FEU Cheering Squad. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Chants of “F-E-U” reverberated at Mall of Asia Arena before the announcement of this year’s Cheerdance Competition champion was made Saturday.
Supporters of University of Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines, whose cheering squads placed second and third respectively, were rooting for the Far Eastern University Cheering Squad.
And that brief moment turned out to be FEU Cheering Squad coach Randell San Gregorio’s biggest takeaway from the competition.
“Actually, the happiest thing that happened today was the UP and UST crowd were chanting FEU,” Gregorio told INQUIRER.net. “That alone, we felt like were winners.”
“And I must admit, of course, that somehow you’d hope they would turn out to be right but I didn’t really want to hope entirely because I know that NU is really a Top 3 contender,” Gregorio said.
FEU went on to finish fourth. But despite missing the podium for the third straight time, Gregorio is very pleased with the result.
“Our goal was to make the Top 3 but I’m very, very satisfied [with our standing],” he said.
“As a new coach, I want to be fair to the team and also to myself that it’s a process and you cant rush it. And what’s important is the safety of the kids. We adjusted so many segments with our routine because of the difficulty and the team isn’t mature enough to handle it.”