• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Real Estate Proves Biggest Challenge for Local Cheerleading Training Center

Posted on: Thursday, 21 July 2005, 03:01 CDT

Jul. 21--HUDSON -- Bill Hickey noticed in talking to a number of family friends that their daughters had few places to learn additional cheerleading skills, so he decided to do something about it.

The end result was that about a year ago he opened Diamond Cheer Center, which recently found a permanent home at 67A Pine Road.

"Real estate has been our biggest challenge. We need ceilings with a height of 17 feet, and most warehouse space has standard ceilings of between 12 and 14 feet," Hickey said during a recent tour of the cheer center. Warehouse space has been the most attractive to Hickey because it is usually unencumbered by pillars, which would get in the way of the students.

Before that he had temporary quarters on Crown Street in Nashua, but he knew the business was going to need better permanent space, so he began scouting out locations and was lucky enough to find the Pine Road space.

The teachers and students need a lot of room to tumble and to be thrown in the air as the sport has been becoming more and more athletic over the years. Hickey hired local college students to teach his classes, and many times the high-schoolers help the younger children.

And it isn't a sport just for girls anymore, Hickey said. High schools, and even more so colleges, are looking for male cheerleaders, who have the strength to lift female members high in the air.

"There are scholarship opportunities for girls in cheerleading, but there are even better opportunities for boys," he said. In places like Ohio and Texas, much more time and money is invested in high school and college football, complete with large marching bands and highly choreographed cheerleading teams. "There are stadiums that seat 100,000 people and they're interested in putting on a really good half-time show that's exciting," he said.

But for many parents, it is more about getting their kids off the couch and away from the television. "Many parents come to me and say, 'I want her moving. I don't want her sitting on the couch all afternoon, e-mailing and talking on the phone.' They're interested in the physical development of their daughter," Hickey said. "The parents believe that strong bodies build strong minds.

Other parents may see their daughter's interest waning in dance or gymnastic activities, especially as they get a little older, and see cheerleading as a way to keep them active, he said.

In any case, the Diamond Cheer Center offers cheering, stunt and tumbling classes for youngsters as well as teens, as well as cheerleading summer day camp. The center also has All Star teams it sponsors and those teams enter competitions, depending on what the parents want to do.

Hickey said that parents are an integral part of the competitive teams because they help run fund-raising events, such as bake sales or car washes, to defray the costs of equipment and trips to competitions.

"Each child has the opportunity to take part in these fundraisers throughout the year," he said.

Each team has a "team mom" who makes sure all the other parents are informed about events. She talks with the other parents to determine which competitions the team should enter.

"My customers are the parents of the children who come here, and I am big on customer service," Hickey said. "It is important to involve the parents in everything we do here."

ON THE WEB: www.diamondcheercenter.com.

-----

To see more of The Telegraph, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nashuatelegraph.com

Copyright (c) 2005, The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Telegraph

More News in this Category