To Everyone

We are more commonly referred to as the “VJC CHEERLEADERS”, but just in case you didn’t know, we’re the VJKNIGHTS.

It’s a fresh year and CCAs are back to their normal routines of trainings and practices. The school is busy preparing for Orientation and the excitement is building up as we get ready to welcome a new batch of Victorians.

However, as some of us already know, VJKNIGHTS has ceased all trainings since December last year.

It is a big blow to the team, not just for the current J2s, but to the previous batches of VJKNIGHTS too. VJKNIGHTS was brought together by a dedicated group of enthusiastic cheerleaders 4 years ago. It was through the sheer hard work and perseverance of the team and teachers that sustained VJKNIGHTS throughout the years. And over these four years, VJ was exposed to the energy of VJKNIGHTS in one way or another.

You might have been mentored by us while you were in HOUSE CHEER, learning the basics of cheerleading, or seen us perform at school events such as Sports Day, Sea Carnival or Open House. You might have watched us perform in public too! The tosses, the flips, the cheers, the dances….I’m sure some of you have been wowed by our energetic visual display! Our last performance was held in the hall, during last year’s Farewell assembly, and I must say I was proud and thankful for that opportunity to perform for the school for that one last time (although not to my knowledge back then). I’m not sure about those watching that day, but I remember holding my breath in anticipation as my group member Wei Ting made her way up to the three-man height human pyramid. As she finally stood up on the top, towering above the school, I can only recall the applause that ensued.

To most, the big question is, why? Why has the school stopped us from training? Some of us might already know why. News spreads fast. So do rumors. And it saddens me to find out on the receiver end of the information that VJKNIGHTS is closing down because of reasons like the declining number of people joining or about us not winning enough medals. It was never because of these reasons. That is why I’m here to make things clearer in the name of VJKNIGHTS, my current team and the generations before.

The school has decided to cease all of trainings for one major reason: our safety. Cheerleading is indeed a high risk sport, but we have been dedicated and committed over the 4 years in ensuring that safety is always a priority, and hence we have managed to keep a good track record. However, it has become increasingly difficult for the school to commit the responsibility in ensuring our safety. Ultimately, personal development should not come at the expense of the students’ safety. With the lack of proper training facilities for VJKNIGHTS (we train with mats on the roads that have been barricaded) and a small pool of qualified cheerleading coaches in Singapore, the school was left with one option, which is to cease trainings, instead of compromising on our safety.

In my opinion, Cheerleading in Singapore is increasingly captivating the interest of the public and positive response. However, many still have their reservations about the safety level of Cheerleading. Indeed, every sport comes with its risks. But whether the school is willing to take the risk is not just for the school to decide, but Singapore too. Safety has always been an issue, and a reason why other schools have closed down cheerleading, leaving VJC as the last school standing. The medium for growth of Cheerleading in Singapore to become a well established sport is well on its way. Organizations such as the Federation of Cheerleading Singapore are taking the lead to break through this barrier of doubt. However, at this moment, it is in my opinion that the unsupportive environment, as well as the recent spate of serious injuries from sports, and also the large influence of parents, coupled with the school not being able to commit the responsibility any longer due to the lack of reliable resources to ensure our safety that VJKNIGHTS has to cease training.

I hope that the reason is clearer as to why you don’t see us training anymore. Our seniors, teachers and us have worked hard to bring the team together and it saddens me to find out that these rumors exist. All my seniors, teachers and teammates have done their best.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the pioneer seniors and teacher, although I do not know all of you personally, for pushing through boundaries and bringing a passionate group of cheerleaders together:

Ms Chia


Alvin Leow
Ethel Hoon
Jaslyn Low
Johnson Khoo
Leong Fei Peng
Ng Hui Ting
Sean Quek
Serena Chin
Sim Yao Yang
Teo Yong Tat
Zhao Wenwen

Chen Ying
Chloe Lee
Chua Kai Chun
Gerald Lai
Jaime Tan
Ng Junyang
Oh Mei Qin
Serene Chong
Tang Wen Yi
Tan Jun Ren
Terence Chew

