Over 25 budding local cheerleaders from 7 through 18 years old had, until Dec. 12 and 13, confined their talents to practices at Flip City Gym.
Then, the Arizona Spirit All-Stars went national for the first time, and on one of the largest stages possible — the Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Gym co-owner Shelly Altman, with assistance from husband and co-coach Daniel Altman, coached two teams to a Superior rating and bronze medals, respectively, at the American Grand National Championships.
“We all work with the teams at every practice,” Shelly Altman said. “This was the first national competition for this program and both teams performed amazingly.”
Legend, a 20-cheerleader squad made up of girls 10 to 16 years old and 18-year-old boys from Cottonwood, Clarkdale and even Sedona, finished third among all Senior Coed Level Three squads to merit bronze.
Ruby, a smaller girls squad comprised of eight 7-to-9-year-olds, rode a perfect routine Dec. 13 to a Superior rating from a panel of judges who scored the cheerleaders on both the difficulty and execution level of their overall performance.
Altman’s and her cheerleaders’ primary goal is to earn an invitation to the Summit, the World Championships of Cheerleading held Friday through Sunday, April 29 through May 1, at Walt Disney World.
“[It] is the most prestigious cheerleading event in the world,” Altman said. “Every competition, we are working towards earning a Summit bid.”
Just 10 percent of the best teams in the U.S. are invited to this event, which last year hosted teams from 45 states as well as Canada, Germany and Japan.
Their next try will take place Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 16 and 17, in the old Veterans Memorial Coliseum in downtown Phoenix, as they compete at the World Spirit Federation Grand Canyon Championships.
“Our competition season runs [from] December [through] April,” Altman said. “So basically we are a year-round sport, only taking breaks for holidays.”
The Las Vegas judges also scored the teams on their dancing, tumbling, stunting and pyramid formations.
“My daughter started on the prep cheer team in December 2014, and did not have any cheer experience at all,” said Brandi Boykin, parent of 9-year-old Rylee Boykin. “However, everything she learned came from coach Danny and coach Shelly and I believe that is the case for most of our youth cheer team.”
Three-quarters of the teams had only been learning these skills for less than a year, as little as four months, coming into Las Vegas.
“These athletes range in age and skill level, [and] we accept boys and girls of all ages and skill levels on our teams,” Altman said. “But 75 percent of them started with us this year without any previous cheerleading or gymnastics experience.”
It has been an intense initiation to the sport for that majority since May, when interested cheerleaders submit to skill assessments at Flip City.
“We have an extensive and intricate regimen for training all our skills,” Altman said. “It is a combination of strength- and endurance-building.
“Because this sport involves so much acrobatics and gymnastics, we stress proper skill progression to avoid injuries. Cheerleading involves specialized stunting and tumbling techniques that only cheerleading professionals are capable of teaching.”
For more photos, please see the Wednesday, Jan. 6, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
