2019 The Cheerleading Worlds

Vancouver Ice Queens Make The Move Into The Global Division

Vancouver Ice Queens Make The Move Into The Global Division

To make the transition between Vancouver All Stars and Team Canada more seamless, Ice Queens have made the switch to the new International Global division.

Feb 2, 2019 by Leanza Pieroni
Vancouver Ice Queens Make The Move Into The Global Division

Everyone’s favorite Ice Queens are back but they are taking their talents to a new division in 2019.

In an effort to make the transition between Vancouver All Stars and Team Canada more seamless for their athletes, Ice Queens have made the switch to the new International Global division.

Vancouver All Stars is one of the few gyms in Canada who allows their athletes to be on a Worlds team and on Team Canada, simultaneously.


While doing both teams is super exciting for the athletes, it can cause a challenge for the coaches as they prepare for The Cheerleading Worlds. Vancouver All Stars often doesn’t get to practice with their Team Canada athletes for almost two weeks leading up to the day they compete in the Canadian Trials at Worlds.

“Athletes at our gym want to make Team Canada one day and when they do, they will have to do a cheer,” explained Vancouver All Stars Coach, Liz Gigante Ulrich. “High School Game Day Cheerleading is not big at all where we live so our athletes never cheer until they make Team Canada.  It made sense to us to go into a division which allows us to really push what we promote and begin teaching our athletes how to lead a cheer.”

Even though the program is not familiar with cheering on the sidelines of a big game, the crowd leading component of the Global division is their absolute favorite.

“The Queens are actually really enjoying the cheering component and are taking pride in becoming better with their sign flipping, pom work, and voices/intonation/pace and eye contact,” explained Ulrich. 

The Ice Queens enthusiasm for this new division is evident in their performance energy but it’s been a challenge to get the crowd to respond to their new style of routine.

“The hardest part of it all is that the crowd is so confused at All Star Events,” explained Ulrich. “They're not familiar with cheer leading at competitions so they sit and watch and haven't quite bought into actually cheering along with the Global teams. Our own gym was cheering but the crowd is not at a "game" so they just sit back and observe."

But don't worry, the Ice Queens are focused on finding a way to get the crowd involved and cheering along!

While fans everywhere loved the Ice Queens entertaining Spice Girls-themed routine last season in the International Open All Girl Level 5 division, their year didn’t end how they would have hoped, and they are taking that experience and working to move forward every week.

“We had a very emotionally hard finish to our season as it seemed that the cheer world loved our routine and theme, but the judges just did not give it the same love,” explained Ulrich. “Our take away from last season was that for this year we were going to need to show the judges that we can stunt with difficulty and execution and that it would be smarter to be under the radar and to stick to a more typical all star style of routine. We are focused on creating memories and being the best versions of ourselves by improving every single week.”

Watch Vancouver Ice Queens 2018 Spice Girls Routine!

“Our goal for this event is to only focus on what we can control. We cannot control what other teams do. We cannot control winning or earning Bids. We cannot control the nature of judging or the scoresheet.  We can only control what we think.  Thinking leads to our actions and having control and that leads us to do our jobs on the floor.  And that is what the girls will be reminded of over and over this weekend.”

You can watch the Ice Queens from Vancouver All Stars LIVE Saturday, February 2nd at the 2019 Pac Battle of Champions Canada. Use your FloCheer login & tune in to Varsity TV to get a first look at their new International Global routine!