Also, Thank you to our now J3 Seniors, for recruiting our current batch and for imparting all the knowledge and skills to us. Without your patience and guidance, we would not have been able to achieve so much within such a short period of time. We are a large batch and it’s all thanks to you guys! It was an honour being your juniors and the times we had with all of you will be treasured dearly:


Bryan Goh
Ho Sze Hwei (we didn’t get to meet!)
Inez Hung
Lee Carmen
Ng Puay Ying
Ng Yi Ying
Perle Hong
Samuel Choo
Wang Yaxing
Wang Zhiting

Thank you KR steppers for your support towards us! Especially Weeps, our coach. And Jon for your support during our tough times. It was an honour for the school to have worked with all of you and we couldn’t have achieved so much without your guidance. It was fun working with KR and you guys have really been a good role model for VJKNIGHTS. A thousand Thank yous for your time, love and care!

Thank you also to our two dedicated teachers in charge, Miss Tan and MJ. VJKNIGTHS couldn’t have come this far without the undying support of our teachers! They are our unsung heroes, the ones working behind the scenes, our parents (they are not a couple) in this school. We were probably a source of your worries at times, and kept you thinking about us where ever you went, but just so you know, we appreciate all the brain cells lost and white hair gained because of us. We love you.

And lastly, to my dedicated teammates:


Amanda Tay
Caroline Lim
Desmond Chan
Er Wei Ting
Henry Chua (yes you’re still a Knight(: )
Jasmine Sim
Jerer Lim
Kiang Wen Wei
Kon Wei Hau
Koo Boon Kiat
Kristy Beckwith
Lee Hong Hui
Nigel Lim
Ng Si Kai
Sebastian Ow
Sophie Tay
Vivian Heng
Wu Gui Yan

I hope I’m not making this sound like the end (coz it's not) but just wanna take this opportunity to say that you guys rock like chocolate ice cream topped with chocolate syrup and rainbow sprinkles. We have loads more to do together and so we must stay strong. A new chapter of our journey begins as we start of this New Year, and I hope that our lives will be filled with joy (no pun intended) and laughter. May we continue to grow and discover more about ourselves along the way and mature into stronger individuals. (:

 
Thank you for taking the time to read(: really appreciate it!

 ~Nicholas

Captain of VJKnights

To our Knights 10/11♥

Since tonight is the night of the ‘10 seniors’ farewell BBQ, and the last post of the blog being the “where is seniors’ farewell” post, I thought it would be appropriate for me to say a few words (or a lot) on the behalf of the senior team. There are so many things we want to tell you, have told you, or keep telling you. We can’t really collect ourselves because sometimes we don’t know where and how to start but let me try.

To the 10/11 Knights: Thank you.

Knights, this is not the end. We are only going to embark on another journey, only without training together, without sweating together, without bruising each other; but we are going to stay as a family. I believe all of you have accepted the decision made and in your heart of hearts despite being sad, you put on a smile on your faces because we’re cheerleaders, and that’s what we do. I’m not going to tell you ‘don’t think about it la’ ‘it’s over already’ ‘never mind’ because I want you to remember everything that happened in Knights because we are not over and every one of you in Knights matters. If anyone of you is feeling guilty, it is not your fault that Knights has to stop training in your generation.

“Hey guys please don’t lose heart. Cheerleaders don’t lose heart. I’m not mourning for you because you only mourn for the dead, and neither the team nor anyone has died. Keep your heads high and spirits strong. Make full use of opportunities and never blame yourselves for this! Be relentless! The CCA, room, uniforms are not VJK! Each and every one of you is a part VJK! And you are eternal!

Samuel

Watching your farewell performance over and over again never fails to give me goose bumps and smile like an idiot at the computer screen when I hear the school go whoaaaaaaaaaaa. We cannot thank you more for allowing us to be your seniors and giving us the opportunity to beam with glory at your farewell performance and boasting ‘that’s my juniors!! They’re so good right! I know right!’ especially when our friends come up to tell us how good you all were.

