A HOLME Valley dancer will be representing her country in one of the world’s greatest cheerleading competitions.

Holly Boville, originally from Netherthong, was selected for the British Cheerleading Association Allstars team.

Ms Boville and her team will compete against scores of other nations in the AmeriCheer Internationals cheerleading championship, at Disney World, Florida, this weekend.

Holly, 28, was last year picked from hundreds of hopefuls from across the country for the 20-person UK team.

The former Honley High School pupil and her team will have to impress the world’s toughest judges in a series of short routines which include dancing, jumping and acrobatics.

Holly, who now lives in Nottingham, has competed in numerous contests and has trained various squads, including the Huddersfield University team.

But it doesn’t get much more prestigious than the AmeriCheer Internationals.

Holly, a former student of Huddersfield Technical College (now Kirklees College), said: “This is the greatest thing in cheerleading that I’ve ever done. It’s every cheerleader’s dream.

“I’ve been training ridiculously hard. We did a demonstration in Newport as a dry run and it went really well.

“This is the absolute top cheerleading event in the world. I’m nervous about it but I’m really excited.”

Competitive cheerleading isn’t just girls strutting about with pom-poms. It’s a tough – and dangerous – sport for both sexes.

Holly said: “It’s one of the most dangerous sports for women. You can get catastrophic injuries.

“I’ve had a few injuries myself but I’m not worried about that because we’ve worked really hard.”