Britain's Got Talent

With the second season of auditions for Britain's Got Talent well underway, I thought I would share our experience of the previous series.

We had been stunting all day in Hyde Park, enjoying the sunshine and after having a BBQ retired back to our house to watch the premier of Britain's Got Talent on Saturday, June 9, 2008 at 9.25pm. As well as coverage on ITV1, we were also featured on ITV2's nightly spin-off show Britain's Got More Talent.

The main aim for the Celtics was to bring cheerleading into the limelight, to show the public what cheerleading involves. From our exposure on this program we received a lot of positive feedback, and believe that we took a step towards our goal. There was however a lot at stake with a chance to win £100,000 cash and the chance to perform in front of the Queen at this Royal Variety Performance.

At our first audition in March, the ceiling in the audition room was to low to stunt, but fortunately the waiting area had a ceiling that was just high enough (although I could touch the ceiling.) The first stunt we threw caught everyone’s attention and the whole room gasped since it appeared that I was being launched into the roof. But once we had established how much room we had, we threw as many stunts as we could. We were interviewed by ITV and ITV2 and thoroughly secured our places into the next round.

On stage at the next audition in front of a live audience, our routine went really well, showcasing some of our best stunts. The audience were really loud and supportive and the frequently heard “Off! Off! Off! Off!” chant (the audience had a say in the vote too) was no where to be heard. Simon Cowell, looked apprehensive and his interest was instantly lost when we announced that we were cheerleaders! He pressed his buzzer as soon as we started, but Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden saw us through to the end.

The judges verdicts; “Where are the pon poms?” asked Simon Cowell moaning and looking very unimpressed saying that “(cheerleading) is just an excuse for guys to look up girls skirts!” This didn’t go down well with the other two judges, or the audience and a loud “Boooo” erupted in the auditorium. Piers though it was “Different and entertaining to watch,” and believed that it was an act that the television audiences would like to watch. “I love it when young people get together to unite in a common goal, seeing you as a team on that stage giving it 110% makes me proud,” gushed Amanda. The Celtics were sent through to the next round!

We even had the opportunity to put Ant and Dec into stunts. Dec did surprisingly well, as the Celtics put him into an elevator stunt but Ant didn’t even make it into the load before falling on his back. The boys were very supportive of the Celtics and wished us luck before leaving.

James Hart described it as, “Absolutely crazy, the stage was huge, the audience were loud and the adrenaline was pumping, the only thing that spoilt it was Simon Cowell scouring at us.”

To view the our audition show reel visit the media section on http://www.celticcheer.co.uk/

Click here to catch a glimpse of the Celtics on stage with Ant and Dec in the wings

Mike's newspaper article

While watching Barry's video, I remembered reading about Mike, one of our male cheerleaders when he was on his old team, the Blackpool Scorpions.

"There's been so much going on with Mike's cheerleading career recently (he even receieved the Cheerleaders' Cheerleader award nominated by his own team members for achievements during the last 12 months) the press thought it worthy of a half page spread in the local paper. Mike has done a lot to increase awareness and viability of male cheerleaders in the UK in the last two years and we think the article as well as continuing to heighten this impression, is well derserved on merit. Well done Mike. Click here to view article - you may have to wait a minute for the print to become clear and legible."

Barry the cheerleader

Again, on the subject of male cheerleaders, check out Barry! (he loves S Club 7!)

"Barry is a cheerleader...a MALE cheerleader! We find out what it's like being one of only a handful of males taking part in this female dominated sport. Follow Barry and his team, Plymouth Blaze, in the run-up to the BCA National Cheerleading Competition in Newport. How will they get on?"

Watch his video to find out http://current.com/watch/24370340

The Celtic Men

On the subject of male cheerleaders, I thought I should mention my own squad, seeing as they are pioneering the way for co-ed cheerleading in the UK.

