WATCH: Cheer to the top with local cheerleading club

Are you ready? Let’s go!Residents looking for a cheer, tumbling and stunt spectacle need look no further than the grounds of Hoërskool Kempton Park, where local cheerleading club Absolute Cheer and Tumbling (ACT) strives for perfection every week.

The five-year-old club is made up of athletes from across Kempton Park’s primary schools, high schools and tertiary athletes.

At the helm of ACT are Protea athletes and co-coaches Chris Wilding and Stacey Hutchings. The pair will represent South Africa at the World Cheerleading Championships in Orlando, Florida, later this month.

“I love the adrenaline of cheerleading and amazing people with what we can do,” Hutchings shared, while young learners practised their complicated stunts close-by.

The club saw its name in lights last year June, after their all-girls high school team brought the South African Majorette and Cheerleading Association’s national competition’s trophy home. This after the team came dead last in a competition earlier that same year.

ACT clearly isn’t one to back down from a challenge and 2019 promises to be no different.

“We would love to win nationals again,” Hutchings said. Only this year, they hope to win the trophy with a co-ed team, which consists of male and female athletes.

The club is already making its mark on the competitive calendar, after the high school team, Phoenix, and the primary school team, Ravens, came second and third respectively in a local competition on March 2.

“This is a very social sport and we can find a role for any kind of person with any kind of physique,” Hutchings said. She and Wilding hope to see cheerleading grow as a sport in South Africa.

“The hate you see in cheerleading movies doesn’t exist. We always work together as a team and see how our athletes gain confidence.”

If you’re ready to C-H-E-E-R, call 072 729 4672 or email absolutecheerandtumbling@gmail.com. No prior experience in cheerleading is needed.