NJCAA and Salt Lake Community College host first ever NJCAA Cheerleading Invitational
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Charlotte, NC: For the first time in organization history, Salt Lake Community College will host the 2025 NJCAA Cheerleading Invitational from January 30 to February 1.
The NJCAA Board of Regents announced Competitive Cheer as an emerging sport in December 2020, and this year will mark the first invitational for the sport.
The competition will be for three periods. The first period will be compulsory tumbling, which consists of seven heats. The second period will be compulsory/creative building with nine heats. A halftime period will occur after the first two quarters and last 10 minutes. The last quarter will be one compulsory and one creative routine. It will consist of two heats. Heat 1 will be a one-minute compulsory routine, and heat 2 will be up to 2 minutes and 15 seconds of creative routine.
Eight NJCAA programs will compete in Salt Lake City, three of which will compete for the women's invitational title and five for the co-ed invitational title. Each bracket will be a double-elimination tournament.
"How exciting that we have finally come to the point of a national competition for competitive cheer within the NJCAA. It has only taken a few years, but I believe we will continue to grow this sport within our organization," NJCAA Competitive Cheer Chair Hayley Kobza said.
The programs competing in the Women's competition include the College of Southern Idaho, Joliet (IL), and Blinn (TX). Southern Idaho and Joliet will face off in the first round of the invitational. The winner of the first match will then take on Blinn, who has a bye. In October, Blinn faced Navarro (TX) for the NJCAA's first competitive cheerleading meet in history. Southern Idaho hosted the first-ever Region 18 Cheer Competition earlier this year.
The Co-ed field features Dodge City (KS), Trinity Valley (TX), Salt Lake (UT), Snow (UT), and Navarro. Dodge City and Trinity Valley will play in the first round, with the winner advancing to take on Salt Lake. The winner of that match will play the winner of Snow and Navarro. Salt Lake and Snow participated in the Region 18 competition hosted by Southern Idaho, and Salt Lake beat CSU 3-0. The Bruins are hosting the first-ever cheer invitational, and last month won the Region 18 Championship. Navarro features one of the biggest name-brand cheerleading squads, holding many national championships, and was featured heavily in the Netflix show "Cheer." Trinity Valley was also highly featured on Netflix and won many national championships for cheerleading.
Salt Lake Community College will stream the invitational through the Scenic West Network.
