Breakers to defend title - News24

March 26, 2019 at 08:50PM

The Fish Hoek Breakers cheerleading team will be going to East London for the South African National Championships to defend their title in June.

The competition will be held from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 June.

The Fish Hoek Breakers is made up of two teams, the Fish Hoek Primary School team – the first primary school cheerleading team in the Western Cape – formed in 2013 and the Fish Hoek High School team established in 2014.

Following their establishment, they have been placed between first and third place in all the competitions they have taken part in.

The cheerleader teams were formed by Samantha Hogg, an avid cheerleader. She formed the Breakers when she relocated from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Hogg says cheerleading in Johannesburg is a big thing.

Without a shadow of doubt, the teams are in good hands because Hogg started cheerleading at the age of 17 in Johannesburg back in 1999.

She is now the coach of the primary and high school. She is coaching representative for Western Province and has earned her athletes and coaches WP colours. She is also a qualified Level 2 International Cheer Union Judge and Level 1 Coach just to mention a few.

Talking about the Breakers going to defend their title, she says they are very excited. "The teams have been working really hard and we can't wait to get to the nationals to show everyone how much we improving every year to defend our titles. We are doing a lot of fund raising as a team to help parents pay for the national trip. Everyone is practicing really hard to up our game. We do extra practises when we are close to competition and practise the whole week before we leave," she says.

Hogg says cheerleading is for everyone. "Some of the misconceptions was that previous tumbling or stunting tumbling is required. No experience is required, we teach everything from the beginning. Some people think cheerleading is not a real sport. Cheerleading is an extremely athletic sport and takes a lot of commitment, dedication and trust," she says.

Hogg adds that what she really loves about cheerleading is being able to see how the athletes grow both physically in skills and also in confidence.

"Some of our cheerleaders in the high school team started with us in Grade 6 and are now in matric and we have loved being part of their lives. We love cheerleading because it is the ultimate team sport. There are no reserves, everyone is equally important in the team and have to trust each other and from that, we love seeing the lifelong friendships that are being formed,'' she says.