“I want to say thank you, because you gave us hope. You guys have reached a level we could not achieve. I really appreciate that all of you are so in love with cheer, even more than we do, the passion! I remembered saying, ‘This is the batch that changed cheerleading in VJ.’ Although we may be unable to continue from here, this is the best memory you have given to us. Thank you for the memories. Thank you for the farewell assembly. Thank you.”

Zhiting

In all essence, all of you really did Go, Fight and Win. You’ve gone to show the school what you’ve been training so hard for. You’ve fought so hard for permission to train again doing arduous research. And you’ve won the hearts and respect of your peers. ‘Every generation fought its own battle.’ (Jaime) Thank you for fighting yours.

It’s been a short year. But look at how much all of you have grown and bonded together. Looking back to the day of tryouts, I remember how demure Jasmine and Aleena were (acting). Aleena, while it lasted, thank you for being the energizer baby bunny in the family and you’ll always be a part of the family. Jasmine, from being terrified of doing a shoulder stand look at how strong a flyer you are now. It’s always a joy to see you fly because your facials while in the air truly represents the epitome of cheerleading. I remember when Kristy cried because she was made to fly when she was afraid of heights. Crying isn’t a weakness. Because look at where Kristy is now, vice-captain of VJK 10/11, and strong base for ’10 Nationals competing team with Perle, Puay Ying, Inez and Serene. Thank you for giving your best shot at cheer and not giving up despite that experience. Boon Kiat, Si Kai, Hong Hui, look back at the tryouts photos and then compare it with your recent gym photos. From all that kowtowing forward rolls, look at how all of you have been trying front tucks! The seniors are all jealous that you were given the opportunity to go for gymnastics classes, but more importantly, thank you for treasuring them and striving to improve yourselves for the team. Si Kai, thank you for bringing so much joy to the team because your low hurhurhur laughter is hilarious and thank you for breaking the mirror in the cheer room. OKAY I KID. Boon Kiat, thank you for being one of the strongmen in the team and not giving up on cheer despite juggling ODAC as well. Thank you for pairing up with Nicholas to give me such high pops even though I always kill you guys. And Hong Hui, I remember doing a shoulder sit on you on the day of tryouts! And you looked like you were going to burst and die! The seniors have seen your passion in cheer, always trying to better your cartwheels and check out your biceps hahaha!! Thank you guys for being a part of the family.

“Dear beloved Knights. It seems to be yesterday when you came for tryouts but you have achieved so much in this short year. I love your ‘knight-lets no more’ cheer, enjoy the time with you during YSC and was so proud of your performance during farewell and open house. Thank you so much for bringing these great memories to me! Keep the spirit on and cheer on. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Jiayou and we’ll still be watching over you J “

Yaxing

Know that as I write this, I’m going back to our photo albums and videos and boy, was your Initiation Performance a bomb. Jerer, thank you for being so nuah when you danced because it sure made me laugh a hell lot! Vivian, (eh stop eating can?) you’ve improved so much from your jelly pop to a pike pop and I’m proud of you (Stop eating okay, why you don’t get fat one, I jealous leh). Indeed all of you are “Knightlets no more” and as you guys enjoyed performing it, the seniors enjoyed watching it as well. In fact as I was watching from the sides while controlling the audio, you guys have no idea how proud I felt that I have a bunch of crazy cars going “POR POR PEE PEE DI DI DIU” as juniors and walaoeh everytime I watch it I want to cry can!! Henry I can hear your voice leading the porporpeedididiu cheer!! I saw how much passion you had in cheer outside of VJK, like in house cheer where you kept trying different methods to get your flyer up. Thank you for sticking with cheer despite your wushu commitments and fighting so hard to cheer again. Thank you for the performances and I must say although your performances are outstanding, the greatest gift you have given us are not the performances. Having all of you as our juniors and surpassing successors is the greatest gift, and thank you.

