As we hit the halfway mark of another season at Cougars, here’s a round up

of all the news!

Cougars @ 21CC

Cougars routine results were as follows: Ultraviolets 4th place, Platinum and Titanium 3rd place, Gold 2nd place, Sr Open 3 1st place, Coed Extreme 1st place and overall competition Grand Champions. We also took home 1st and 2nd in solo junior dance, and all of our stunt groups performed well with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place among the trophies!

We couldn’t be prouder of our achievements at this competition. Titanium performed for their first time as a team together and there was only .5 points between 2nd and 3rd place! The routine went incredibly well and we’re very excited for the future of the squad. Gold too, had many first time members but performed amazingly and were just beat marginally. Great work coming from both of our locations! And of course our level 3 senior coed team took Grand Champions. For those of you who don’t know, it is incredibly hard to “max out” the score sheet at levels 3-5 so for a level 3 team to take this accolade was a big surprise to us and we’re delighted that the teams hard work is being rewarded with great results! Already looking forward to next year’s comp on home turf and very excited to see our level 1 teams continue to grow! 

New Equipment/Training

Salthill parents may notice the floor we train on has increased in size lately – we are now in a position to have a 7 panel floor in Salthill. We’re delighted that the facilities are improving. At our gym, you may also notice a new air track (which all the kids are scared of!). We strive to invest in the club as often as possible and sometimes this is in the form of equipment you can see but more often in training and other things you can’t see. This past year Hilton received his Level 5 USASF credentials, and Level 5 Future Cheer BGU instructor certificates.  Jamie received his Level 3 USASF creds and Paul and Aoife passed their Level 2 USASF creds! This month both Jamie and Paul will travel to the UK to take a course in trampoline Rebound Therapy, a trampoline discipline for our special needs athletes.

Christmas Show

Our Christmas Show will be held late this year on the 22nd of December. The event will take place at the Galway Lawn Tennis Club as per usual and will kick off at 11am. We expect the event to run for no more than an hour. Please ensure all participants arrive at 10.30am – no later. The event will see performances from all of our cheerleaders and trampoline gymnasts. The cost for entry is €3 – this is our annual fundraiser. Please note that fundraising helps us to buy equipment for the club. Any volunteers willing to help out for an hour would be appreciated!

Christmas Break

Cougars Christmas break officially begins on the 22nd of December and we welcome classes back on the 6th of January. Please ensure your term fees are paid up to date before we finish for Christmas break.

Next Competition

Cougars will be attending the Irish All Star Nationals as per usual in Breaffy, Castlebar on March 1st and 2nd. We will tell each team in January whether they will be competing or not. There has been a number of lineup changes and stunt groups switched around in the last number of weeks which will affect whether teams will be ready or not.

St Patricks Day

As always, Cougars will perform in the St Patrick’s Day parade, please ensure that if for any reason your child cannot make the parade, you let your coach know! We plan for this event months in advance so knowing all the info will help!

Fundraising Day July 4th

We need some ideas for our annual fundraiser on the 4th of July. This is usually in the form of a bucket collection in the city centre, however it typically hasn’t worked well for us. If you have any ideas you’d like to share, please contact us. We have lots of time to organise this but we need some inspiration!

Term dates / Trials / Fees

Please note the following dates:

Midterm Camps from: Feb 17th (dates will be given nearer the time) No classes from the 17th-23rd

Irish All Star Nationals March 1st

Term 3 begins March 3rd – May 30th Same term fee as this term

April 14-18 Tryout clinics for team placement 2014/15 will take place

Summer camp dates are as follows:

June 30- July 4 Level 1 Gold Camp                             July 7th-11th Level 2 Camps Senior and Junior

July 14th-18th Trampoline Camp                                  July 21st-25th Full Day Activity Camp

Aug 5th-8th Level 4 Camp                                                Aug 11th-15th Level 3 Camp

Aug 15th-17th Level 1 Platinum Camp                        Aug 18th – 19th Level 1 Ultraviolet Camp

Thank you!

Thank you for continuing to support the club. We have gone from strength to strength in the last 4 years and could not do that without the support of our athletes and families.

We promise to continue to strive to get the best experience possible for your child, to continue to instil discipline and fun in equal measure and continue to teach mind blowing skills for as long as your child is an athlete at Cougars.