Our first competition this season (with ICC) saw the Celtics take to the floor in the first ‘truly’ co-ed routine seen this side of the pond.

By ‘truly’ co-ed I mean that there were more men on the floor than women, and that all the stunts that were thrown were co-ed ‘partner’ stunts, not ‘group’ stunts. This by no means undermines all the other co-ed squads out there; the UK cheerleading community is currently at a transitional stage in it’s development where we have just begun to tap into the resources which can provide correct and up-to-date co-ed stunt coaching. The video posted below is the highlights from the UCA 2008 Partner Stunt Nationals (these are some of the best in the world!)

In the past few years co-ed cheerleading has really taken off, starting in February 2006 with the very first Co-ed Partner Stunt division (one base and one flier) at a UK competition.

Hosted by Future Cheer, it saw Mike McMahon and I pull out the very first all-British routine and the start of a new excuse, I mean trend for men to show off their masculinity and brawn.

Every time I blink, the standard of co-ed stunting increases and the next big Partner Stunt division is at Future Cheer’s Midland competition in February this year.

Good Luck to our four couples and everyone else who are entering.

Male Cheerleaders

My fellow cheerleader, Tim Stevenson sent me a text the other day (22nd Jan 08) to say that Scott Mills was discussing male cheerleaders on Radio 1, "Scott Mills ripped male cheerleaders and now every cheer team everywhere are ringing in and complaining."

Naturally, I tuned in straight away, but to be honest it wasn’t very positive.

As the week went on, his show on the 23rd heard him speaking to “Pom Pom Pete and find out the reasons why men become cheerleaders(!)” This in all cases is for the girls (the men to women ratio is heavily favoured towards the men!) but once they realise that it is so much harder and physically demanding than they first thought, they soon become addicted to stunting; throwing (and catching) girls in the air.

On the 24th he spoke with a “lucky lad who lives with 9 cheerleaders.”

And today (25th) he had a “team of cheerleaders along to teach Scott their moves while he's in full costume.” For more updates visit http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio1/mills/rss.xml

I have attached the video of Scott’s crash course in cheerleading and it is also on his homepage on the Radio 1 website, along with a very short article. A guy called Ross Graesing left a message on Scott Mills' bebo page saying that he "typed in scott mills tonight to see the mad cheerleader thing and thought why wld anyone degrade themselves like that!"

It is actually worth a watch, seeing as he injures himself doing a forward roll!

They featured the Boswell Cheerleading Squad, a team who had some manly looking guys, it is just a shame they didn't show any stunts, seeing as that is what primarily impresses men in cheerleading.

The year so far...

This little video created by Steph Lim highlights our progress and skills since September 2007, as well as showing how much fun we have had this term.



Our most first competition of the year was hosted by the International Cheerleading Coalition(ICC) which took place in our back garden at the University of Leeds. We entered 6 divisions, and won 6 First Place trophies!

I am extremely proud of every single member of the team who in spite of other commitments to academics, work, and extra curricular activities, made every effort to be at training and to work hard to excel in their area of the routine.

Becky Hughes, a former Lincoln Jet Cheerleader said,
“ICC Northern Regionals 2007 was my first competition with the Celtics, we’d trained hard for a couple of months, there was a few problems along the way with stunts, but we all pulled through together on the day. This is a fantastic experience knowing that the team will help each other out, work hard when it counts and make sure we have those 1st place trophies at the end of it. Nothing beats that!”

We encourage each other, we fight along side each other, and we work for each other.

I am proud to be a Celtic

For more videos of our team visit our media page.

Hi

Well I thought I should introduce myself. I'm Rachel (but people call me Rach) and I currently coach and compete with the lovely Leeds Celtics. I started cheering in September 2004 and since then, I have to admit, it has taken over my life. Anyone who thinks cheerleading is all about pom pom and 'rah rah rah's' couldn't be more wrong.So please, have a look at our blog, or check out our website and find out for yourself what we're really about.