A Salford-based cheerleading group has been selected to become England’s first special needs team to compete at the International Cheerleading Union World Championships 2024.
Red Hot Superstars are a Salford based group of 11 cheerleaders with special educational needs and disabilities. They have been selected through a pilot process to become the first England Special Abilities Unified Pom Team in history.
They will be representing England at the International Cheerleading Union World Championships 2024 in Disney World, Florida, USA. At the event they will have the chance to compete with other Special Abilities Unified Pom teams from different countries.
As it is a Unified Pom team, this means that the 11 girls will be joined by non-disabled people, known as ‘unified partners’, to help them represent the country inclusively at this International event.
The Red Hot Superstars are part of the Red Hot Flames group in Manchester, but they are based in Salford and represent the Special Abilities Unified team.
Georgina Stafford, their head coach, has been appointed by the National Governing Body Sport Cheer England as the Team England Special Abilities Unified Pom Manager. She has been part of the Red Hot program since she was 11 years old, participating in multiple World Championships, later becoming a coach. Around three years ago, she realised that there wasn’t a special abilities team representing England, since then she has worked constantly to get this to happen.
Georgina wants to be: “A huge advocate to help people understand and to remove barriers that are artificially placed in front of people or athletes with additional needs.”
Georgina has been a senior teacher at a Special Needs school in Bolton for 8 years, and she said she was inspired to begin this group because she wanted to: “Provide experiences for neuro diverse athletes that their neurotypical peers could be accessing at this stage of their life.”
The group began three years ago with just three dancers and now it has gone up to 11, training for an hour once a week with Georgina and the assistant coaches: Abi Gilpin, Zoe Gilpin and Olivia Barnett.
Georgina added: “They’re so excited. They are really proud to wear the Team England t-shirts and they’ve come back to training this season really switched on and really committed, it’s absolutely brilliant.”
She began a fundraiser to raise money for these athletes to be able to attend this event. Since this is a long trip from home, it is a costly opportunity, and it will cost around £2,000 per dancer to be able to travel and compete. The costs automatically double as each athlete has to have a chaperone with them.
Georgina is incredibly grateful for the hard work of the families that support the special athletes, she said: “Without them and their belief in my dream about going to World Championships this wouldn’t be a reality.
“Also a thank you to Sport Cheer England for providing this platform to showcase inclusive cheerleading.”
Each of the dancers has a different disability, including: ADHD, autism, learning difficulties and different chromosomal disorders, but this doesn’t stop them from giving it their all on the dance floor as they have been constantly training, and competing around four or five times a year, for the past three years.
Anyone is able to donate through the link here, every contribution will help ensure we get to see these girls represent England and Salford at this competition. Follow their Instagram to see their journey to this once in a lifetime opportunity.
To contact Georgina with any sponsor opportunities or any other way to help, email her at: teamenglandsapom@gmail.com
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