As of March 6th, 2013, Cougars are implementing a new rule for competitions and events where travel is necessary. Each squad of 12 or more children will now require 4 chaperones, 5 for squads of 20 and 6 for squads of 30. These chaperones cannot be coaches as coaches are busy with their groups throughout the day. Each child will have a chaperone allocated to them and will report to that chaperone throughout the event at regular times. If a squad does not have the required amount of adult chaperones, then that squad will not compete/travel, regardless of any monies paid for that event. Up until now our adult/child ratio has been 1/8 for children under 12 and 1/10 for children over 12 and we have never gone under that ratio, however, cheerleaders can be very spirited, and we feel chaperones may be more comfortable with a bit more backup!
If you are interested in chaperoning, please contact us, we need ca
We think parents will understand this rule.  As the club grows, so too do our responsibilities to our athletes. Be advised that safeguarding your children is in our best interest and is foremost in our thoughts when you leave them in our care.

Hilton, Coach, Cougars
March 6th

IASN RESULTS:

After the excitement of the Irish All Star Nationals, we had a look back at our performances and were very happy with the results. Cheerleading is competitive by nature and we have progressed very well within a relatively short time. We came home with 17 trophies including 3 1st places, 2 2nd places, a number of 3rd places and of course the Spirit Cup came home to Galway for a 2nd year running! And now to relax for another year…. We wish! Straight down to training for our next competitions….

NEXT COMPETITIONS:

All Level 1 Squads: Irish Cheer Sport Association All Irelands, Sligo, March 2nd

Level 2 Senior and Level 3: Scotcheer Nationals, Glasgow, April 12-14

Level 3: Future Cheer, Bournemouth, July 5-7 (Conditional on squad progress)

TERM FEES DUE:

Term 2 fees fall due on the week starting December 3. The cost for Term 2 is €102 for all levels 1 and 2, and €150 for Level 3. Please note that many cheerleaders are still overdue on Term 1 fees. If term 1 fees are not paid in full by the beginning of Term 2, we cannot accept the cheerleader in classes and s/he will not be allowed to participate.  This has been an ongoing issue since 2010 and cannot continue in 2013.

Hoody money is now also overdue if you have not paid, please arrange to pay Jamie asap.

CHRISTMAS FUNDRAISING SHOW:

Our annual Christmas show will take place in the Galway Lawn Tennis Club this year on the 16th of December Compulsory for All members. Due to improvements in our own gym, we no longer have space for spectators! The great news is the GLTC have heat! We expect the show to start at 12pm and last approximately 1 ½ hours.  

There will be a €2 entrance fee to cover costs and hopefully raise some much needed funds! There will be plenty of activities on the day for kids including face painting and games so please bring sisters, brothers and friends. We will run the event like a mini competition so all parents who were unable to attend nationals will be able to see a little of what it was like. We would request at least 1 member from each family to support each cheerleader.

Our Cougars Calendar will be available for purchase on the day as well as Cougars merchandise and refreshments. We hope to see you there!

TERM DATES:

Term 1 ends December 1st and Term 2 starts directly the next week with no break.

Christmas Break: December 23rd to Jan 6th

Term 2 Jan 7th to March 10th with no breaks.

Term calendars are available online. Our new Cougars Calendar includes all term dates and competitions.

EASTER CAMPS

Please save the date for our Easter Camps

Senior and Junior Level 1 (Platinum and Gold): March 25th-26th Mon-Tues 10-4

Level 1 youth and mini (Ultraviolet): March 27th-29th 10-2

Trampoline Camp: March 27th-29th 10-2

Level 2: April 2nd – 3rd Tues-Wed 10-4

Level 3: April 4th – 5th  Thurs-Fri 10-4

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

If you can give any of your spare time to help out with our fundraising committee then we need to hear from you. The committee is responsible for organising fundraising events to purchase new equipment, help with training and competitions.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

If you think that you might be interested in joining our coaching team, please get in touch with Hilton or Jamie. We’d be delighted to have you on board. Full training is provided.

CHAPERONING AT COMPETITIONS

Please note that we need chaperones at competitions where we are staying over. This includes staying in a room with the kids (moms only) and making sure they are looked after for the weekend, are ready on time, eat, uniform, sleep by a certain time etc. We need more chaperones as it a select few who go to each competition. The fundraising committee paid half the cost of chaperoning this year but from now on, a €5 supplement will be added to competition fees to cover this cost as it will pay for your child to be looked after for the weekend. Anyone who has been to competition knows the pressure that the coaches are under for the day. Those of you who don’t, please ask a chaperone! Competitions are a great chance for your child to get away with her peers and have good, honest fun whilst representing their club in a sport they love!

Best wishes from all at Cougars: Hilton, Jamie, Paul, Sean and Erica