Finglas cheerleaders create history winning world championship title in US
Strike Force Cheer, based in New Cross College, Finglas West, Dublin 11, began back in 2008, during the boom of High School Musical and Bring It On.
The school's senior team, known as SL4TE, are now world champions after winning the International Open CoEd Level 4 NT in Florida.
Teams from all around the world were judged on athleticism, skill, technique and performance quality. Deja Blue, the school's junior team, secured a silver medal in their division.
Shannon O'Reilly, who is the coach, believes that their secret sauce for success was focusing on themselves, rather than the competition.
'We were founded in 2008 by Hayden McGuirk during the boom of High School Musical and Bring It On. He started in Finglas and then throughout the years. I took over the club in 2020 and we've been going ever since,' Ms O'Reilly told the Irish Independent.
'The competition was crazy. We've been doing various competitions for a number of years. This was our second year at the All-Star World Championships.
'This year we decided to bring two teams, so we knew it'd be more hectic having to balance the two teams and training, but we did everything we physically could to prepare.
'When we landed, we trained for a day and then we were straight in competition. I don't even think we had time to think about it.
'We went into the competition almost knowing that we would be the underdogs. We come from a part of the world where it's relatively small. It's only really starting to grow right now.
'We wanted to go out and showcase good quality, high level cheerleading. Our focus was solely on that and not on anything else. That's what put us in the top spot.
'We were more focused on what we were doing and how we could do the best rather than focusing on the competition and who we were against, it turned out to be our secret sauce.'
Finglas group Strike Force Cheer after winning at the cheerleading world championships in Orlando, Florida
The group combines gymnastics, acrobatics, and intricate choreography. They pride themselves on being Ireland's leading cheerleading program; now that they've won the world title, the group is hoping more people will understand what cheerleading actually is.
'Our season will run from May/ June all the way through, there's really no time off,' Ms O'Reilly added.
'I feel it's a hard battle to sway people away from that stereotypical Pom Poms and chanting, we don't do that. It's more based around gymnastics, stunts, and high-performance dance.
'It's nice to be part of, everybody absolutely loves it, but then it's hard to explain what we do to other people.
'We'll have our work cut out, there is one more competition left this season in Glasgow and then we will be straight back into try-outs and add new people to the roster if that's needed and then hopefully, we'll head back over to the World Championships next April.'
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