UC cheerdance squad removed from school’s program

FAR from suffering broken bones, members of the University of the Cordilleras cheerdance squad are, nonetheless, suffering from broken hearts.

Larry Fabian Photo

This is after a source close to the team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the UC board of trustees voted to remove the fabled cheerdance squad from the school’s program due to safety reasons.

This only means the team will no longer defend its throne in the 2012 National Cheerleading Championship after bagging the title last March.

Although the school’s cheerdance squad members remain as scholars, their group now faces a bleak future in the school which they carried to glory in the national cheerleading front.

After failing to bag the championship twice, the University of the Cordilleras cheerdance squad finally nailed it on their third try leaving competing schools from Metro Manila in a daze.

The Jaguars cheerdance squad staged an impressive performance to annex the 2011 National Cheerdance Championship, besting 22 other schools from all over the country and dethroning three-time champion Central Colleges of the Philippines.

“Ngayon pa sila natakot sa posibleng injuries kung kelan sobrang trained na ang mga bata and it will be a first time na mangyayari na hindi darating ang defending champion to defend their title,” the source lamented.

But the squad will still be absorbed by the university’s center for creative productions under the dance squad.

Even with the cheerdance squad no longer part of UC’s program, the group will still perform during the opening of the Baguio–Benguet Educational Athletic League. However, it will all be dancing during the opening program.

There will be no stunts, no tosses when the dance group performs.

But it will be the aerial tricks, which made the UC Jaguars the country’s best, which the audience will miss.

Their removal from the school, the source said, may open doors for other schools to accommodate the cheerdance squad saying some schools in Manila might recruit its members because of their advanced skills.


Published in the Sun.Star Baguio newspaper on August 13, 2011.