A Sport Worth Cheering For
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A Sport Worth Cheering For

A Sport Worth Cheering For

When you hear the word “cheerleading,” what’s the first thing that crosses your mind?

If you’re like most, the vision includes pom poms, football games and hair bows. What many people don’t know, however, is how athletic this sport has become over the course of the last two decades. At their highest level, competitive all-star cheerleaders often will perform combinations of cardiovascularly demanding dance and motions between standing flips, multiple running tumbling passes and stunt (where athletes lift and toss other athletes into the air) and pyramid sequences.

In other words, competitive cheerleading has evolved into some seriously high-level athleticism.

Nancy McDowell, owner of Rockledge based all-star cheer and tumbling gym, Freedom Athletics, has been on the front lines of the cheerleading evolution for more than three decades. McDowell, now 45, got her start in the sport as a cheerleader at Merritt Island High School, before moving into her first role as an all-star coach with the Space Coast Challengers in 1991. McDowell has not only watched the progression of the sport, she’s been a big catalyst of it.

“Our sport has evolved so much,” McDowell said. “We now have a governing body. Seventy countries are participating at the all-star level. There’s talk of cheerleading becoming an Olympic sport. It really is a golden era for us.”  

The incorporation of safety-focused measures, such as a scaffolded approach to skill-building, is something Freedom Athletics has embraced wholeheartedly.

“Rules have shifted to make things safer,” McDowell said. “We focus on teaching fundamentals thoroughly, so athletes can move onto those more advanced skills with a solid foundation of strength, muscle memory and confidence.”

For McDowell and her team of highly-qualified coaches, athleticism and competition is just the tip of the iceberg. The Freedom approach to training athletes is holistic and involves mandatory participation in community volunteering, leadership training and team building.

“Our goal in working with young athletes is to help instill a we-won’t-quit attitude,” McDowell said. “We strive to make sure our kids are taught the value of hard work, a healthy lifestyle, compassion and teamwork.”

Beyond the athleticism and life skills, Freedom athletes are exposed to another of McDowell’s core values — diversity.

Overcoming racial biases, economic struggles and overwhelming odds is an example McDowell sets every day. Adopted from abhorrent conditions in her birth country of Brazil, Nancy, who is blind in one eye, was raised the only black member of a Brazilian-Jewish-American family.

“I want the gym to be a place where everyone feels welcome,” McDowell said. “We love and include everybody here. Our goal is to be part of ‘the village,’ to help raise the next generation of amazing humans — and that means celebrating our strengths and our differences.”

 

Freedom Athletics offers competitive, semi-competitive and recreational cheerleading, tumbling, gymnastics, Ninja Warrior, open gym, tots (ages 3-5), summer camp and birthday party programming.

 

Address: 290 Gus Hipp Blvd, Rockledge, FL

Call: 321-632-3737

Freedom-Athletics.com

Facebook @FreedomAthletics1

Instagram @Freedom_Allstars




 

 

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