“BRR … IT’S COLD IN HERE”
“I’M STILL BIG RED”
Remember “Bring It On”? The film that made every girl want to be a cheerleader? This is what I automatically think of when I think of cheerleaders.
When thinking of possible clubs this week, I came across the Hornets. The Hornets, arguably more than any club, are shunned by campus media and their achievements in competitions often go unnoticed. Personally, I think it is disappointing that such a successful club do not get a look in on the sport pages of the newspapers on campus.Yet, this did not stop me from showcasing a high kick in Fresher’s week for a member of the Cheerleading Team and asking whether I can be in the Hornets… oh Fez.
Therefore, it seems fitting that the Hornets are Vision’s “Team of the Week”.
I asked Competition Captain, Evangeline Calder for a few words on their recent successes in competitions…
“Our first competition, BCA University Nations and Midlands Classic, took place over the Easter holiday, from the 5th to the 8th of April. With the return of our Head Coach, Donna Somerville, at the beginning of the year we knew we were in for some hard work and a beautiful routine. The beginning of this year came with a lot of changes; not only did we increase the number of girls on our squad by 40%, we also moved up a level. Training 5 hours a week for 5 months, and 5 hours a day in the lead up for competition, we felt relatively prepared, albeit extremely nervous.
“On our first day of competition, we performed extremely well, but unfortunately encountered a few “bobbles”, leading to a 10-point infraction. But we came off the mat happy, and still hopeful. Overall, we managed to take fifth place, and achieved a score of 219/300; just 6.5 points shy of fourth place. Without the ten point infraction, third place would have been ours.
“However, we weren’t disheartened in the slightest, and knowing how well we would have done meant we were even more determined to do ever better on the second day. We performed well, and although nothing major went wrong, some minor errors, strong competition and harsh scoring from the judges meant that unfortunately we didn’t place.
“The success that day was yet to come. As well as increasing our number of girls this year, we’ve also significantly increased our number of boys, and this was the first year we’ve ever had boys compete for the Hornets. This year we entered our first ever co-ed group stunt (just one stunt group of five). Not only this, we entered at level four, two levels higher than we entered last year for any team. The previous day, both our all-girl group stunt and co-ed managed to pull off great routines, both placing 4th, all-girl out of 20 (a massive achievement) and co-ed out of 10. However, on the second day, our co-ed team performed an even sharper, fiercer routine, and managed to take 1st place, with a score of 122.5/150. This is an incredible achievement for the Hornets’ debut at not only this high, competitive level, but for all three boys who had never set foot on a competition mat before that weekend.
“To add to our amazing success (and trophy collection), our dance squad also performed a beautiful routine, and took third place the following day.
“Still extremely proud of ourselves, comments about entering another competition were flying about on the coach journey home. However, other commitments and exam stresses meant that we were going to have to be several girls down. Yet, with some slightly changes in chorography, and some filling in from our exceptionally dedicated old girls, it seemed entirely possible.
“So, we decided to enter another competition to prove ourselves. On the 12th of May, we competed at BCA North East. Despite having several girls missing, an adapted routine, and about three hours of full team practise since our last competition (and about three hours in total for the girls filling in) we managed to pull it off. A clean, high energy performance with no errors (and no infractions) and our determination to do our absolute best meant that we came away with first place. Our score of 258.4/300, our highest score ever, meant that we were 16 points ahead of any of the other teams, which you’ve hopefully learnt, is quite a substantial amount.
It’s been an amazing year for us, not only increasing in size, but in standard, and still coming away with an array of trophies, but most importantly, the knowledge that all our hard work, dedication and risk taking really paid off.’
Clearly, the Hornets are committed athletes. Their rigorous training schedule before every competition proves this.
However, the Hornets also have a performance squad, which caters for beginners.
Yemi Nathan (my housemate) is part of this squad and she holds that: “Cheerleading has such a great team spirit; you’re always encouraged to try something new and help is at hand when something is difficult. In general this had made me persevere through new challenges.” In truth, something that can get Yemi out of the bottomless pit that is her bed for must be enjoyable.
As Yemi has pointed out the ‘team spirit’ of the Hornets is great. There does not seem to be a split between the competition and performance squads and they attend Ziggy’s every week, without fail, as a force to be reckoned with.
I hope this blog has managed to inform you a bit more about the Hornets and I hope in the future that their successes are better publicized.
Wowsers!
Wonderful article, thank you York Vision! Well done Hornets of all teams, we’ve had an amazing year!
They’ve all got great pairs! (of shoes, to prevent slipping)
Great article! We were very proud of our results this year after all our hard work and it is nice to be recognised :)
Seems like there’s an error/missing section in the 2nd paragraph though?
YORK, HORLICKS!
My housemate is a Hornet :) Great bunch!