City squad’s national stage

Cheerleaders in Sydney for tonight’s game

AS THE half time whistle blows at tonight’s ANZ Stadium clash in Sydney between the Parramatta Eels and the South Sydney Rabbitohs, a group of young Toowoomba girls will step out into the limelight.

It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for the Toowoomba City Cheerleaders, who will join in with several other cheerleading teams to buoy on the Eels as they play in front of their home crowd.

For Lyndal Johns, Toowoomba City Cheerleaders coach, it will feel like something of a homecoming.

The matriarch of Toowoomba cheerleading started out cheerleading for the Parramatta Eels back in 1975, and the current Parramatta Eels Cheerleaders coach Monique Carroll - was once a pupil of hers all those years ago.

Ms Johns said the girls who are between the ages of three and 28 - had been fundraising for the trip and were grateful to the Toowoomba community for supporting them on their big adventure.

“They’ve worked very hard. We’ve just come out of the basketball season and worked flat out to learn this routine,” Ms Johns said.

“We only finished it on Sunday. Some of the little girls have never been in a plane. They are so excited.”

Cheerleader Chloe Single said the opportunity to perform at Olympic Park with such a well-known football team and with the Parramatta Eels Cheerleaders was “amazing” and “something I will always remember”.

“When you’re looking out into the crowd and all that, you sort of lose yourself and you just go with what you know,” she said.

“You put so much passion and hard work into training that it all just finally comes together, so you feel really proud of yourself at the end.”

Ms Johns said that to be a good cheerleader, you had to have the right personality.

“You have to be somebody who loves people,” she said.

“The idea with traditional cheerleading is you bring attention to an event... you’ve got to have a mindset that you have to bring attention to the game.

“The idea is to complement the sport, not detract from it.”

The Eels vs. Rabbitohs game kicks off at 7.50pm tonight.

PHOTO: KEVIN FARMER SHAKE IT: Looking forward to strutting their stuff at ANZ Stadium tonight are Toowoomba City Cheerleaders (from left) Inara Draper, Zahnee Walters, Chloe Single, Kaylee Keehn, Chelsey Fien, Emilee Keehn, Taya Auld, Anna Cairns, Arabella Smith and...