How did you find your way in to the sport?
"Our neighbor was into cheerleading and a club named FSC from Porvoo offered a set of three free tryouts to see if one enjoyed the vibe. Our mom wanted me and our older sister to try out the sport. I fell in love with the it right from the first training sessions and have stayed on this path ever since," says Carissa.
Lumia started in a micro team when she was 3 years old, following her older sibling.
The sisters noticed several differences between the All Star and Nordic cheerleading. In All Star cheerleading, there were significantly more competitions, hosted nearly every other weekend resulting in long competition seasons. The team members used all travel to the competitions with their own vehicles, even though the journeys were sometimes long.
They also had their families following along and staying with them during the trips. In general, the parents were more involved and often came along both to the practices and competitions.
Carissa trained in two different competitive teams at the same time, which is not usual in Finland for any club teams. The team sizes were smaller, and the teams had no reserve athletes. The athletes themselves did not choose which team they qualified for, but the coaches made the decisions.