Like many of today's professionals, I was recently laid off and am interested in traveling abroad, and was considering checking out international cheer programs in Western Europe to potentially guest coach, choreograph, or get some sort of short term position to help finance my travels. Has anyone done this or does anyone have any suggestions to get me started on the right path?
This is something that I have done and enjoyed. Cheerleading is one of the fastest sports in Europe. Figure out what country you want to go to and either contact that countries governing body or start contacting teams directly. Have your resume done and ready to send before contacting people.
The Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders (FCC) holds several summer Christian cheerleading camps throughout Eastern Europe and also in Vancouver, Canada. They take high school juniors and seniors, coaches and staff on these trips. You can check out their website at cheerfcc.org and click on the missions tab on the left for more information. I know high school students who have gone and loved it, but the high school kids need to pay or fundraise for their trips. Coaches and staff might be paid through FCC. Don't know that for sure but I'm assuming. FCC is based out of Atlanta and runs camps and competitions throughout the country - their competitions are primarily for Christian and parochial school teams. They also have a sister program called SOS (Spirit of the South) website is cheersos.com - that conducts tournament-style competitions for all star teams. They used to hold an SOS competition in the LA area, but I think the last couple years they've limited it to just two competitions in the South - one in Florida and one in Texas.
Even if you're not interested in participating in their missions trips, you might still want to give FCC a call. With the cheer contacts they have in Eastern Europe, they can probably point you in the right direction.
-- Edited by beofgoodcheer on Thursday 14th of May 2009 01:45:31 PM
