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Recent News

Volunteering at St Paul’s Junior School

Friday May 23rd saw five Celtic Cheerleaders: Marie, Steph, Sophie, Helen and Jo spend the afternoon with the children of St Paul’s Junior School in Otley, Leeds.

Greeted by screams of delight as they entered the playground, the afternoon got off to a great start as they joined in the “wake up shake up” warm up! The children enjoyed watching the stunting demonstration and impressed the Celtics with their attempts at preps and split lifts. After some stunting, the Celtics taught the children a dance routine to ‘Rocking’ Robin’ which they picked up very quickly!

At 2pm the schools ‘Well-being’ week assembly began. The children entertained and impressed the Celtics by singing, dancing and acting. The Leeds based cheerleaders were very honoured to close the assembly with their stunt routine and particularly enjoyed performing the dance they taught with the children.

Sophie Ibbotson, Celtic Cheerleader enthused, “We all had such a lovely afternoon. The children were all so well behaved and enthusiastic, they were a joy to teach. We all would love to have the opportunity to volunteer in schools again.”

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Volunteering England

Saturday May 24th saw both the Celtic’s All-Girl and Co-Ed group stunt teams take part in the Spring Showcase of Student Volunteering and Activity at Leeds City Arts Gallery (www.leeds.gov.uk/artgallery) hosted by The Yorkshire and Humber Youth Action Team as part of Volunteering England.

Volunteers from around the region put on various performances and presentations throughout the day to celebrate student volunteering, organised by students themselves.

The eight volunteers from the Leeds Celtic Cheerleaders performed and helped to promote the event throughout the day and even entertained the gathering crowd outside the gallery with their stunting.

Kat Yates of Volunteering England said, “I really think the wide variety of entertainment helped to make the day so much fun – and represented students in all of their diversity. You guys were absolutely a highlight of the day - just amazing! On behalf of this years Youth Action Team, a big thank you once again.”

If Volunteering England can be any help to you in the future please visit www.volunteering.org.uk

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Celtics Race For Life

The Celtics were proud to represent the squad in their community by taking part in Temple Newsam on May 18th 2008 and to contribute towards the fundraising target of £247000.

Helen Wigham, Rachel Pearson, Jen Ingram, Hannah Harvest, Jo Hessey, Katie Jepson, Marie Salvatore, Allie Snape, Becky Hughes and Beth Kay all ran the 5k race in under 40 minutes.

Race for Life is Cancer Research UK’s flagship event that has grown to become the UK’s largest women-only fundraising event.

Find out more about Race for Life and who takes part.


In 2007 Race for Life brought together 665,000 women to walk, jog or run 5k to raise £40 million pounds for Cancer Research UK – the world’s leading independent organisation dedicated to cancer research.

For more information or to communicate with the girls taking part visit our Facebook group

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Yorkshire Air Ambulance

The Celtics are due to help promote and entertain visitors at a family fun day and duck race on 11th May 2008 in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, starting at 11am taking place on the large courtyard at the front of the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

More details to come.

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Celtics Triumph at Future Cheer

The 16th of February 2008 saw the Leeds Celtics take to the Future Cheer competition floor as a whole squad for the first time in history. Thirty seven Celtics competed in six divisions throughout the day at the regional Heart of England/Saturday Night Fever Competitions.

Since starting their 2007-2008 season in October, this was the Celtic’s second competition. With athletes entering all girl level 5 and co-ed level 6 group stunt divisions, four partner stunts entering level 5 and 6 divisions, and two team entries in All-Girl university/open level 5 and Co-Ed university/open level 6, the Leeds based squad proudly represented the Celtic name on the competition floor.

Celtic Coach, Rachel Pearson said, “We all worked so hard for this, and I am delighted that our efforts were recognised. I had so many positive comments from other teams yesterday about how much the team has improved.”

After a full day of routines, the awards were announced. The Celtics took home four first place trophies for University/Open All-Girl Level 5, All-Girl Open Stunt Group Level 5, Mike and Rachel Partner Stunt level 6 and Co-Ed Open Stunt Group level 6. Two 2nd place trophies for University/Open Co-Ed 6 and Tim and Sarah Partner Stunt 5. They were also proud of James and Laura, Sophie and Jen who both entered Partner Stunt 5, placing 4th and 6th respectively.

Marie Salvatore, Celtic Athlete said, “After the results were announced and our hard work had paid off, some of the girls from our biggest competitor squad came to congratulate us and that made me realise what an impression we had made and I at that moment can honestly say I've never been prouder to be a Celtic.”

This weekend was a tremendous accomplishment for the Celtics, seeing their Co-Ed Group Stunt defending their title for the 16th time in a row, their All-Girl team were favourites to win the Grand Champion title and their Co-Ed team displaying complex and inspiring stunts and pyramids previously unseen in the UK, securing their consistent ranking as some of Britain’s best cheerleaders.

Celtic Athlete, Becky Hughes remarked, “Seeing the excitement from my old team, the Lincoln Jets, watching made me realise how much impact the Celtics have when performing. When we heard Leeds as the number one champions, it was a mixture of shock and excitement. We did what we came to do and made the team proud, securing our well deserved place as the Champions!”

Lauren Fitzgerald, from the Reading University Cheerleaders, 'I always look forward to watching the Celtics at competitions. Their routines are innovative, creative and display UK University cheerleading at its best.'

Helen Wigham, Celtic Athlete said, “Hearing shouts from people other than the Celtics made me realise just how far we’ve come. I had so many people looking at my Celtics uniform, smiling and saying well done. The moment when we were all holding hands waiting for 2nd place to be announced made me realise how strong our team can be, and it made me so so proud to be a part of it.”

For more information, please contact leeds_uni_cheerleaders@hotmail.com or visit www.celticcheer.co.uk

To view photos click on the links below
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2

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What Leeds Celtics are really about...video Steph Lim, music Allie Snape.

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Leeds Student Newspaper

The Celtics are proud to have made the student paper...on page 3!

To view the article click here or follow the link: http://leedsstudent.lsrfm.com/news/Celtics+cheer+their+way+to+victory+and+win+record+of+six+trophies/

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Dragon's Lair

On Thursday February 14th, Sophie and Rach arrived at the Careers Centre on campus to pitch for the Leeds Celtics, to the Proctor and Gamble Dragon's Lair team in a bid to win the team £250 and then potentially £10,000.

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Celtic's on BBC Radio Leeds

Saturday 9th February saw Rachel Pearson, Sophie Ibbotson and Tim Peffers (or Peefers!) take to the airwaves. At 11:40 BBC Radio Leeds DJ Graham Liver interviewed the cheerleaders covering topics from who the Celtics are, what cheerleading is and what we hope to achieve in the future.

The intention of the interview was to create a wider awareness for cheerleading as a sport. Because cheerleading is not classed as a performing art or a sport it is almost impossible to secure sponsorship from companies who believe that we, in the words of Graham Liver, dance around with “pom poms and wear short skirts.”

The Celtics were asked if they knew any chants (in true stereotypical fashion) but considering the style of cheerleading they practice, namely stunts and gymnastics, the producers decided not to record and broadcast a chant but instead concentrate on the team’s ambitions to compete abroad in May.

The interview can be heard on the Listen Again section at http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/local_radio/

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Celtic Blog

The Celtic Blog: Celtic Lovelies was launched today, 21st January as we thought it was high time the Celtics themselves had a chance to talk and discuss cheerleading - what else?!

Fancy getting your say? Join us now at http://celticcheer.blogspot.com//

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