Members of the competitive all-star cheerleading team, Cheer Xtreme, the foursome recently traveled to Orlando, Fla., and defeated teams from more than 60 countries in the World Championships of Cheerleading.
The team, which consists of 36 girls age 14 to 18, is based in Kernersville under coach Courtney Smith Hoke.
Gardner is a senior at Mount Airy, Jordan Snow a rising sophomore at Wake Forest via Surry Central, Ally, Jordan’s younger sister, is a senior at Central and Golding is a rising North Surry freshman.
The contest is a high-energy, high-pressure extravaganza which is the final competition in an entire year of preparation.
But for many on the 2010 senior large all-girl division Cheer Xtreme championship squad, the title was the culmination of several years of toiling in obscurity.
“We’ve been cheering together for awhile now,” Gardner said. “It was really great to accomplish that with our group of girls. Obviously it’s really hard to put into words because it was so exciting. Honestly I felt relief. I felt accomplished after I had worked all those years and put in all that time. We had a tough season last year, so we definitely redeemed ourselves.”
The team knocked off the four-time defending champion from New Jersey to take the title — a team they had watched closely and hoped to best over that time.
“Pretty much our gym had never won and we were out for blood,” Jordan Snow said. “We all love each other a lot and our coaches. We decided we were going to go for it all this year and not hold back and that’s what we did and it paid off.”
The preparation for next year’s World Championships begins almost immediately after the girls fly back from Florida.For anyone who thinks cheerleading isn’t a sport, just ask the Gardner, Golding and Snow families their opinion.
“The season is pretty much year round and it all leads up to the world championship,” Gardner said in an attempt to put in perspective just how important the final competition is to the team.
“We don’t get a break,” Snow added. “As soon as we come back from worlds we have tryouts, then we have two practices a week during the summer, along with three different camps and choreography camp. We start competing around October up until April. During competition season we practice three times a week until April when it gets down to a grind, then it’s every day and those are three- or four-hour practices.”
Imagine that schedule paired with school work and scholastic cheerleading.
Gardner and Snow said this year’s squad seemed to click more than others they had been a part of, perhaps because of the amount of experience in pressure situations the group had shared.
“It’s really intense,” Gardner said of the final competition. “It’s really intimidating throughout the years I’ve been going, but this year I think we were the intimidating team. We had worked to a higher status. I felt very confident this year going into the event. Our team did really well this season, we won just about every competition we went to except one and the atmosphere this year was really positive. I was optimistic about this team’s chances of bringing home the gold.”
“We were definitely an experienced team,” Snow said. “We knew what it took to go out there and overcome the nerves and pressure of competing. We definitely got the job done and we lived up to the pressure and hype. The whole crowd was going crazy for us, so that helped to.”
The girls said the best part of the experience was succeeding with friends they had bonded with through hours of blood, sweat and tears.
“Over the years I think we’ve grown more into a family than a team,” Gardner said. “We really do have each other’s backs. I think I could count on them for anything. I think the experience we had as a team really did help us. We are the most emotional team in the division. The other teams only seemed to care about winning, but we really care about each other and I think that’s what sets us apart.”
The team’s winning routine will be shown on ESPN June 5 at 11 a.m.
Contact Thomas Smith at tsmith@mtairynews.com or 719-1920.
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