Donaldson celebrates four winning decades with St Dominic’s drummies

Donaldson, who lives in Boksburg, is known as the father of majorettes in South Africa.

He became the trainer of St Dominic’s Drum Majorettes (Saints) – the current South African champion drum majorette team – in 1976.

Little did he know at the time what an impact he would have on the thousands of girls and teams around South Africa, nor the name he would create with his own teams over the next 40 years.

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Drum roll to national champs – St Dominic’s

Donaldson has devoted his life to this sport and in so doing has driven the sport to new heights, time and time again.

He is the only trainer in South Africa to have attended all 39 Nationals.

Over the past 40 years Allan has served the sport with many titles.

While passionate about his own team, he is equally dedicated to ensuring that all athletes are well-served by the sport and its administrators.

In 1979 the Saints won its first Nationals ever. Previous to that, Hoërskool Marais Viljoen had won the two National Championships which had been run under the sponsorship and auspices of Die Vaderland.

Over the next few years, Donaldson started looking for innovations to keep Saints flying high.

To mention all would be a task and half, but a few highlights stand out.

Subsequently, the Saints have been accredited with the following:

• The first to use arm movements as a feature of the choreography (other than to swing them army style);

• The first team to introduce props other than maces to drum majorettes;

• The first team to have more than two sub-leaders;

• The first team to ever have two leaders marching together as a mirror image;

• The first team to use recorded music (up until then cadet bands had been the norm);

• The first team to carry their own sound system (housed in a small cannon) onto the field and to use that rather than the competition one:

• The first team to travel overseas and compete in the world championships.

St Dominic’s travelled to the USA in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984, winning the World Championships on three occasions and coming second to the Australian national team in 1983.

q This year, Donaldson will attend a milestone 40th National Championships with the St Dominic’s Drum Majorettes looking to continue its proud history.

The South African Majorette and Cheerleading Association’s National Championships are held annually during the July school holidays.

The National Championships will be held at the Germiston Stadium from July 2.

Here you will see drum majorette and cheerleading teams from all provinces competing for the title of ‘Champion of Champions’.

The championships are attended by over 100 teams consisting of approximately 4 000 athletes.

“At the start of any championship, all the qualified teams from around the country start equal and all have the same opportunity to emerge as the National Champions for 2016,”said Donaldson.

This event attracts over 20 000 spectators during the week-long championships.

* The 2016 programme:

Cheerleading: Heats July 2, finals July 3. Majorettes: Presidents League: Heats July 4, finals July 5. Majorettes: Elite League: Primary school heats July 6, high school heats July 7, primary school finals July 8 and high school finals July 9.