to Lanarkshire from Los Angeles to support their daughters Susannah and Olivia.
Nanette said: “We’ve come all the way from California for the Games. We’d been to Edinburgh before but this is our first time in Lanarkshire and it’s a beautiful setting. The atmosphere at the ceremony is fantastic. The weather has been really good and we just hope it will continue like this for the next few days. Our girls are competing in the volleyball and we think they’ll do really well.”
Meanwhile, a crowd of friends and family travelled over from Switzerland to cheer on their young athletes.
Gil Guttman was there to support his son Jeremy who is competing in the tennis. Gil said: “It’s a fantastic country to visit for the Games, we’ve been through to Edinburgh for some sightseeing and will be here for another few days. Jeremy has been training and working really hard in preparation for the Games.”
And Jamie Liberio has been backpacking in Europe for the last five weeks and decided to incorporate a visit to Scotland to cheer on her cousin Tessa Hill.
Jamie said: “I’m really proud of my cousin, she’s awesome. I’m staying in Bellshill for the next few days and going to cheer her on. I’ve already been to Edinburgh and I’m going to make some time to see other parts of Scotland.”
Cheerleading (just) south of the border
Scottish Rep Alison was proud to be invited to AAA Tigers Cheerleading Clubs annual competition to present their Cheerleading awards. The event took place in Sunderland on Saturday 9th July 2011.
Following a superb day of competing, the evening was fantastic and the club (namely Andi Revell) had gone to so much trouble with lighting, staging, etc so the children knew it was a huge achievement.
The cheerleading squad put on two short displays which were just wonderful, I spoke to their coach afterwards who said they had only had a matter of days to pull it together making it even more impressive. All coaches and VIPs were so welcoming and thrilled to be part of such a great night with Andi being presented with a book of photographs, pictures drawn by the kids and quotes/memories of his time at the club so far.
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Everyone (including me!) had a tear in their eye and clubs like this are a credit to the UKCA. I am confident Scotland and the North East will be working together very closely in the near future.
Glee for Scottish children as cheerleading craze takes off
Goldstar Cheerleader Nicole Swan practices the Scorpion pose during a training session at the Ibrox Community Complex.
Mark Smith
20 Nov 2010
There was a time when your average school cheerleader was a skinny blonde American girl, but these days all shapes and sizes of children, including boys, are picking up the pom-poms, and the craze is spreading across Scotland.
Teachers and coaches say the popularity of Cheerleading has been growing massively in Scotland, fuelled by television shows such as Glee and films such as High School Musical. They say the hobby has encouraged girls who traditionally drop out of physical activity in secondary school to stay active.
Now Lottery grants are encouraging more and more schools to set up their own Cheerleading groups.
Erica Jones, who has been part of a team setting up Cheerleading groups in schools in Aberdeenshire, said the idea had been inspired by the screen portrayals.
“A lot of it came from the television, which was portraying cheerleading as quite cool,” she said. “Also there was a drive to get more girls active. There is a dramatic drop-off in girls [taking part in physical activity] at the end of primary school to about mid-secondary.”
They get to do a combination of things in the one sport.
Ms Jones, who is an active schools co-ordinator based at Meldrum Academy, said the children who take part love the creativity of cheerleading and have not been put off by the traditional image that it is only for the pretty, popular girls. In fact, some boys have been keen to participate too.
“The boys are relaxed about it,” said Ms Jones. “It did surprise me a little bit but certainly in primary school the boys’ image is not such a big thing as in secondary school.”
Meldrum Academy has recently received £1000 from the Big Lottery Fund through its 2014 Communities Fund, which aims to ensure areas across Scotland benefit from the Glasgow Games.
Other schools that have received grants are planning to set up groups in the next few months, including Baird Memorial Primary School in Cumbernauld, which is planning to run cheerleading classes for pupils from P4 to P7 from April next year.
Garsgadden Primary School in Glasgow is also looking for a coach after being awarded £1000 to organise a Cheerleading group.
Lisa Tausney, a former cheerleader for the Scottish Claymores who coaches in Glasgow schools, said Cheerleading in Scotland had moved on from the image of the past.
“There is a cliche associated with Cheerleading which comes down to American TV shows, but a lot of what is portrayed on television is necessarily what cheerleading is in this country,” she said.
Ms Tausney, 28, who is head coach of Champion Dance and Cheer Allstars, said she thought Cheerleading was growing in popularity because it combines so many things that children and teenagers like.
“There’s up-to-date music, they get to do the tumbling gymnastics without necessarily the tough disciplines and the beam and the bar, and they get to dance, do stunts,” she said. “They get to do a combination of things in the one sport.”
Ms Tausney’s club has 10 coaches who work in schools in West Dunbartonshire and Glasgow and says the classes are really popular.
“There’s a place for everybody – that’s one of the good things about Cheerleading,” she said. “It’s sometimes perceived as just for pretty girls but it’s not like that at all.
“We have girls of all shapes and sizes and when kids come along they realise it’s a lot of hard work. It’s not about looking pretty and shaking pom-poms – it’s a proper team sport.”
Ms Tausney, whose club has received Lottery funding in the past and has applied for more to pay for equipment, welcomes the grants that Cheerleading groups are getting.
In fact, she thinks more should be done to encourage as many children as possible to take part.
“We’re keeping kids in a team,” she says, “and we’re keeping them off the streets.”