A Cheerocracy? :: Wessex Scene Online

A Cheerocracy?

26th October 2007
Simon Webb

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Over the past four years, Cheerleading has grown significantly as a sport at Southampton University. Often derided and unfairly tarred by the ‘Bring it On’ film’s inaccurate portrayal of the sport, Laura Fryer and Stephanie Parrish feel the sport has really taken off and is a great example to other sports in Southampton and across the country.

The University shares it’s National Champion team The Vixen’s Cheerleading Squad, with Solent University. This is a unique and strong partnership between the two institutions. Only four years ago the club managed the relationship very differently, Solent and Southampton each had a President, a Social Secretary and a Treasurer on the committee representing their institution. Now as the two Universities’ number enjoy a closer relationship there is no need for pre arranged representation and a far more democratic election takes place.

The squad field three different teams: The Game Day Team; The Competitions Team; and the Dance Squad. Each team perform different roles and any member can potentially be a member of all three teams. The Games Day team are the women you will see pitch side at Stags American Football games cheering on the team, they are also keen to support other University teams and are available via email. The Competitions Team are the ones who participate in championships and National Finals, this year the team expect to contest three national championships and are hoping that Cheerleading will soon be made a BUSA accredited sport. The Dance Squad combine the fine art of dance with the gymnastics based throws.

As you can imagine all this requires some level of discipline and finesse, and as a result, a member of all three teams could be training up to 12 hours a week. Try telling the girls Cheerleading isn’t a sport with that sort of regime!

The team enjoy a fantastic reputation in the cheerleading world and have three Great Britain squad members amongst their number. They are well regarded for their tight, clean execution of throws, moves and sets.

Again owing to the unique nature of the sport the process for joining a team differs greatly to other sports. Rather than simply attending trials and finding out shortly after that they have been selected for a team all members (old and new) begin training after Freshers’ week. Coaches pick out potential talent amongst their number for specific roles in the performances. Once the basics have been installed (would you want a novice trying to catch you!?) the team then hold a Try Out weekend to finalise the teams.

From then on in the squads continue with their rigorous training regime and then head to the National Championships as well as support the Stags at Wide Lane.

Last year, the Vixens headed to Barcelona for a social tour. A lot of beach based stunts were put on by the club, much to the delight of the locals!

On Sunday 14 October the squad held a social at Jongleurs with the Stags team as their first major social of the year. As well as building up a strong social atmosphere between the University and Solent they also do a great deal for charity with the London Marathon and Great South Run standing out in particular.

Joining the club costs from Ł70 for membership, which is what most would expect to pay for joining an Athletic Union club. This cost pays for membership and insurance. The kit is also in keeping with other club’s price ranges but Cheerleading is unique in that it orders kit from America. Laura said that she hoped within the next few years the UK Cheerleading Industry would pick up and they would be able to purchase kit from a more local supplier as currently, kit is purchased from America which can take some time to arrive. However the quality is unrivalled and members of the squads are lucky enough to have individually made kit.

The club has really progressed in the last few years and can only improve given these recent developments. Last year, some of you may recall the Wessex Scene exposing the budgetary dispute between Southampton and Solent regarding Stags and Vixens funding. This has now been amicably resolved with a pro rata budget.

If you would like to get involved in cheerleading email:

southamptonvixens@yahoo.co.uk