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February 10, 2010

Cheerleading Comes To North Kildare

cheerleaders Cheerleading is the newest sport to hit Ireland and Maynooth youths and students now have the chance to be all star cheerleaders as the sport hits NUI Maynooth!
 
 What is cheerleading ? Cheerleading is a sport that uses organized routines made from elements of some tumbling, dance, jumps and stunting to direct the event's spectators to cheer on sports teams at games and matches and compete at cheerleading competitions..
 
The athlete involved is called a cheerleader. With an estimated 1.5 million participants in allstar cheerleading (not including the millions more in high school, college or little league participants) in the United States alone, cheerleading is, according to Newsweek's Arian Campo-Flores, "the most quintessential of American sports."

The growing presentation of the sport to a global audience has been led by the 1997 start of broadcasts of cheerleading competition by ESPN International and the worldwide release of the 2000 film Bring it On.

Due in part to this recent exposure, there are now an estimated 100,000 participants scattered around the rest of the world in countries. The history of cheerleading goes as far back as the late 1880's when the first organised, recorded yell was performed on an American Campus: "Ray, Ray' Ray! TIGER, TIGER, SIS, SIS, SIS! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM! Aaaaah! PRINCETON, PRINCETON, PRINCETON!" Done in locomotive style, was the first seen and heard during a college football game.

Cheerleading, as we know it today, was initiated in 1898 by Johnny Campbell, an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, who stood before the crowd at a football game and directed them in a famous and still used yell. "Rah, Rah, Rah! Sku-u-mar, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!" Since this time it has gained enormous popularity with thousands of squads in the USA and in the past 10 years it has also grown hugely in Europe, although it is pretty new to Ireland.

Cheerleading in Ireland : Cheer Fusion Cheerleading Academy was set up in 2007 in Killester, Dublin 3 by coach Leanne Whelan. To date the club has over 60 members at pee wee, junior and senior levels with squads in Maynooth, Donnycarney, Tallaght and the Liberties.
 
Leanne is the niece of Mary and Breda Cunningham who ran the Cunningham School of Majorettes in Dublin for over 20 years. She has also attended Billy Barry Stage School , the National Performing Arts School, the Helen Jordan Stage School and has been coaching since the age of 17. Some of the squad members are getting ready to represent Ireland at competition later this year  for which they are currently fundraising.
 
Cheerleading is a great sport to get involved in. It promotes healthy living, builds confidence , character and self esteem and allows youths and teens to push the boundaries to new experiences. It also allows them to make new friends and be passionate about such a sport. If you would like to be an all star cheerleader, Coach Leanne would love to meet you. Please contact her on 0857531259 or see their website http://cheerfusion.co.nr  for more information and photos.