M Cheerleading captures first NCA National Championship

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

A big congrats to the Michigan Cheer squad. Even though it's not a varsity sport, MGoBlue still covered it on their site. They won the NCA National Championship down in Daytona.

Always a great day and an amazing accomplishment when any Michigan team wins a national championship. Especially for a first time!

Release-

 

April 12, 2013

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The University of Michigan cheerleading team claimed the national title at the 2013 National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) and National Dance Alliance (NDA) Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship completed today (Friday, April 12). This is the largest college cheer and dance championship in the world.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment for our team," said cheerleading coach Pam St. John. "I'm extremely proud of everyone's hard work and effort. It paid off with a flawless performance on the big stage. I couldn't be happier for this group of student-athletes."

The Wolverines won the national championship in the Intermediate Coed I competition after placing second to James Madison University last season. There were 14 institutions in Michigan's division.

This is the first time that the Michigan cheerleading program has claimed the national championship.

 

004

April 12th, 2013 at 3:53 PM ^

Thanks for representing the University so well.

 

The gauntlet has now been thrown down for the football team to follow suit.

 

 

M-Wolverine

April 12th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^

I didn't even know we were doing it competitively.  Have we been a serioius program in competitions for long?  In any case, whether it was a fast ascent or a long time coming, once again they've shown why Michigan is the Leaders and Best.

MDTCaptain

April 12th, 2013 at 5:21 PM ^

Just to shed a little light...

NCA has been around since the 40s.  National championships have been going on since the 80s.  Michigan was involved in the 90s, took a break in the 00s, and apparently is back in the competition game (they also placed 2nd last year).  

Dance teams are newer, and the competitions haven't been around as long.  Michigan attended the UDA Nationals in January, and placed 12th in Hip Hop (didn't advance to finals in Jazz).  Michigan's never won a Dance National Title (however, Minnesota dominates - so go Big Ten!).

 

As for sport vs. athletic competiton vs. whatever going on in this thread - who cares?  The cheer and dance at Michigan, and the cheer / dance / mascots at other schools, use Nationals as a way to motivate and aspire to greater feats.  Whether those feats are athletic, artistic, or a combination isn't really the point.  Anyone striving for greatness under the maize and blue should have our support.  

Supporting the other sports teams at Michigan is a big part of the spirit teams, but they also do things for themselves.

M-Wolverine

April 13th, 2013 at 12:21 AM ^

I just don't know we were competing. I must be remembering the '00's, because I recalled we were a great cheer squad, but not doing the acrobatics in the "Bring it On" type competitions. Which has apparently changed, and we got old at it fast. At least on our level.

JHendo

April 12th, 2013 at 4:17 PM ^

That's awesome that we have a new trophy to add to this year's impressive collection. Congrats!
But that said, the idea of cheerleading as a "sport" has always pissed me off. The whole concept of a cheerleader got very misinterpreted at some point. You're not a cheerleader to have people cheer on how well you can cheerlead yourself. You are there to keep the fans in the game, or to make up for the crowd's lack of enthusiam at times. I don't doubt the skill or countless hours of practice needed to do what they do, but I see competitive cheerleaders as people who are not talented enough to be gymnast or to be pure dancers, and forgot what cheerleaders are truly there fore. Now neg away if you must for me being a debbie downer.

justingoblue

April 12th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^

and she is indeed an ex-gymnast (who wouldn't have made the team there) but I don't know if there are any gymnastics events that really compare, given the number they put on the floor. Also, at least from the HS stuff my little sister did, "dance" in the wearing spirit uniforms and performing at halftime sense has more restrictions competitively than cheerleading does. Less gymnastics type stuff, IIRC.

That said, I agree. It's not really cheerleading (they aren't leading cheers) and truth be told I'm suspicious of sports that use judges. Not saying the best divers, gymnasts and, yes, cheerleaders don't have amazing skill, but I greatly prefer a sport that is timed or has a net or endzone or basket or whatever.

JHendo

April 12th, 2013 at 4:44 PM ^

I'm with you on the whole judging aspect.  My wife did synchronized figure skating on an international level (sidenote: synchronized gymnastics is a sport that could be a more athletic alternative to competitive cheerleading).  Hearing my wife talk about all the little stupid rules and things you must do to avoid pointless deductions are absolutely ridiculous.  Things like uniforms, make up and music selection also somehow play a critical role in not getting docked points.  It's ridiculous.  It's not really about the best team skillwise, but it all comes down to how well you know the judges' style and how much you can do to appease them.  I can't imagine competitive cheerleading isn't too far off from that.

justingoblue

April 12th, 2013 at 5:01 PM ^

I don't even like unpires calling strikes, at least at high levels that could afford an alternative, or the way the boarding rule is written in hockey (what's "excessive force"?) or a lot of the calls in basketball. There's no way I could compete knowing that my uniform would be part of the outcome.

M-Wolverine

April 12th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^

It can be a competition, but it's not a sport. It's more like an art contest, or Dancing with the Stars. It can be athletic, but not sport.  Because in sports it doesn't matter if you win pretty like Michigan or win ugly like Wisconsin (or Louisville), style doesn't matter.  

