Taranaki cheerleading gym Wild Cheer has multiple wins at Cheerbrandz

Stratford cheerleading team the Wild Ones won grand champion in the CheerSport Grade 2 section at the 2024 Cheerbrandz Spring Carnival.

Three cheers for Wild Cheer!

It’s wins all round for Taranaki cheerleading gym Wild Cheer.

Wild Cheer has three teams based in Stratford and three in New Plymouth, and all six earned great results at the 2024 Cheerbrandz Spring Carnival last month.

Coach Nicola Lind said the cheerleaders could be proud of their efforts.

“It was awesome. The best part was seeing all the kids having fun and how excited and proud they were of themselves.”

One of the Stratford-based teams, the Wild Ones, came first out of the 24 teams in the grade two section, earning gold and the grand champs title. It’s the second time in a row the team has won the top spot at Spring Carnival.

Wild Ones cheerleader Keira O’Sullivan, 10, said she’s happy her team won.

“I was happy and excited to win again so it’s our second time in a row. Our performance was two to three minutes long and we did dancing, stunting and some tumbling as well.”

Kiera started cheerleading three years ago.

“I like the stunting, getting lifted up and the dancing as well. You also make lots of friends in cheerleading.”

Teammate Poppy Jackson, 11, said the competition was fun.

“It was really good. We competed against a lot of people and won first place.”

Poppy, who started cheerleading two years ago, said she enjoys the cheer routines and meeting new people.

I like tumbling, dancing and stunting. I also like being in a team sport because you make a lot of friends.”

The newly introduced Topsy Turvy grade one team, also from Stratford, won their division and the Stratford senior level one division team won their grade.

New Plymouth grade-three team Defiance also won their division and came runner-up grand champs for their division.

Lind said the New Plymouth team mini-madness, also based in New Plymouth won their division and were titled grand champions. She said as it was the team’s first time competing, coming away with a win was amazing.

“They are now the grade one grand champions out of 37 teams.

“Me and the coaches are all extremely proud of everyone’s hard work and what they put out on the floor.”