The Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team gave two youngsters from Littlehampton, West Sussex, the chance to take centre stage dancing with their professional cheerleading team THE ROAR of the Jaguars at the weekend.
Sisters Disney, 5, and Faith Walker, 10, were two of only 30 girls to win a place in the ‘Junior ROAR Academy’ and get a taste for the dedication needed to be a professional NFL cheerleader.
The Jaguars were at London’s Westfield Stratford City as part of the team’s NFL Draft celebrations. Members of the cheerleading squad, Karen, Jessica, Lauren, Erin, Katie B. and Rachel, were flown over from Jacksonville especially for the visit.
After being presented Junior ROAR t-shirts and pompoms, Disney and Faith took part in a fully choreographed final performance and could barely hide their delight after the day’s fun.
The girls’ mother, Kymie Walker, was full of praise for the event: “I’m a huge American football fan. The girls watch it a bit and then we took them to see cheerleaders in Portsmouth and they fell in love with it. They were lucky enough to meet THE ROAR of the Jaguars earlier this year when they danced with them at the Allianz Arena in London. When they heard the Jaguars cheerleaders were coming back to the UK again they were desperate to attend. For girls of this age, it’s a dream come true to dance and meet the real cheerleaders and get taught all the moves.”
The pupils certainly impressed their professional coaches on the day – fourth-year cheerleader Karen was delighted with the enthusiasm and effort from all the young girls that took part.
“The girls were brilliant today. They were really attentive, keen to get involved and judging from the fact they were all grinning ear-to-ear, they clearly had a great time! As members of THE ROAR of the Jaguars, we love being able to come over to London to meet our fans and a massive part of this is engaging with groups of youngsters.
“We love getting the chance to show young girls what cheerleading’s all about. They get to talk to us about things like healthy eating, exercise and also about our lives outside cheerleading, such as the fact we all have careers or are studying. The group of us here today include three teachers, a behavioural therapist, a health insurance specialist and a full-time student, so we can discuss how we balance all our commitments. Community involvement is really important to the Jaguars and it’s great that we get to do it on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The Jacksonville Jaguars spent all-day Saturday at London’s Westfield Stratford City where they became the first NFL team to take over the shopping centre in celebration of the 2014 NFL Draft and the team’s links with London. Along with the Junior ROAR Academy, the cheerleaders also performed for fans and took part in a number of photo sessions throughout the day. They were joined by three of the Jaguars players, Denard Robinson, Johnathan Cyprien and Dwayne Gratz, who attended a fan Q&A and then took time to meet with fans, sign autographs and give away free Jaguars merchandise.
The Jaguars have made London their second home after they signed a deal to play one of their regular season games per year at Wembley Stadium until 2016. The team will be back in November to play the second of their four agreed home games – a mouth-watering sell-out clash against the Dallas Cowboys on the 9th November.
For more information on the Jacksonville Jaguars visit www.jaguars.com/uk or www.facebook.com/jaguarsUK