But a sport in a more "manly" way is boxing, which is just as bad. But at least you can knock someone out in that.

MGoBroomz

April 12th, 2013 at 11:33 PM ^

my wife was captain of the cheerleader team for 2 seasons a decade ago...and when I told her about this she was happy for them, but truth be told. They decided to compete it the intermediate division, which would be like Football winning the FCS championship. They alumni cheerleaders have been pushing the coach to competed with the big girls for years but they just won't.

Sswanson30coach

April 14th, 2013 at 9:08 AM ^

I'm a cheer coach and I did some research on this......There are several divisions in their competition. While I'm happy for them, I think the Michigan community is being persuaded incorrectly. There are two college nationals... UCA AND NDA. UCA is the biggest and is televised on ESPN and most Division IA schools attend their camp and nationals. I know that the UM dancers place into finals every year at UDA Nationals, the one with the most teams and largest programs.. (i'm not sure if the Dance team attends their camps.)

Anyway. Our cheer team didn't even enter the Division IA at NCa. They entered intermediate. Looks like there are two intermediate divisions too along with several others. Also,, after the first day of competition, they did not make it to finals. Nca only took 7 of the 14 teams to finals in the intermediate div. Suddenly, there were 8 teams in finals with Umich Cheer. Not sure what happened there. Also, most of the teams at nca are Club teams at their schools. Again, I'm happy for them, but i wanted to state the facts.

Sswanson30coach

April 14th, 2013 at 9:16 AM ^

I'm a cheer coach and I did some research on this......There are several divisions in their competition. While I'm happy for them, I think the Michigan community needs the facts. There are two college nationals... UCA AND NCA. UCA is the biggest and is televised and most Division IA schools attend their camp and nationals. I know that the UM dancers place into finals every year at UCA Nationals, the one with the most teams and largest programs.. (i'm not sure if the Dance team attends their camps.)

Anyway. Our cheer team didn't even enter the Division IA at NCa. They entered intermediate. Looks like there are two intermediate divisions too along with several others. Also,, after the first day of competition, they did not make it to finals. Nca only took 7 of the 14 teams to finals in the intermediate div. Suddenly, there were 8 teams in finals with Umich Cheer. Not sure what happened there. Also, most of the teams at nca are Club teams at their schools. Again, I'm happy for them, but i wanted to state the facts.

mgeauxblue22

April 15th, 2013 at 10:01 PM ^

Just a few things that have to be cleared up throughout the previous comments:

1st: NCA and UCA have two different styles of competing. UCA focus completely on stunts/tumbling whereas NCA focuses on stunts/tumbling but with more focus on presentation/jumps/dance/etc than UCA. Both are prestigious in their own right. Try telling Louisville (Hint: the school that won the Sugar Bowl and the Final Four) that NCA is not as good. They've been dominant for the last decade or so in D1A at NCA nationals except for the last few years when Oklahoma State has won. Also, NCA is televised on CBS Sports Network.  Other scompeting are teams like Virginia Tech, South Carolina, Texas Tech, which are by no means small schools. The last fact is that UCA competes in January and NCA in April so schools take that into account as well when deciding where to go.

2nd: Michigan competed in the Intermediate Coed 1 division because there were restrictions on the team from the Athletic Department at U-M, not because they or the coach chose to. The restrictions were just recently (as in earlier this year) lifted so this should change in the next few years. 

3rd: Dance and Cheer nationals are very different; UCA vs. NCA doesn't matter in that regard. The higher divisions for Cheer focus on more dangerous stunts/pyramids/etc. For dance, there is no intermediate because dance is about movement and synchronization, not 'risker' or 'more dangerous' dance moves. Also, dance has 3 areas (Hip Hop, Pom, and Jazz) at UDA and U-M placed into finals in hip-hop, and got 12th. Congrats to them all the same, but you can't really compare cheer/dance there.

4th: The article clearly states what division Michigan won (Intermediate Coed I) so I'm confused as to where the incorrect persuasion is. 

5th: Michigan solely didn't make the finals because they were assessed safety deductions during the pyramid portion of the prelim routine. Without those, they would have been 3rd going into the finals. It had nothing to do with lack of skill. After prelims there is the Challenge Cup (in every single group from D1A on down) where the teams that didn't make the finals get to do the routine again and the winner advances to the finals the following day. Michigan fixed the safety issues and won the Challenge Cup by a huge amount (the score they received actually would've placed 2nd in prelims). They then went on to win with a perfect routine. 

6th and final: There are two cheeleading teams at Michigan: Co-ed and All-Girl Competitive Cheerleading. The Co-ed team is considered a varsity sport and is university sponsored (expenses paid by U-M) whereas for All-Girl the expenses are paid by the team members. 

No offense, but looking at a website and mixing that with assumptions does not result in facts. It results in misleading information that paints the program in a negative light. Next time, please actually do your homework before 'stating facts.'

Michigan did very well and the Michigan athletic community is very proud of them, as should any fan of Michigan athletics. Go Blue!