Sebastian, thank you for being such a great quartermaster to the team. We’ve seen how painstakingly you marked and stacked up the mats and bought food for us after nationals! I think Vivian will agree that the coconut biscuits were super shiok!! Thanks for being the funnyman and livening up our family. Nigel, EH I DAMN SHOCKED YOU GOT BICEPS HAHA and it was really fun to expose your secrets on FB! But really, thank you for being a part of this family, and help VJK grow bigger with Wei Ting okay ^^ To Wei Ting, thank you for fighting on with the family and the seniors enjoy watching you fly too! Keep smiling (and for some reason I can hear your laughter. And Jasmine’s. And Sophie’s. And everyone’s, ohmy--) Sophie! Right knee! Okay I kid hahaha, but remember how you used to struggle with your elevators? Now I’m super envious of your leg muscles la (Y) Best. Amanda, the seniors all agree that you’ve improved the most. From the scariest muscle tears to a stronger Amanda, thank you for fighting with the family. We’re proud of you.

Wei Hau, even though you’ve left for Malaysia, you’re always part of the family and thank you for sticking with us until you had to leave. Gui Yan, you’ve also come so far with your team and thank you for competing together with the 09/10 batch. From shunning by instinct when people fell, you go against instinct and hug a car when it came driving towards you (HAHA but yes). Wen Wei, I remember you sitting around while everyone was doing PT because you had injured your shoulder and you said you liked PT because it looked fun! That sounded quite encouraging hahaha! Desmond, for those few times in the cheer room exchanging gossip, thank you and we have to visit Starbucks together with Puay Ying and Inez remember?!

Of course, thank you Nicholas, for being the outstanding Captain of VJK 10/11. I remember the first time Bryan told me about you at house cheer and we attempted a toe pitch and it was so furrreaking high. Thank you for being a part of the Nationals team with Caroline, Yaxing, Bryan and Samuel. Despite taking all the whacks in your face when I dived down all of you were always there to catch me. Most of all, thank you for taking Knights to a greater level, captain. To Caroline, despite the falls and trauma, I still want to thank you for competing with the team and that we’re all proud of you that you were brave enough to fly again, even if it was for a short while. Thank you all for being such a great family. All of you were nothing we hoped for. You guys were everything and more.

We wouldn’t have come so far without your 10/11 batch. But we wouldn’t have come so far without the teachers as well. To MJ, Ms Tan and Ms Chia, thank you for being the pillars of our strength. Especially you MJ, even though you can be so irritating, we know that you’re the Mr Schuester for our glee club. Even though we may not tell you but we appreciate everything you’ve done for us, even when you choke up and we know that you’re going to cry as well. Knights couldn’t have done it without the teachers fighting for us.

Behind all the performances and above all of your hard work and perseverance we also want to thank KR Steppers and Weeps. Without a great mentor team behind us that was so willing to help the ’10 batch with our Sea Carnival performance and CCA Walkabout, it would have been tough for us alone to attract new blood into the team. Thank you for nurturing Knights and helping us grow into what we are today.

At this very moment as I type this post, all of you should be discussing future plans at camp. We don't want to forget about the memories we've shared in the past, but neither do we wish anybody to be stuck there, so as a family, let's draw strength from one another to move on. Whether or not anybody wishes to join a new CCA or make other decisions, let us be there to support one another. All of you have grown physically and mentally stronger, and more importantly you have grown together. Let us take this into our stride, and show them the true spirit of Knights of staying as a family. 2011, is your year. Whether or not cheerleading still remains a CCA, the Knights spirit will always be in our hearts, so cherish your last year together in school and stay as fighters. And thank you for being such fighters from the very start.

Athletes by nature, Cheerleaders by choice, Knights at heart.

