Over the past 22 years the Mustangs have practices in almost every gym, hall, rec. centre and open space in London. Some times we paid for it, some times we got in and waited to get kicked out (insert story about the gymnastics room/campus security/Vanexan circa mid 80's).

In 1998 the Galleria Mall promotions department sponsored the team in it's Daytona campaign (with cash). A year later the Mall wasn't "doing so well" but had hired a new and creative manager (David Hall), who had the idea of "bringing more people into the facility", by giving away empty space to deserving community groups.

The short of it: as soon as Trace saw the "space" (a cavernous empty warehouse area that had been cut off from internal mall access after several re-fits and store wall alterations) he said YES. It was filthy, had heaps of construction crap all over the room, it was UGLY and the ceiling and lights were entirely too low...but, it was RENT FREE and had 2 big washrooms, a kitchen, an office a storage room and lots of room to get creative.

The team (guys) really helped out a ton on gutting the place then cleaning it up and dressing it to suit us. Dwayne and Kelly put in a ton of hours in there, Trace dang near died falling off a ladder and Chris Lyn saw the Lord via a live electrical circuit we thought was off.

Key memories: Low Ceilings, Free Rent, Mismatched Mats, Free Rent, the Skinny Hallway, Free Rent...You have to move upstairs: TOMORROW.

By March of 2000, we were pretty comfy in the Galleria when the bad news hit...They had found a tenant for "our" space. Since we were there for free...we were the first to get the boot. The crappy thing was the timing. They gave us the word about 1 week before we left for Daytona. While we were able to delay the move until we got back, that put it right on top of final exams.

SO... we had our Thursday practice then hauled all the mats, trophies, tramp, boxes, storage rooms and every other bit of UWO/PCA gear up into and empty store on the second floor. The REALLY crappy thing was that the space they gave us, was across the hall but wouldn't be empty for another 2 weeks.

We don't have any pictures of the wee sliver of a store we set up but suffice to say, you could jump and touch the ceiling. We laid in 2 mats on one side of the dividing wall and two on the other and put the trampoline (yes, the tramp) in the front window along with some big pictures and a mess of trophies.. A lot of cheerleaders (and fitness people) learned to tumble up on the second floor of the Galleria Mall and we did get a TON of walk by traffic. However, despite the still FREE RENT, it was obvious that we couldn't stay there because by now the "need" for a stand alone gym was so ingrained in Trace's sites that nothing was going to stop him.

Key memories: No stunting, Oak Cabinets, Track Lighting and a hell of a big Board Room in the back

The spring, summer and early Fall of 2000 was an endless tour of warehouses, studios, industrial spaces and hundreds of sketches of floor plans and visits with realtors. Every time we though we were close, something would mess up. The Cabel Street facility was high, cheap and available but dirty and not insulated. The Hyde Park option was too low and hard to get to. There was one on the south side of the 401 (big, clean and cheap), one on Highbury near JPII etc. etc. etc.

Power Cheer Gym 2 (or more accurately, our first "stand alone facility) was a former repair bay for London Transit. At the corner of King and Hewitt, it was virtually ON the Dundas bus route (easy access), it was inexpensive and had lots of parking but as usual...the ceiling was only 18' high and at best, only 6 mat strips could fit in it. Oh...and it was some filthy.

The timing couldn't have been worse. We took possession on October 1st 2000. Football season was rolling and Nationals were looming. Once again, the guys kicked in a lot of man power to haul out the heaps of old automotive detritus and broken fixtures. On Thanksgiving weekend, Trace rented a scaffold and spent 23 straight hours converting hell into happiness.

The first practice was held in PCG(2) on October 12th 2002.

Key memories: Dirty, Dirty, Dirty, The Man Deck, Humidity in July, The Nuclear Reactor

The King Street location was small, but it was affordable (cheap) and despite all it's shortcomings, it was home. Having a set practice facility meant we could expand into other projects like "X" or have resident teams (Oakridge, Vikings and the summer Vipers).

But it still wasn't big enough. Time to call the real estate guy.

Just prior to the 2002 NCA Nationals (April), Trace put a call into the real estate guy that help find the King Street gym. He now fully understood the concept of a "cheer gym". Less than a day later, a call came in from Bill Stark asking if we were still interested in the building down by the railway tracks that Trace looked at back in the summer of 2000. They had found a tenant for 1/2 of the building and remembered that the cheerleading guy liked the place but it was too big. They were installing a big wall to chop the place in two...would we be interested?

Although we still had until October on the King St lease, 12 hours later, we signed.

The Stark Warehouse building #2 wasn't half as dirty as the King Street location, but was 3 times bigger and higher. The first practice was held in mid June 2002 with little more than a half painted floor, 8 mats and the bleacher. CJ was key in the design and framing of the Mega-Deck. Mombo, put in a fair amount of time in the early going along with help from Veel, Adam, Dan, and Josh. St B. and Dwayne finished a number of gym projects in Sept.-Oct 2002 and there are still plenty of things to be done yet.

Key memories: It's Huge, The Jags, The Junk, The Trains, Speed Bag, 20 mats

More to come.