also developed a brand new Elite Training Programme where students train six hours a week; focusing on core conditioning and the athleticism of the sport. These teams train and compete overseas annually, including representing New Zealand at the USASF/ IASF Cheerleading Worlds. All Star is also home to our national representative cheerleading team, Team New Zealand. Team New Zealand travels every year to compete at the ICU World Cheerleading Championships. However, Kimberley's dream to have a cheerleading team started many years before that. At age 10 she was given two sets of pompoms by her mother and from that day she dreamed of becoming a cheerleader with a team of her very own. "I did gymnastics, dancing, trampolining,
a whole mix of stuff. I'd be the one person on the side of my dad's rugby field with pompoms. I dreamed of being a Dallas Cowboy's Cheerleader." Kimberley's biggest obstacle in establishing
All Star Cheerleaders came with the lack of information around how to teach the sport or start a cheerleading business. "Starting a business is one thing but I was also starting a sport. I had to write the rules, the syllabus, what to teach and how to teach it." In the beginning Kimberley solely
managed the business, the coaching of 13 teams, running competitions, sourcing
uniforms and judging. "I did everything myself because I wasn't very good at delegating, plus I couldn't afford to hire anyone anyway." In the business's third year it was in a
position where Kimberley could recruit an aide from America to come down and help out. Today All Star Cheerleaders Ltd is the only New Zealand Cheerleading company with all of its coaches USASF and NCSSE certified (National Cheerleading Spirit and Safely Education) and it has registered coaches with the NZ Cheerleading Association and the International All Star Federation. The 35-year-old has two sons, a seven
month old and a 17-year-old who was part of Team New Zealand team that travels to the World Cheerleading Champs in Disneyland, Florida every year. "Last year we took 150 cheerleaders
to America when I was four months pregnant. One of our teams won the grand championship competing against 70 other teams. It was so rewarding to see that not only have we created a great programme, but it is at such a level that we are on par with America."
Kimberley and Team NZ have just
returned from the World Championships where her two teams won Silver, ranking New Zealand second in the World. www.allstarcheerleaders.co.nz
The benefits of cheerleading for youth
•
• •
• • • For those who aren't good at
netball or soccer it gives them a chance to be part of a team sport.
Great for leadership building. The excitement they get from
Travelling overseas and
being with their friends, learning new skills and having fun.
competing against teams from all over the world.
For kids who might not have Big focus on anti-bullying.
many friends at school, the people in your cheerleading team become your family
Our cheerleaders aren't the stereotypical mean girls that you see on TV.
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