Cheer teams ready to take on the world
Notre Dame College School’s gymnasium echoed with cheers on Sunday during the World School Cheerleading Championship Showcase.
The showcase featured the five Ontario high schools representing Canada south of the border in February.
The Welland high school welcomed teams from Saint Paul Catholic High School in Niagara Falls, Sir Oliver Mowat Collegiate Institute in Scarborough, Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School and Regional Arts Centre in Etobicoke and Philip Pocock Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga.
Each team had the opportunity to show their skills with a routine and a game-day cheer much like one would hear at a sporting event. Those cheers were then scored by judges with world championship judging experience; afterwards the teams had one-on-one workshops with the judges to receive pointers.
Monique Mastroianni, Notre Dame’s cheerleading coach, said having these kinds of events is important for the sport.
“As the sport is growing in popularity at this point, the (International Olympic Committee) is interested in adding cheerleading as an Olympic sport,” she said.
“We’re in the beginning stages of really seeing this sport explode over the next few years.”
She said right now the goal is provincial and national sport organization recognition.
During the showcase, each team demonstrated a 90-second cheer and then a one-minute set of stunts and dance. As they did, the other teams joined in the cheers and showed their support as they were watching.
Mastroianni said everyone in the cheerleading world is supportive of one another. She said all of the coaches keep in touch through texting and social media, bouncing ideas off of each other and encouraging each other both during and outside of events.
Although Notre Dame was hosting the showcase, the event was sponsored by the Ontario Cheerleading Federation. The schools had the opportunity to participate free of charge and each team received Team Ontario T-shirts from the federation.
Next month the teams head to Florida for the world championships.
“I’m excited to see what the other provinces are bringing because we don’t know. We won’t know until we get there,” Mastroianni said.
She said Notre Dame, Saint Paul and Father John Redmond have each attended in the past. Father John Redmond’s team has brought home gold in its division. lbarton@postmedia.com twitter.com/LBartonTribune