Two local gymnasts have reached the top level in competitive cheerleading and will soon be members of a national team in an international competition.

Maddison Dombroski, 15, of Tottenham, and Kaleigh McIlveen, 16, of Angus have been chosen for the Canadian Cheerleading Union's national team to compete at the 2009 International Cheer Union Cheerleading World Cup Championships in Orlando, Fla.
In all, 40 countries have entries in the competition.

The girls were selected from among hundreds of competitors across the country.

They both train at Cheer Pride All Stars in Utopia.

Both girls got their start in cheerleading after years of training in gymnastics at the Alliston Nikolettes Gymnastic club in Alliston.

Maddison began gymnastics when she was only three years old.

"I started to actually compete when I was seven and go to competitions. We do vault, bars, beam and floor. My favourite event is the floor," she said.

The transition to cheerleading as a sport was a natural progression from the jumping and tumbling world of gymnastics.

"My coach's daughter is in cheerleading and she was telling me how she's always enjoyed it. And Kaleigh, who is also into it, said 'you'd be pretty good at it too'. So I went and tried out and made it."

The skills they learn on the gymnastics mat are the same as what's required in cheerleading.

"Since I like floor gymnastics I really adapted to it."

The tryouts for the national team have a stringent set of standards that must be met and coaches select the athletes they think can meet the requirements.

"My coach in Utopia thought we could meet all the requirements you need for this team. You need to be able to do a standing back tuck, a rounded back hand spring full twist, and the coach said 'I think you and Kaleigh can do this and make this team,' so we went and tried it. A few weeks later they posted the list on the internet and we made it," Maddison said.

For Kaleigh, the competitive nature of gymnastics provides an added edge of excitement.

"I like how you get to watch everyone around you compete. If you see them do a good routine then you think, now I have to do one better."

Kaleigh's coach thought she had the right stuff for cheerleading and recommended she try out for the national team. She enjoys the highly charged atmosphere that goes along with cheerleading competitions.

"The audience is way louder, the music is louder, it's pretty intense. I love thriving off the crowd. It makes me so much happier when they're screaming at me."

Since the team is put together with girls from across the country, the entire team will only be able to practice together for a week prior to the actual competition.

"We have girls from British Columbia that are on the team," Kaleigh explained.  "They video tape us. We record our practice and send it out to them and they have to learn the skills. A week before competition they come down and they learn the whole routine with us."

Most of the team is fairly close to the GTA and they practice in the area.

"For the Canadian team we train in Kitchener and Oakville." Kaleigh said.

Cheerleading at the national level requires a high level of physical fitness, and being tossed in the air is part of the sport. Kaleigh is one of the team members who is routinely sent airborne.

"On the Canadian team I'm the toss-ee, and on my own team I'm the tosser. I'm a bit of both. When I first started it was kind of scary, but I've become accustomed to it now," she said of being sent high above her teammates. "There are times when you kind of blank in the air and come down a little awkward - you almost hit the floor but you never do. They always jump underneath you."

Nikolettes head coach Denise Bush has coached both girls from a young age and said the two sports require the same physical abilities.

"They cross train. They maintain their gymnastics skills for tumbling which is a big requirement in cheerleading. The tumbling, the dance, the artistry,  all of that - the jumps, the leaps - if you have a good gymnastics background you're going to be a good cheerleader," she said.

With so many teams involved in the World Cup Championship the girls are expecting some tough competition but are confident in their skills.

"All the requirements that are needed for this team, the other teams are going to bring it just like we are. It's going to be tough," Maddison said. "We want to make sure we are totally different from the other teams and  bring different stuff to the floor."

The Canadian Cheerleading Union Team leaves Apr., 9, 2009 for the international competition to be held on April, 24, 2009 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.