Ultimate All-Stars cheer program expands to new, larger space in Bow

Jordyn Clarke and Madison O’Neil have been cheerleading with Ultimate All-Stars 603 since it opened four years ago and fell in love with the sport, the friendships and sense of community it offers.

This past Sunday, the cheer program moved into a new, larger space at 27 Dunklee Road in Bow as its teams prepare for competitions starting in December and it expands its offerings.

After they cut the ribbon to officially inaugurate the new space, cheerleaders of all ages, from toddler tumblers to teens, could barely contain their excitement to use the new gym.

“It’s going to let us grow a lot. It’s a bigger space. We have a lot more room, and there’s always room for improvement. So I feel like we’re going to improve a lot this season,” Clarke said.

Clarke’s good friend and teammate, O’Neil, said that she’s excited to see the growth of the Ultimate All-Stars (UAS) program with the new facility.

“It’s basically become like a second family for me. I’ve been here since it started four years ago. I definitely love the [competitions]. It’s like a whole other world,” she said about her time at UAS.

The all-stars started out in a shared space with its parent company, Creative Dance Workshop owned by Ana McKenna and Bridget Edinger.

After a few years, both programs had grown enough to warrant finding a space of their own. McKenna said that the new building will mostly be used by UAS in hopes of growing their offerings and classes, but the overall intent was to widen the opportunities for both programs and potentially rent the gym to other cheer programs in the community.

The students aren’t the only ones who have felt welcome and accepted in the program—parents have too.

Sarah Guinther of Bow enrolled her daughter, Maddy, last October and she’s already seen a big difference. Maddy is more patient with herself and has grown in her abilities on the mats.

After trying competitive figure skating and other cheer teams, Maddy had not found the right fit. When she joined UAS, everything just clicked.

“My favorite thing is the community. Everyone’s so nice,” Maddy said. “Everyone’s really supportive. No one judges you based off anything.”

Other parents in attendance for the ribbon-cutting were equally excited.

Penny Buechner, whose seven-year-old daughter Adley could not stop flying around and trying new stunts with older students on Sunday, was a college cheerleader and knows the ups and downs of the sport.

Some gyms can be cliquey. Overall, it can be hard to find a place like UAS, Buechner explained.

“My daughter has gone from not being able to do a cartwheel to doing front walkovers, back walkovers, and her tumbling passes in a year, so she’s just excelled in this program,” Buechner added. “And everyone’s supportive, from the parents to the coaches to the teammates.”

All-Star Cheer Coordinator and coach Stephanie Stillings said the biggest impact of the new building is that they can fit nine mats across the floor.

“We’re really fortunate to have this space. It’s already like, been a big change for our program, for the positive,” she said.

For those unfamiliar with cheerleading, teams typically choreograph their routines with nine mats to most accurately simulate competition conditions. UAS could only fit seven in their previous gym.

When they’d arrive for competitions, all the carefully planned distances and locations of cheerleaders on the smaller surface could sometimes lead to confusion.

“We have three travel teams that have been going since the summer, so those are already well into their season. They’ll start competing in December, and now we’re able to offer some additional things, additional classes and teams.”