Girls’ voices from one corner of the gymnasium can be heard – and rhythmic music from the other; a man calls out from the balcony. Then you repeatedly hear the crystal-clear laughter of Romy Möbius-Kramer, who is practising with the beginners.

This is a normal training afternoon at CheerMania (CMA) in the gymnasium at the Seminar School in Auerbach; the 38-year-old is the association’s chairperson. The association has, believe it or not, 250 members aged between 3 and their late 50s; it was founded as a section of the volleyball players in Rodewisch in 2011 and has been independent since 2003.

Romy picked up the bug for cheerleading in the United States. After completing her school education in her home town of Auerbach, she spent a year in Detroit.

“I only had the images from television in my mind at that time: beautiful girls standing on the edge of the playing field and firing up the team and spectators with their shaggy pompons,” she recalls. But the children, whom she was looking after in her host family, were cheerleaders. She saw that cheerleading involves a combination of gymnastics, acrobatics, dancing and showmanship and it includes competitions up to and including world championships. “The variety still fascinates me,” she explains. The young lady’s eyes shine and her enthusiastic laughter is infectious – for many young people in the Vogtland region too, who enjoy spending their leisure time at CheerMania.

After her university course in Leipzig in journalism, politics and American studies, she returned to Auerbach.

“Home is home! Auer-bach is simply where I feel at home; that’s where my family is,” she says, giving the reasons for her decision. Professionally, she looks after the public relations work in the constituency office of CDU state parliamentarian Sören Voigt, she is also a teacher at the Montessori School in Limbach and enjoys her time-consuming hobby. 

Cheerleading not only involves her association in Auerbach, but also the Cheerleading and Cheerdance Federation in Germany, which she helps organise as the committee’s treasurer.

“This is only possible because my husband has a great deal of understanding and we have two sets of grandparents, who love their three-and-a-half-year-old grandchild and like looking after him,” she says, referring to the enormous benefit of living at home in Auerbach. There are also many committed members in the association, who take care of training, competitions, travel et cetera. Many parents help too. 

The fact that the Vogtland region is so diverse is what makes life so attractive for Romy Möbius-Kramer. Skiing, hiking, going for walks with the family and the dog, “preferably through the woods, enjoying the peace and quiet, just listening to the birds,” Romy says.

She goes into raptures about this in the federation too. People from the executive committee repeatedly enjoy coming to Auerbach for meetings, for example, to combine work and pleasure, so to speak, and enjoy strolling around the town at ten in the evening and spend-ing time in the natural surroundings. “We’re often blind to it,” Romy Möbius-Kramer adds.

The CMA chairperson is primarily looking forward to one major event this spring: the cheerleading world championships in Orlando/Florida in April 2017. 14 girls from CheerMania Auerbach and from the Upper Vogtland Cheerleader Association have been called up to join the national team; this is costing each participant EUR 2,000. A donation campaign is running at the moment for this. Romy Möbius-Kramer will certainly do all in her power to enable the girls to take part. To a certain extent, things have turned full circle for her. She brought the idea of cheerleading to the Vogtland region from the United States and can now advertise the Vogtland region at the cheerleading world championships in the USA.