Gulfport cheerleaders go to London

For two Gulfport senior cheerleaders this New Year celebration was one to remember. After making the All-American High School team at cheerleading camp, Anna Catherine Kendricks and Catherine Karl traveled to London to show off their cheer skills during the New Year’s Day Parade.
Anna Catherine Kendricks and Catherine Karl started cheering on the Gulfport Admirals from the sidelines four years ago, but now their cheerleading career has taken them from just doing cheers on the Coast to performing all over the world. “Our cheer team goes to UCA camp and this year we went to LSU and all of our seniors get to try out for this thing they call All American and Catherine Carl, who is our captain, and I got chosen. So, the senior trip that they send us is to go to London. So, we got to go to London during Christmas,” said Kendricks.
The two seniors laced up their cheer shoes and put on their best bow to perform in the London New Year’s Day Parade with 650 other high school cheerleaders to represent Varsity Spirit. Kendricks said, “We were in the New Year’s Day parade. We got to cheer and they don’t have cheerleaders over in London. So everyone gets really excited to see us do stunts and dance and have pom-poms and they were handing us their kids to take pictures with because that’s unusual to have.”
This once-in-a-lifetime experience also gave them a chance to soak in the London culture. “On our off days when we weren’t practicing we got to go around and tour. I took AP Art History so I got to see all the art pieces that I learned about and there all the art museums are free so it was really cool to be able to see in person,” said Kendricks.
Kendricks plans to continue her performing career on the field in Oxford when she attends the University of Mississippi later this year. “I actually dance and I am going to be attending Ole Miss next fall. I am going to be trying out for the Rebelettes my freshman year so hopefully I am going to be doing that.”