Bay City Cheerleaders squad give strong showing at international event

Bay City Cheerleaders squad of 14 young women came 5th in their division at the cheerleading Global Games 2023 in Hawaii. Photo / Action Moments

A Hawke’s Bay cheerleading team have put on a strong showing at an international competition for the growing sport.

A squad of 14 young women from ages 10 to 16 from the Bay City Cheerleaders gym placed 5th out of about 20 teams from across the globe in Division Three at the Global Cheerleading Games in Hawaii from May 19 to 22.

They were coming in hot from a streak of successes for the gym in domestic competitions, with top placings at the New Zealand Super Nationals and the senior team’s first grand champion title at the Wellington United Cheer and Dance competition.

Christine Crowe, Bay City Cheerleaders gym owner and team coach, said the team had won a bid for the Global Cheerleading Games before the Covid pandemic which was honoured when the competition was able to run again.

“I am beyond proud of my girls for their performance at the global games. The parents, coaches and athletes all put in a huge amount of effort to get to the global games especially as some of our athletes lost their entire homes and belongings from Cyclone Gabrielle,” Crowe said.

It took a year of fundraising and support from three sponsors, Everest Kool Solutions, Murray Build Ltd and the Rodney Green Foundation, to get the team to the competition.

“We had amazing support from our sponsors and without them, we wouldn’t have been able to go.”

Besides a few teams from across New Zealand, countries represented across the more than 80 teams attending the event also included the US, Canada, Korea and Australia. Photo / Action Moments

She said she also wanted to acknowledge the wider cheer community for their support during the cyclone.

“They did Bay City-themed training days, gave us ‘shout outs’ to the team of encouragement on their social media platforms and donated to our give-a little page and other forms of private donations to our athletes such as clothing, training gear etc.,” she said.

“We feel very privileged to be able to represent our region and our country on a global scale and look forward to more opportunities like this in the near future.”

Besides a few teams from across New Zealand, countries represented among the 95 teams attending the event also included the United States, Canada, Korea and Australia.

James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz