Jan. 13, 2006
ORLANDO - The UCF cheerleading team and dance team, "Knightmoves," will compete for a national title at the 2006 College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship at Disney's Wide World of Sports® Jan. 14-15. Knightmoves compete Saturday afternoon in the semifinal round, while the cheer squad performs Sunday night in the finals.
The cheerleaders will be aiming for their second national title, while the dance team is looking for its first.
"Our goal and focus all year has been to go out and perform our routine to the best of our ability," said cheerleading coach Linda Gooch. "The team is not focused on anybody else or what those teams are doing. We have done the routine hundreds of times and feel that we are ready for the championships."
Knightmoves qualified sixth for the national championship behind Minnesota, Wisconsin, Memphis, LSU and Tennessee and will begin in the semifinal round Saturday afternoon. The team finished fifth in the country in both 2003 and 2004.
"We sort of had a rebuilding year with only five returnees from last year's squad and the addition of nine freshmen," said Knightmoves coach Amanda Willard. "We took a different approach to everything this year and hopefully it all turns out okay."
The cheerleaders received an automatic bid into the finals as a result of a 90-second video entry of required skills, which has no weight on the outcome of the finals. The team submitted a second tape showing crowd response to the cheerleaders at various sporting events that accounts for 15 percent of the team's final score. UCF was one of seven teams to receive a perfect score on the crowd tape.
UCF is seeded No. 4 in the competition behind Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The UCF cheerleaders won the national championship in 2003 and were the runner-up in 2002. The team has finished in the top 10 at the national competition 10 of the last 12 years. This is the third time that the cheerleaders have received an automatic bid into the finals with the other two coming in 2002 and 2003.
The other five teams receiving automatic bids into the finals are Memphis, LSU, Ohio State, Minnesota and Hawaii. An additional 21 teams received invitations but will be required to go through the semifinal round.
The UCF cheerleaders have invited Ohio State and LSU to practice with them Friday afternoon in the Education Gym on the UCF campus. Practice will be from 2-4 p.m. and is open to the public.
Tickets for the national championship are $30 per day and can be purchased at Disney's Wide World of Sports®.