Jamie Guedes figured there was nothing to lose this past winter when she filled out the application and submitted the tryout video for the 2024 Global Dance & Cheer Games even if she didn’t expect anything to come of it.
Instead, Guedes and the members of the KGC Cheerleading Senior Black Team got a true experience of a lifetime.
That initial submission earned KGC a spot in the coveted event, held this May in Honolulu. Once there, KGC took second place in the Open Division in the international competition.
“We were talking about (the possibility), but nobody got their hopes up because it was a far-fetched chance that we would get a spot,” said Guedes, who co-founded the program 17 years ago and coaches the Senior Black team with Leah Pereira. “We didn’t think anything of it. It was just a free entry, free to submit the video. So we were like why not? See what happens. I got the kids’ reaction on video (when we told them we were going) and they were all so shocked.
“We were all shocked up until the day we got there. It was still like, ‘I can’t believe it, are we really going to Hawaii?’ Nobody really believed it until we were there.”
While the host, CheerBrandz, covered the registration and some expenses. There was still significant fundraising needed for the Kearny-based team to get to Honolulu. According to Guedes, raising the money needed was a true collaborative effort of local sponsors and donors as well as fundraising efforts by members of KGC.
“They do a lot,” Guedes said. “They’re the ones that help with all the fundraising, setting up the ideas, contacts, getting the sponsors, getting events up and running.
“Jenn Esteves is our advisor who takes care of everything behind the scenes. She makes sure everything for the teams are taken care of and sets up events and helps with whatever we need. Bianca Pesantez coaches the Junior Red team with me and she also heads our fundraising with Stephanie Comp setting up all events and helping get sponsors for the teams.”
In total, the team got to spend seven days in Honolulu, with the competition going from May 17-19, allowing them to all spend time on the beach and see the surrounding area.
While Guedes and Pereira put an emphasis on trying to have the contingent enjoy this trip, it ultimately was still a competition and they were pleased with the team’s performance going up against older competition.
The ages of Senior Black team members is between 14 and 20, while, due to the difference in international rules, some of the other teams had performers in their mid-20s.
“Obviously we’re going there to compete, but we didn’t want it to be too stressful,” said Guedes. “We wanted them to also have a good time while we’re there. We did practice a lot while we were there, but we tried to not be as stressful on the kids. It was more like, do what we know and just have fun while you’re out there.
“It’s the last time they were competing, so they wanted to win, but they also wanted to just put out a good performance.”
The Global Games marked the conclusion of KGC’s 17th season of competition since Guedes and her cousin Justine Esteves founded the organization.
In those 17 years, KGC Cheer, which now has three different teams and is open to boys and girls ages 6 and up. During that time, they’ve accumulated 23 national and global championship wins.
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Jason Bernstein | Observer Sports Writer
Jason Bernstein joined The Observer as its sports writer in March 2022, following the retirement of Jim Hague. He has a wealth of sports-writing experience, including for NJ Advance Media (nj.com, The Jersey Journal, The Star-Ledger.)