A junior New Zealand cheerleading team came out on top at the 2019 NCA All-Star Nationals, winning two awards for their amazing routines.
The team 2 Cool, trained by Dynamix and aged from 10 to 16, took out two titles at the prestigious cheerleading competition in Dallas, US.
They won the International Junior 2 NCA National Champions and the Overall NCA Level 2 Grand Champions, making them the first team and gym to win an NCA title from New Zealand.
Posted by Cheer DynamiX on Sunday, 3 March 2019
With an incredible score of 99.00 out of 100 and zero deductions, the Kiwi team defeated 187 teams from across the world, impressing many at the event with some of them saying they have never seen kids perform like that ever before.
The amazing routines were coached and choreographed by Dynamix coaches Claudia McLennan and Andrei Coman.
McLennan told the Herald how excited the team were when they found out about their wins.
"The team was absolutely ecstatic, shocked and everyone was in tears," she said.
"There are no words to describe the level of happiness. NCA is the largest and most prestigious cheerleading competition in the world. Only the best of the best come out on top.
"Our team is literally the best in the world. NCA this year consisted of 43 states in USA + 10 different countries."
Posted by Cheer DynamiX on Sunday, 3 March 2019
McLennan revealed 2 Cool practised for over 200 hours from November to February which led them to an almost perfect performance.
"We started training in November last year on Saturdays & Sundays for 4 hours each day," she explained.
"In January we had two training camps where athletes trained 5 days in a row for 6 hours each day. As well as every single weekend up until February 26th.
"They spent all of their summer holidays in the gym, they weren't able to go to the beach or truly enjoy summer as they were always sweating up a storm in the gym.
"It's a tedious, long and tiring process to get all 17 athletes to be exactly on point but they worked extremely hard, were pushed past their limits both physically & mentally and were drilled into the perfection mindset.
"Their routine was executed almost to perfection as they scored 10/10 for many sections in their routine. This means that all the athletes' timing, body control, performance, technique, everything - was perfect."
We had the most amazing time training at Cheer Athletics!!! Such a cool gym and an amazing atmosphere. We LOVE it here 💜💙💜💙💜
Posted by Cheer DynamiX on Thursday, 28 February 2019
The impressed coach said that she and Coman were more than proud of their team's accomplishments and that the training was worth the end result
"There are no words we can express to show our feelings towards our team. They truly worked so hard, they earned their win," she said.
"When your months of endless and intense training comes down to a 2 and a half minute routine it's a very mentally tough position to be in, especially for our athletes who had to compete in a foreign country.
"As we made our preparations to go into finals, all our athletes remained composed, focused and with the same common goal in mind, let's hit 0 deductions one last time, and they did it.
"The level of maturity, understanding and discipline that our athletes showed was incredible ... and [they] handled everything like champions."
2 Cool for you 😏 #cheerdynamix #2cool
Posted by Cheer DynamiX on Friday, 1 March 2019
Many at the competition were gobsmacked by the children's routine and congratulated them on their incredible performance.
"Our team performed so well that we had teams, coaches and parents bombarding us as we got off the competition floor. Saying they've seen nothing like what our kids did," McLennan said.
"They were telling us we already won because we were the best team they had seen all competition. An amazing feeling and made us feel so proud."
Cheer Dynamix is one of the few high performance cheerleading gyms in the country and has been the Grand Champion gym in New Zealand for the past 3 years.
Today is the day!! We are hungry & we are ready 😎 NCA Day 1 - WE'VE GOT THIS 💜
Posted by Cheer DynamiX on Friday, 1 March 2019
Cheer Dynamix have registrations open for children aged 4+ and anyone is welcome to come along for a free trial. Just contact them on the Dynamix Facebook page.