Just as much as you guys have been fabulous juniors, we hope that we have been great seniors for you as well. I feel apologetic that I couldn't/didn't do anything for all of you as much as maybe our captain Perle and her comm but I hope I've been fun for you guys to joke about every now and then hahaha. I may not have represented the other seniors’ and their thoughts very well, and this is probably not the end of what everyone wants to tell all of you, but then again this is not the end for us. So instead of cheering off by our One Team One Cheer VJKnights, let’s ‘BUCKLE UP!!!’ for more memories to come. (I didn't try to upload pictures in the post because as you guys read the post I believe you wil have your own set of pictures from your memories (or Facebook haha!) that you guys took away with you from tryouts, Sentosa, YSC, farewell etc)

Cheeri♥s with porporpeepeedididiu-loads of ♥, 09/10 Knights

seniors' farewell

eh excuse me where is seniors' farewell please update knights blog when yall are free okay I love yall and I miss yall (okay la actually I'm just really bored in school hahaha) but study hard for promos and train hard for open house! Your routine looks promising! Jiayou knights! Oh yeah and jiayou for gym and PT don't slack off and be fat and nuah like me (majorsadandfatface)

back to seniors' farewell: WHEN WHEN WHEN and WHAT
to all J2s: eh hello we need to meet la okay I don't see yall in school at all?!?! WE NEED CATCHUP SESSION! MAJOR! and I have something to tell yall and it's very very very important. Like seriously. Like more important than our gong gong dinners. Carmen gives you her serious face >:)

p.s since ehhem prom is epic phail I suggest we should have our own Knights prom and it'll be mega fun and Yiying can be Prom Queen and the Prom King shall be ... um ... me la okay! YAY major win! Then J2s can go for our own clubbing session afterwards! okay ah set ah! J1s can plan for our knights prom and J2s can plan our own post-prom!

COLLEGE DAY 2010!

GOGO POWER RANGER!

Our super BOOMz + COOL ending! (WW at a super zai position ^^)




For more photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065848&id=1058681325&l=83662280f9


Even though it was tough and stressing to prepare for this performance at short notice, we managed to pull it off! Let's work hard for the upcoming National Day dance performance this Friday and even harder for the Open House performance! Remember that our performance this college day was 'one of the best', so let's make the Open House performance 'one of the best' too! 正所谓：长江后浪推前浪，一代骑士胜前代！Let's do VJKnights proud and give it our all in all the upcoming performances!

ONE TEAM,
ONE CHEER,
VJKNIGHTS!~!~
(AH HA HA)

YSC OFFICIALLY OVER!

All the wednesday dance trainings finally paid off when the red hot power cheerleaders took the stage on 27 May 2010 for the YSC closing ceremony!



Family photo!


Group photo with our dance instructor, Peter!


Power cheerleaders saved the kids!

It's kinda sad that YSC is now over. Despite the tiring trainings and clashes with our busy schedule, I'm sure all of us had thoroughly enjoyed it! Love all the time we spent together!

What comes next? Open house? Some other big event like YSC?
Whatever it is, we the KNIGHTS will take on the challenge!

ONE TEAM, ONE CHEER, VJKNIGHTS

YSC Day 2!

Happened to see MJ's channel on YT, and found some videos!





Also, there are many performances videos by our lovely seniors on YT, be sure to check them out!

Handover Ceremony

"Knightlets no more!"

Indeed, Knightlets no more. Congratulations to all Juniors for officially becoming full-fledged certified Knights!! You guys put up a really excellent performance and us retired seniors are really so proud of all of you! :)

VJ Knights 09-10

Retired 09 batch

Fresh & energetic 10 batch

It was, as Ms Tan would put it, a truly "magical" evening :)

We have high hopes for you Knights. So do us proud and keep VJ Knights' legacy going.

One Team. One Cheer. VJ Knights! (Magical~)

Sentosa Outing

There's no doubt about it -

Sentosa outing was awesome!!

Picnic, food & toasted sandwiches.
Stunting in water & buried in sand.
Beach volleyball & Twister.
Scorching sun & sunblock.
Painful sunburn & peeling skin.

I'm sure we all had fun. Thank you Admin Comm! :)

Looking forward to the next outing!! Plan one after Midyears/CT2 kay Admin Comm! :D

For all you Knightlets Knights

Haha okay just something random I found on Tumblr.

Win the Championship next year k! (^^)(y)

Will update on Handover soon & will probably use this weekend to grant blogger access permission of this blog to all the J1s. Give me some time :)

Secretary is supposed to be in charge of Knights blog right? Hong Hui, familiar with Blogger a not? :D

Love you all,

Perle