If you had told me that Bandar Baru Uda, Georgetown and Johor Bharu produces the nation’s best cheerleaders, I would have laughed, insulted you and carried on with what I was doing. Great cheerleaders hail from places like Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, not from the northern and southern reaches of Malaysia.

Well colour me wrong, if the competition this year is anything to go by. Spectators who sacrificed their Saturday morning sleep-in were treated to spectacular performances from Northern Region Finals winners Ignitez of SMK Bandar Baru Uda and runners-up Vixens of SMK Sultan Ibrahim as well as the Northern Region Finals winners Vivacious of SMK St. George.

This is truly commendable, especially the huge obstacles that these teams from out of state endure compared to their big city counterparts. Did you know that Ignitez and Vixens did not even have any formal training?

Ignitez of SMK Bandar Baru Uda, Johor. Muhammad Faiz is in the middle row, 2nd from right.

“The cheerleading scene in Johor is smaller and younger in contrast to Kuala Lumpur,” laments Muhammad Faiz Luqman bin Azlan, captain of the Ignitez team. “Because of that, there is a lack of experienced coaches.” As a last resort, the all-boys team had to turn to Youtube for tips and tricks.

Penang cousins SMK St. George were more fortunate, though by a smaller margin. “While attending a CHARM workshop, a few cheerleaders offered to come to all the way to Penang from KL to train us,” said Andrea Ong Kar Lym, captain of Vivacious. “However, they can make the trip only once or twice a month.”

Vivacious of SMK St. George, Penang. Andrea Ong is in the bottom row, far right.

The lack, or rather, the absence of coaches were not the least of their problems too. The teams were faced with objections from certain quarters at school.

Saibah binti Sainel knows that situation very well. “SMK Sultan Ibrahim is a cluster school, so the administration places more emphasis on academic pursuits rather than co-curricular activities.”

Vixens of SMK Sultan Ibrahim, Johor. Saibah is in the middle row, far left.

“There were initial hostilities, especially to our attire and frequency of training sessions,” adds Andrea Ong. “But after we showed excellent results, they laid off our backs a little.”

The adults were not the only opposition to their participation in cheerleading. The sport is still seen as a mainly female activity by many and male participation is met with criticism. Muhammad Faiz can testify to that fact. He and his teammates regularly receive the short end of the stick at school.

These factors may be the reason for the low number of competitive teams in both regions. According to Andrea Ong, her team was the only one from Penang to take part in the Northern Region Finals, and this has been going on for at least two years.
“There used to be six, but now there is only us,” she said. “The rest are just exhibition teams, performing at school and corporate events instead of competing.”

She sees this as a major disadvantage in the improvement of out of state teams. “The higher the number of competitors, the more the pressure which is a good thing. Pressure would definitely drive us to work harder.”

Still, the teams are adamant that their quality is on par, or even better, than the teams of KL and Selangor. Saibah attributes this belief to the huge amounts of sportsmanship that the northern and southern teams have.

“Everytime we make a mistake, we make sure to rise up and try again. We do not believe in crying over spilt milk. Most important of all, we came to have fun.”

Ignitez, Vixens and Vivacious may be out of state, but they are certainly not out of style.

By Tristan Toh