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Jun
By Steve Pawlyk
Published June 9, 2026
Something worth telling your athletes about happened in Sweden this past weekend.
The FISU World University Championships wrapped in Gothenburg on June 7. University teams from across the world competed for cheer titles. Team Canada came home with two medals.
Canada took silver in All Female Elite and bronze in Coed Premier. The All Female Elite squad came entirely from the University of Alberta. The Coed Premier team came from the University of British Columbia.
Australia won the All Female Elite title with a score of 70.64. Canada, the defending champion, finished at 61.82.
So a university team from Australia just beat a university team from Canada for a world title. Your athletes probably have no idea this event exists. That gap is the opportunity.
Why this matters to the kids on your mat
Most of your athletes think cheer ends after high school or their last all-star season. They do not see a road past 18. The mat feels like a countdown clock to them.
That road exists, and it keeps getting wider every year. College programs compete for national titles. National teams compete at world championships. Now university squads compete on a world stage too.
Think about what that means for a 15-year-old on your team. She can train today with a real shot at a college floor in three years. She just needs someone to tell her the floor is there.
When a parent asks “where can this actually go,” you finally have a clean answer. You can point to a college team, a national team tryout, or a world championship floor. That answer changes how families weigh the time and money they pour in.
It also changes how your athletes show up to practice. A kid chasing a college spot trains differently than a kid running out the clock.
Two pathways your athletes should understand
There are two separate international routes, and people mix them up constantly. Knowing the difference makes you the coach parents trust.
The first is the ICU World Championships. Athletes try out and represent their country on a national team. Team USA won its fourth straight All Girl Premier title at ICU Worlds in April. The USA program also chased a ninth straight Coed Premier crown this year.
That route is national pride at the highest level. Your athlete wears the flag, not a school logo.
The second is the FISU route you just read about. Athletes compete for their university, not their country directly. The University of Alberta and UBC athletes earned those Canadian medals as students first. They made a college team, then reached the world stage through it.
Both routes start the exact same way. An athlete keeps training past the age where most kids walk away. Skills do not disappear at graduation unless your athlete lets them.
There is also a closer target most families forget. College cheer nationals in Daytona Beach draw programs from every division each spring. That floor is reachable for far more of your athletes than a world championship.
What you can do this off-season
You do not need a new program or a bigger budget to open this door. You need to talk about it out loud and often.
Start by naming the pathway at practice this week. Tell your older athletes that college cheer and national teams are real goals, not fantasies. Say it to the whole gym, not just your standout flyer.
Then help them prepare like it counts. Capture clean film of their stunting, tumbling, and jumps now, while the season is fresh. Shoot it in good light against a plain background, and keep each clip short.
College coaches scan film fast. They want a full standing tumbling pass, a running pass, and a clean stunt sequence. Give them that in the first thirty seconds or they move on.
Male athletes have a real edge here, so push your boys especially hard. College coed teams hunt for strong male bases every single year. Many of those spots come with scholarship money attached.
Build a short list of programs with your athletes too. Match a kid’s skills to schools that compete at their level. A realistic target beats a dream school with no roster spot.
The takeaway
Cheer is no longer a sport kids age out of at graduation.
The floor in Gothenburg proved that again this weekend.
Your job is to make sure your athletes know the door is open. Point at it early and name it often. Back it up with film, and watch how their training changes when the goal feels real.
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