Students enjoy moment of success as world champions
A city dance school has been celebrating after enjoying world championship success across two competitions.
Members of the SA Academy of Cheer and Dance were part of a gold medal performance by the Team England Youth Median Coed at the International Cheer Union (ICU) World Cheerleading Championships at Disney Orlando in Florida in Thursday, April 20.
Bayleigh Williams, Teagan Lloyd, Amira Hansel, Skye Hansel and Tegan Baker were all part of the team that finished six points ahead of their opponents Chile, Canada and Korea.
The team also placed fourth in the US Allstar Federation (USAF) Cheerleading combination as part of Team Crush, a combined team of academies from across the country.
SA Academy director Sharon Gray was out in Florida with the team and said she was so proud of the achievements of her students, who had trained for seven months with the team in London to perfect their routines.
She said: "I'm just so immensely proud as I think back to starting this school 25 years ago with 12 children in an afterschool club and to think that we've got students representing their country and winning gold medals, words can't describe it.
"There's still a feeling of disbelief as we've come back and sort of got back to normal, but we all still find it a bit hard to believe and it's hard to describe what it was like to see them on the stage with their gold medals, hearing the national anthem.
"It was like the Olympics for them and they've won a gold in one of the fastest growing sports in the country, so they are all immensely proud, overwhelmed and humbled by the experience."
Ms Gray said that the world championship success would not go to the heads of the students as she said the ethos of the academy was to stay humble and remember who they were.
She said: "It takes hard work to get there and even more hard work to stay there so, as coaches, we don't allow for any complacency and we always tell our pupils to remain humble and stay grateful for what we receive.
"We don't allow the students to get big headed or complacent and we've never had to deal with that as we remain successful and like a family.
"It's testament to the coaching and commitment from the students and the parents as they have to be committed to doing this and that essence of family is what brings the success we have."
