The lovely young woman you see below is Maddie Gardner, Inside Cheerleading  (iC) Magazine’s December cover girl and winner of Nfinity’s Golden ticket contest!  (Nfinity inserted “golden tickets” into 20 of their shoe boxes and one person was selected to win an all expense paid trip to New York City!) 

As exciting as all this is, it’s clear Maddie has her priorities straight because she started a local fundraising effort called Hope for Haiti in the hope to provide aid to victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. 100% of all profit made from t-shirt sales at Cheersport (and beyond) will be given to World Vision, an organization that is directly involved withrelief efforts in Haiti.

The brightly clad woman below is Mary Chambliss of Birmingham, Alabama who attended Cheersport to support her son who is on a special needs team with Ace Cheer.

And the good looking fellow in the photo below is Todd Kopp, owner of CoreAthletics.  Todd’s daughter, Kelsie,  is a cheerleader and it was she who inspired him to get involved in the cheer industry.  Todd found his daughter perched on the arm of the couch, trying to do a heel stretch and, worried that she might fall, figured out a way to help her practice that was safe and effective.  This led to the development of the MaeFlyer (seen on either side in the rear of the picture). Kelsie’s balance and leg strength improved so much that she was sticking all her stunts!  More cheerleaders wanted the device and this led to the birth of CoreAthletics!

Todd is quite the innovator and inventer.  His other products include the DeFrogger, the Fast Bands (I have a pair!), the Stunt Strap, and the Full Up Machine.  In this picure, you see Todd helping a cheerleader in using the Full Up which helps cheerleaders to practice that skill in a safe way.

Imagine about 850 cheerleading teams gathered in one place!  Add to that parents, extended family, friends, coaches, and vendors and you end up with a HUGE segment of humanity assembled in the Georgia World congress Center in Atlanta for Cheersport’s annual national competition.

This was too good to pass up so I made my way to Atlanta last week (February 5 – 7) to immerse myself in the world of cheerleading.

The Georgia World Congress Center is a mammoth structure which seems the size of a small city.  It has numerous levels and wings which made me wish I had a GPS to help me navigate its many nooks and crannies!

On Friday, February 5th, cheerleading teams arrived to assess the scene and to engage in practice sessions.  Many found the Cheer Mall to snap up some eye glitter or to try on Nfinity’s latest cheer shoe – the Phoenix.  Many experiemented with Core Athletics amazing products such as the Maeflyer, the stunt strap, or the Full Up machine.  The sense of excitement permeated the air as cheer teams anticipated the competitions to be held the next day, Saturday.

Friday night everyone headed over to the Georgia Dome for a special event – A Celebration of Hope and Cheer.  The evening was dedicated to the memory of cheerleader Hope Stout, who lost her battle with cancer in 2004, but whose legacy and spirit of giving remains strong through the March Forth with Hope Foundation. Cheersport staff led the audience in a cheer for HOPE in an attempt to break the world record for the largest group cheer (heretofore held by China).  The photo below shows the beginning of the program.

Helpng to kick off the weekend was Olympic Gold medalist Shawn Johnson who also was one of the judges in a So-You-Think-You-Can-Tumble contest.  Ms. Johnson was duly impressed with the professionalism and skill of the cheerleaders who participated in the event. Prior to the contest, a Special Needs Team performed for the big crowd who appreciated the team’s enthusiastic performance.  Ms. Johnson gave each team member a plaque to commemorate the event.

The evening ended with hundreds of cheerleaders performing the newly famous “Pants on the Ground” dance…(“pants on the ground…looking like a fool with your pants on the gorund.”) See the dancers below.

The grand finale was the explosion of confetti which showered on the crowd.