[KAIAC Cheer Teams, Photo Credit to Clare Sohn]

With the lifting of the restricting Covid-19 policies, KAIAC held its first on-site Cheerleading competition at the Chadwick International School campus on February 4th, and Chadwick cheerleaders earned their championship. 

KAIAC stands for Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference, and has seventeen member schools from International and Foreign schools in South Korea. 

They have three divisions: blue, red, and white, with the highest division being blue and the lowest being white. 

The KAIAC Cheerleading Tournament is held annually during the winter season on-site at a host school which rotates every year.

However, the tournament was held virtually for the last 2021-2022 season due to the impact of Covid-19. 

For the same reason, cheerleaders were not allowed to stunt for the last season.

Now, as the severity of the Covid-19 situation has diminished, KAIAC permitted the students to stunt and perform their routine without masks. 

Students had three months to choreograph their routine and practise it after school. 

The cheerleaders finally met at Chadwick on February 4th and were fully armed with their gleaming uniforms and bows. 

With the tournament scheduled to start at 11 AM, the cheerleaders had the opportunity to practise for a total of thirty minutes during their allocated time.

Although some may think thirty minutes is an adequate time for two and a half minutes of performance, the cheerleaders actually struggled to practise their routine until they are completely satisfied as their performances included multiple components including jumps, stunts, and dance. 

Especially during the ten-minute practice at the main gym, a slight rivalry between the cheerleaders was noticeable since even one minute was valuable for each team. 

Fortunately, all cheerleaders regained their positivity and high spirits during their actual performance. 

Although most teams have hit zero,meaning that they executed a routine without any deductions, Chadwick took the championship for the Level 1 team by scoring the highest with 74 points out of 100. 

Seoul Foreign School (SFS) came second with a close score of 68 points, followed by Yongsan International School (YISS) with 66 points. 

Other schools which competed for Level 1 were Taejon Christian International School (TCIS), Korean International School (KIS), and Seoul International School (SIS) in descending order of points. 

There were also Level 2 teams, also known as Junior Varsity teams, from KIS, SFS, and Gyeonggi Suwon International School (GSIS), also in descending order of points. 

All teams were graded by 10 set criteria: Motions & Synchronisation, Jumps, Tumbling, Dance, Stunts, Difficulty of Stunts, Formation & Spacing, Cheer & Voice, Showmanship & Spirit, and Overall Creativity & Choreography. 

These criteria are the qualities which every cheerleader should aim to embody; however it proved to be challenging for high school cheerleaders to focus on all ten aspects while performing their routine. 

A Level 1 cheerleader from SFS mentioned how “[she] had to practise individually even after practices to make sure that [her] small mistakes do not affect the overall point of the routine.” 

Due to the fact that SFS was last year’s (2021-22 season) champion, the SFS cheerleaders faced more pressure to earn consecutive victories. 

Nonetheless, they were content with placing second place and hoped to regain their reputation as the champions for the next season. 

KAIAC also had a Sportsmanship Award, which was chosen by the nomination of every team.

At last, TCIS received their well-deserved Sportsmanship Award.