Sirens Success

UEL’s competitive cheerleading club put on a good show over the weekend, as Don McDermott reports.

The UEL Sirens missed first place by just 0.05 points as they posted a pair of solid results in last weekend’s competitions.

Runners-up

The Sirens started the weekend at the Legacy Dream Extreme in Birmingham on Saturday, competing in the Coed Level 2. In last year’s competition, they had finished ninth, but this time they improved substantially on that position, narrowly coming in second.

President Dan Holmes praised the young team, saying “The club did amazingly, for some of our members they had never been to a cheerleading competition before and they managed to remain calm and keep focused. On the Saturday we held it together and performed the most difficult routine in our category.”

Their second competition, Sunday’s ICC British Open, did not yield the same results as the Sirens slipped seven places from last year’s results and ended up in 13th. But Holmes pointed out that they only received a 0.5 points deduction, and added that changes to the scoring system, which perhaps helped them on the Saturday, may have hurt them in the Open.

Planning ahead

Although the Sirens are now finished with competition for the academic year, planning has already been started for next season. Holmes highlighted a potential change in what competitions the club will compete in.

“We have chosen our new committee and will be looking at competing at potentially two Legacy cheerleading competitions, as their scoring fits very well with the style of routines that we create,” Holmes explained.

“As well as the fact that competing twice in one weekend is a very difficult task and by the second day a lot of the team were tired. Whereas by competing with the same company with space in between allows for us to improve the routine based on the judges’ comments and provides the chance to compete at a different arena with other university teams.”

It will be an interesting season that lies ahead for the Sirens, as they will be without their former president, Mary Carr, who has been a staple of the team but is leaving the university. The responsibility for success now falls all the more heavily on Holmes, but he has the situation well in hand, having served as both captain and president.

“In 2015-16 I was captain and then this year I’ve acted as president, but in my opinion the roles are very similar,” Holmes said. “The club has improved in a structural manner by the means of understanding the admin side of what is expected of the committee, so travel to and from comps, arranging competition entry, uniforms and music.

“In a membership sense this year we had our smallest squad since the beginning of the Sirens, but we 12 individuals put countless hours in and created a very passionate team, and we have keen members that are excited to help run the club next year and to try and grow the club as the years progress.”

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