Three-peat in the making?
Riverview Rural High School to host NSSAF cheerleading provincials today
The Riverview Rural High School cheerleaders will look to capture their third straight provincial title this weekend.
The Coxheath school will host this year’s Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation Cheerleading Provincial Championship today.
Doors open for the provincial competition at 11:30 a.m., with the event beginning at 12:20 p.m. with the opening ceremonies. Action gets underway at 12:40 p.m. at the Riverview gym.
Jolene MacLellan, coach of the Riverview team, said the cheerleaders are excited to host the event.
“We’ve had to overcome a couple of injuries, we have a couple of new girls in for tomorrow, but we think that they can do it,” she said. “We’re really hoping to take home the gold medal.”
The Riverview team has had a successful year to date.
The team finished first in its division at the annual Cheer Expo in Halifax in March. Meanwhile, last week, the club captured the Highland region championship, defeating Glace Bay High School.
Joining Riverview in the level four provincial competition is Glace Bay High School, Avon View High School of Windsor, N.S., and Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School.
Meanwhile, the level two competition, also taking place at Riverview, will feature Dartmouth High School, Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School (team two) and Liverpool High School.
“We’ve made a couple of changes to our routine, we’ve added a couple of harder stunts,” said MacLellan when asked how they prepared for the event.
“You need so many stunts at your level to count for more points, so we’ve added a couple more of those and hopefully we will get more points.”
Riverview last hosted the provincial championship two years ago at the Cape Breton County Recreation Centre, an event broadcast live on Eastlink TV.
Following the first round of performances, the teams will once again hit the floor for the second round, which is scheduled to begin at 2:40 p.m.
The provincial winners and closing ceremonies will take place at 4:15 p.m.
Admission to the event is $6 for adults and $3 for students. Children five and under attend for free.
“Cheerleading is a very exciting sport and you never know what’s going to happen at any given time,” said MacLellan. “Sometimes the scores are really close and one mistake can be the end of your run, so it’s very exciting to watch.”