At the Canadian Cheer National Championships, thousands of girls and women flip, tumble and dance in the growing sport of competitive cheerleading
The Niagara Falls Convention Centre began filling up first thing Friday morning. There were, according to their T-shirts, Proud Cheer Moms and #1 Cheer Dads. There were cheer siblings and cheer grandparents, entire families decked out in cheer hoodies and cheer T-shirts and cheer paraphernalia, team regalia to rival any crowd of die-hard sports fans. By the time the first teams took the stage, the line outside the ProCheer apparel store stretched 20 minutes or more.
“It’s pretty intense,” said Janine Furtado, rolling her 15-year-old daughter’s ponytail into fat ringlets with a curling iron plugged into a hallway wall. Beach Cheer Athletics RipTide perform a toe-touch jump. The team and crowd often yell “hit” timed to these jumps. In all-star cheer, teams of up to 32 people compete by performing short, highly technical acrobatic routines in unison at the highest energy, with scores based on execution, difficulty, creativity and showmanship.
“If you go into a cheer practice, kids are sweating, sometimes crying, bleeding. This is intense,” said Jess Montoya, the Golden Girls coach. “It’s a hardcore sport.” “All the doctors I’ve seen are like, ‘Rest. Rest.’ I’m like, ‘Sorry, no, I have Nationals and then Worlds, I literally can’t,’ ” Maddy said. Her mother, Tanya, winced. Being a cheer parent is not for the faint of heart.
“You’re always proving yourself to other people. It’s a very underestimated sport,” said Maddy. “People don’t think you’re strong. And then when you go out there and you hit it, you’re like,When people ask Maddy what football team she cheers for – as still sometimes happens – she pulls up a video of one of her team’s routines, and tells them, “I cheer for myself.”
“It’s hard to keep smiling, but you have to. You have to tough it out,” Alyssa said brightly. She was in her fifth year of cheer, competing with the Cheer Sport Spinner Sharks. “Even if you get kicked in the face by a girl, you have to keep smiling.” It had been three full days of wild energy and thumping music. There had been constant and uncountable hugs and squeals and woo-hoos and pep talks and selfies, spontaneous singalongs and exuberant hallway dance parties.
“There must be blood in the water, I can smell it from a mile away. It’s a feast of fear. There’s no one to save you,” the Great Whites’ music roared. Hitting zero – performing a routine with no deductions – is a source of great pride. While it doesn’t guarantee a win, it means the team never faltered.“Did they hit?” I asked Ali, as the team ran off stage 2½ minutes later, a blur of white and sparkles.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Indigenous leaders make case for Canadian LNG – Canadian InvestorIndigenous leaders make case for Canadian LNG CanadiansInvest
Read more »
Brain inflammation found in long COVID patients: Canadian study - National | Globalnews.caNew research has found physiological evidence of brain inflammation in people with cognitive and depressive symptoms months after their COVID-19 infections.
Read more »
CANADA: New Canadian babies born via birth tourism less than one per cent of all birthsBut it is enough of a problem that hospitals in Calgary ask for a $15,000 deposit up front
Read more »