In addition to being the most prestigious in the industry, NCA All-Star Nationals is the largest All-Star Cheerleading National Championship, hosting over 25,000 participants and 38,000 spectators each year. This year, the NCA Nationals attracted 1,418 teams from 45 states in America and 8 countries from around the world.
Two of our students – Jamie, Sixth Form, and Rosabelle , Year 8 – travelled to Dallas, Texas with their squad, Zodiac Allstars, to take part in this prestigious event. They competed in the Junior Level 1 Division with their individual team ‘Shadow’ at the end of February. The team works extremely hard to make themselves competition ready and the training/rehearsals are pretty grueling. Their overall squad, Zodiac Allstars, are one of the leading competitive cheerleading squads in Sussex based in Lancing and Eastbourne.
Team Shadow put out a tough performance, having had some points deducted for a mistake. Through the tears, the 23 girls aged between 10 and 16 learned that despite the error they were still going through to Finals Day on Sunday 1st March, ranked in 1st place out of 7 teams. Sunday’s final performance had to be perfect and that certainly is what Team Shadow went out and delivered. With one of the highest scores of the competition, the girls smashed their routine to tremendous support and applause with a score of 99.85%. A further tense couple of hours to wait for their final awards but the girls were announced in 1st place as National Champions! They were also awarded the innovative Choreography Award.
Over 1400 teams were entered this year in various different divisions. The girls’ team had the third highest points score from all the teams entered, which is an awesome achievement.
The group are exhausted but exhilarated with winning these Awards. However, there is no time to rest, as they are off to the ESPN at Disney Resort, Florida in April for another National competition.
We wish them the very best of luck!