19 Mar 2024
A St Albans schoolgirl is celebrating after her cheerleading team won international accolades in the United States.
Michelle Rose Littner is a 13-year-old Year 8 student at St Albans Girls School, and has been cheerleading for the past five years.
A member of world-renowned cheerleading club, Top Gun All-Stars UK, she trains two to three times a week at their HQ in Worthing, West Sussex, and is the youngest member of under-18s youth team Shadow.
Shadow currently hold three National Cheerleaders Association titles, picking up their latest accolade in Texas a few weeks ago, and are one of only two teams in the world to achieve a perfect score in every single competition for the past season.
She told the St Albans Times: “I originally wanted to start cheerleading because of my friend – she had found a new hobby with sparkly bows and was having fun with it so I wanted to try it, and I had so much fun at the try-out.
“I was previously doing gymnastics and dance, taking part in competitions, and I did both at the same time before quitting to do more cheerleading. I knew I wanted to continue doing cheerleading because I could travel around a bit and compete with my friends.
I find that I enjoy competing with everyone – I like to work hard and then see the results after. I also like learning new skills and
proving to myself that I can do them.
“I’ve taken part in quite a few competitions over the last few years but the last one I participated in was the NCA in Texas, Dallas, where we got first place and was such a fun experience.
“I had the opportunity to watch a lot of great teams and will soon be going to Florida and the Bahamas to compete.
“If you do the best you can do and focus on your goals then training is fun.
“It can be physically difficult but if you learn to enjoy training and remember why you started everything feels easier. I think trying to create a bond with your team is also really important as well because it helps a lot to be comfortable with everyone on your team.
“My classmates find it cool that I get the opportunities to travel with my team and compete. They didn’t understand fully how competitions worked and what cheerleading actually was but they understood later on.
“My long term ambitions are to just stay in cheerleading as long as I can and be the best I can be, maybe to travel to America and experience everything I can with cheerleading and meet new people I look up to.
“I would also probably explore the options of cheering in college.”
