by Charlie Jinks
An English cheerleading team have made history by winning one of America’s largest competitions in Texas.
Kent Cheer Academy’s Zirconium ( KCA ), from Gravesend, won first place with a performance that scored 99.4 out of a possible 100 at the All-star National Championship hosted by the National Cheerleaders Association ( NCA ).
Their score was not only enough to win the level three small senior division but to also best all 1712 teams that competed, granting them the highest score overall as well as an innovative choreography award.
Head coach Catherine Wilcocks took to social media to praise her team for their incredible achievement.
She said: “This is the most unbelievable achievement and words cannot express the emotions we felt when we saw that scoresheet.
“The comeback is always greater than the setback and our Zirconium girls have epitomised that.”
The last comment was in reference to last season which saw Zirconium narrowly place second at NCA and Summit, another national competition held in America, meaning this season was all about redemption.
The team embodied the NCA slogan of “The work is worth it” and battled back from last year’s disappointment to have a history-making start to the 2025 season.
However the competition’s first day was mainly overshadowed by a terrifying incident where an altercation between parents was mistaken for an active shooter situation.
Nobody was harmed and police have since confirmed that there was no shooter.
This caused an abandonment of the first day’s action meaning the pressure was on as teams only had one shot now opposed to the normal two routines.
Zirconium refused to be affected and after their astonishing performance became the United Kingdom’s only team to win this prestigious competition at levels one, two and three.
These wins have all come since 2022 building coach Wilcocks and Zirconium’s reputation as serial winners.
The KCA team is bursting with talent, featuring five athletes who have represented Team England and a cohort who have competed as high as level five.
They reclaimed their title at what is widely considered the biggest cheerleading event of the year with 1712 teams competing.
These represent 42 states of the United states of America and 10 other countries.
Zirconium will look to carry on their winning run with three competitions left in their season, all back in England finishing at the Future Cheer competition in Bournemouth on the 22nd of June.
