The road to the cheerleading world championships runs through Mount Pearl

It's hot. The gym is packed with people. It's much louder than you'd expect, and that's just the cheering coming from the family, friends and fans. 

On a rainy night on Topsail Road in Mount Pearl, teams from Cheer Sport Sharks Newfoundland show off well-rehearsed routines before they take their talents to Florida. 

Their performances last only a few minutes but have been months in the making. 

"Countless competitions, countless routine changes, countless upgrades, and they really want it," said the cheer school's owner, Emily Chaytor. "They want to show the world what can come from Newfoundland."

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The former cheerleader and dancer from Conception Bay South put her dreams of owning a facility like the one she's in now on hold while she earned her law degree.

Chaytor's legal aspirations even included working for a short stint at a St. John's law firm before deciding it wasn't for her.

"I need to pursue this and the opportunity presented itself and I ran with it."

Chaytor moved her dreams from the back burner to the front, and in May 2021 she opened Cheer Sport Sharks Newfoundland in Mount Pearl. 

Today, she figures there are close to 600 athletes and 60 employees at the gym training seven days a week. 

In just the second year of operation four teams representing her training facility will head to Walt Disney World in Orlando for the Cheerleading Worlds championship.

Chaytor said the teams' success, so soon after she started her business, was definitely a surprise.

"We're very grateful for how big we got in such a short period of time and it's been a learning curve the whole time."

WATCH | Gimme a W! For watch this athleticism: 

Front and centre: meet the high-flying N.L. cheerleaders off to the world championships

8 months ago

Duration 4:37

Powerful leaps, twirls and kicks are part of the athletic and lighting-fast routines of the Cheer Sport Sharks Newfoundland. They’re heading to Florida to compete against the best in the world. The CBC’s Jeremy Eaton saw a jaw-dropping routine up close, and got the story of how the gym got its start.

Dozens of cheerleaders practising on the springy floor on this April night will head south to Florida in late April for the competition.

For the second straight year, university student Megan Squires will be among them. 

"Last year was actually my first time ever in Florida and it was a crazy experience," she said.

The 20-year-old from St. Mary's, N.L., didn't grow up cheerleading but got into it when she moved to St. John's to attend Memorial University to study kinesiology.

"I actually only started about two years ago when Sharks first opened so I'm a bit different than everyone else here, as they've been cheering since they were super-young," Squires said. "It's been a great experience and I love it."

Squires isn't alone in her newfound love of cheerleading. 

Gym staff have seen a recent rise in popularity in the sport. 

Lisa Dooling has been coaching cheerleading for 14 years and has been with the Cheer Sport Sharks since it opened. 

"It's definitely growing at an exponential rate," she said, her voice nearly drowned out by the music blasting from speakers surrounding the performance floor. 

"It's going to be amazing to see what happens within the next couple of years because we keep growing and growing and developing and getting more creative."

It's also not easy. The cheerleaders heading to the international event in Orlando range in age from 14 to 32 years old, and between school, work, and life, they manage to make it to practice three or four times a week — up to 10 hours of training — prior to an event like this one.

"There's so much preparation, there's so much emotion, there's so much determination and you see the finished product out there on the mat," said Dooling. "It's such an incredible experience to be a part of."

Cheerleading has long moved on from being a sporting event sideline show to its own sport, one with power, poise and precision. 

"They're tumbling, stunting, it's nonstop, 2 1/2-minute routine, and they definitely classify as some of the top athletes," said Chaytor.

The Cheerleading Worlds run April 26-29.

Standing on the floor, surrounded by pounding music and bounding cheerleaders, Chaytor doesn't hesitate when asked if she regretted not taking her law degree further. 

"I definitely feel I made the right decision," she said with a smile. "I do feel like I'm living a dream." 

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