Coach says it’s a privilege for Wick cheerleaders to compete on national stage
Wick High School’s cheerleaders are looking forward to competing at national level at the end of this month.
The group, known as the Vikings, have been invited to take part in the annual Scottish Schools’ Cheerleading Association contest in South Lanarkshire.
It comes only nine months after the Vikings were formed.
Coach Kiri Robertson, who teaches English, took up cheerleading when she was studying at Edinburgh Napier University. There had been a cheerleading club at Wick High in the past, and when she joined the school staff she was keen to revive it.
The Vikings have 20 members, with an age range from first year up to sixth year. There is a pompon team as well as the cheerleading team.
Kiri (24), from Keiss, said: “It has been a busy calendar for us.”
Their first performance was at Keiss gala and they have made rapid progress.
“A lot of them were novices – they had never done anything like it before,” Kiri explained.
“You get different styles of cheerleading. All-star is a higher standard, I would say, than your varsity-style cheerleading which is more with pompoms and a bit of dancing.
“All-star is more competitive stunts. It’s far more athletic and it’s a lot tougher.
“The girls have to do a lot of strength workouts as well outside of training.
“There are jumps and tumbles, and it’s kind of like gymnastics in a way as well.
“The vision that people have of cheerleaders is that they’re there to give support. But really it is a sport in itself.
“One stunt team consists of about five people. You’ve got one person in the air and you’ve got four beneath, just to get that one person up.
“They’re pushing her up to at least head level, which is pretty high off the ground anyway, but quite often we go to what we call extension level and that’s when they’re right above the head and they’re far higher up.
“It’s all about being a bit of a spectacle.”
The group held a 12-hour danceathon in the Assembly Rooms in September.
“The girls did routines and stunts for 12 hours and ended up raising about £1500 which had all gone towards uniforms, which is fantastic,” Kiri said. “It’s a very expensive sport.
“We have a full team of 20 just now. You wouldn’t have more than 20 competing at one time.”
Looking ahead to the Scottish schools’ competition at the Caledonian Gladiators’ arena in East Kilbride, Kiri said: “It’s not easy to get into it, purely because there are so many teams that want to participate.
“Not even being a year in the game yet, and being invited to compete against the other teams across the nation, is quite a privilege – even if we don’t place.”
Boys can be cheerleaders too, she pointed out. “We would love to have male cheerleaders on our team,” Kiri said.
“It’s a girl team at the moment but it doesn’t need to stay that way. We’re open to anybody who wants to join.”
Training sessions are held twice-weekly, on Wednesday and Thursday, after school for about two hours at a time.
“There’s the safety risk involved with these kinds of stunts,” Kiri said. “You have to start from the absolute beginning and then build the confidence up to a higher level.
“It takes a long time to be able to build the trust with your stunt team.”
Kiri is delighted with the level of enthusiasm shown by the group.
“They come back every week, so that tells me they are enjoying it,” she said.
“Within the school, my colleagues and even the youth support team, they’ve said the girls are talking about cheerleading the whole time, they’re so enthusiastic.
“They are really enjoying it and they just love coming to training.”
Last month the group hosted a coffee morning and that raised about £400.
And recently the Vikings received sponsorship of £500 from Hitachi Energy. The company is involved in the Caithness-Moray-Shetland HVDC link.
Two of the local Hitachi Energy team – Alan Johnston, who is Kiri’s dad, and Jono Rae – were invited to attend one of the Vikings’ training sessions last week.
Fundraising is ongoing, for competition fees and travel costs as well as equipment.
“We’ve got to fundraise so much more to get down to all the places because most of the competitions are in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and a lot of them are in England,” Kiri said.
“We’re having to raise a lot of money if we want to attend these competitions.”
