Connor Mai

2024-08-07T04:07:26

Monash University has three dance teams and one cheer team representing Australia in the FISU University World Championships in Croatia in August. Behind these elite athletes is a team of students making it happen.

The Monash Cheer and Dance (MONCAD) committee is made up of nine Monash University students who organise overseas and interstate competition trips as well as managing the year-long Cheer and Dance program. Bridget Lee is the lead committee member, overseeing the job to send four MONCAD teams to the FISU University World Championships in Croatia in August. “We’ve got Hercules, which is the hip-hop team. Minerva is our pom team and Harmonia is our jazz team. And we’ve got Atlas, which is our cheer team,” Lee said.

Her work involves liaising with the athletes, Monash, travel agents, and arranging flights, team uniforms and accommodation. “It takes a lot of effort and a lot of work … obviously it’s hard to coordinate 50-plus athletes,” Lee said.

“We’re all working on it in our free time to keep the club running … the best way to describe it is that it's run like a business, but the fact it’s just uni students that are doing all this is the most impressive thing to me.”

Along with planning trip logistics, MONCAD secretary Annabel Cavanagh explains the importance of arranging “practice showcases so the athletes get used to performing in front of a really big crowd”. “It’s very much we have to figure things out for ourselves and it’s hard to organise a huge trip worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from a small university club,” Cavanagh said. Normally unseen from the world, this committee of students are the backbone to getting all four teams across to Croatia to compete for Australia and compete. “I like just seeing it all come together and how much a group of uni students can really make an impact,” Lee said.

Cavanagh said it was an honour to represent the MONCAD athletes as they aspired to high-level performances at the Games. “Being able to have a say and really advocate for all the athletes in the club … it’s such a huge honour,” Cavanagh said. Despite the stress and time needed to coordinate teams of athletes, from Lee and Cavanagh look fondly on the friendships they have formed so far through this experience. “Everyone is really tight knit … and pitches in to help,” Cavanagh said.

“The friends have become such a family to me.”

The FISU University World Championships was held in the first week of August.

Article written by Kate Barker and Alice O'Brien.


This article was reproduced with the permission of Mojo News. The original article can be accessed here.

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