The second edition of the Botswana Cheerleading Federation (BCF), Cheer and Majorettes Festival was a resounding success despite a number of challenges. The event was held at the Three Dikgosi Monument at the Central Business District in Gaborone over the weekend.
Despite other clubs pulling out and some not showing up at the eleventh hour, those that participated, brought their A- game and a lot of pomp. Close to 200 athletes participated at this year’s cheer clinic.
The Cheer Festival is an annual sporting and mostly attracts school going athletes from primary schools to tertiary institutions across the country. “The festival aims to provide a platform for clubs to showcase their talent in a fun and relaxed environment and also affords the BCF an opportunity to gauge the level of preparedness of clubs against one another to further inform interventions and resource mobilization to improve level of performance,” explained BCF president Neo Selwe.
Selwe went on to add that “the festival is an opportunity for BCF to sensitize the public on the sport of cheerleading and majorettes. The cheer festival is meant to set the tone and build up towards the national championships of which this year, will be held on December 7th 2024 at a venue to be announced soon.”
According to her, the BCF is happy with performances that were on display on the day, which she says was an indication of growth and consistency. Some of the clubs which graced the event from include clubs such as KatKim and Lesedi La Pela from Lobatse. There was also an impressive and commendable turnout by Tlogatloga, Ale Ale from Mahalapye and Regent Hill.
The BCF president observed that her federation is experiencing steady growth and they are as a federation happy with the progress of the sport.
“Our numbers increase every year. We are however pained by lack of funds which hampers preparations, hence we end up compromising certain aspects of the sport. For instance, we cannot find suitable and affordable venues to stage our events because we do not have enough funds. Such factors lead to last minute pull out by athletes as venues were not confirmed on time and their release was also delayed,” Selwe stressed.
Given the energy from the festival, “we are very optimistic the championships will be well attended and teams will come very much prepared but the cherry on top would be majorettes and a few stunts to bring bit of variety to the championships” she concluded.
