Reason to cheer
Extreme Cheer Sensation team, Fever, headed to The Summit in Orlando
The Fever has been caught. Now, an Extreme Cheer Sensation cheerleading team has made some local history. The Fever Junior Level 2 team was one of four squads Extreme Cheer Sensation sent to Calgary for a competition two weeks ago.
Two of the local clubs teams — the Mini Level 1 team and the the Sparklers — earned top-three finishes, but the Fever turned in a performance that sends them to Florida to compete among the world’s best teams.
Impressing a panel of judges and event organizers, The Fever earned a bid to The Summit, an invite-only international competition and the biggest competition of its type world-wide that will take place May 2-5 in Orlando, Fla.
“When we created the team this year our hopes were to get them to the Summit,” said Extreme Cheer Sensation coach Kim Edmonds of the 19-person team consisting of athletes ages 10 to 16. “It’s one of those things that you never really know in the other teams we were up against we hadn’t seen before. One of the teams had been awarded a bid last year, so we knew we were up against some very stiff competition.
“Once we got over the initial shock that we had been awarded the bid, it was nothing but excitement.”
The other Extreme Cheer Sensation fared well in Calgary as well.
The Mini Level 1 team team placed second despite a tough start to the season and having to combine two teams due to injury, while The Sparklers Youth Level 1 team placed third.
The Extreme Cheer Sensation’s Senior Level 2 Team, the Thrill took fourth place in a tough division.
Individually, Extreme Cheer Sensation’s Samatha Grant was the Indy Level 2 first place Gold Champion, while Bronwyn Edmonds was the Indy Level 3 first place Gold Champion.
The Summit, founded by Varsity All Star in 2013, provides a unique experience for athletes in the non-Worlds divisions to compete against the best of the best in all levels.
“It’s based on both scores as well as overall impression on the judges and event producers,” said Edmonds. “We were the best of the competition, which is quite exciting. These event producers are from the States. One of them is from Arizona. I guess our overall impression on the judges one is the best this time around.”
The athletes on the Fever range in age from 10 to 16 years.
“These kids train four to five days a week and anywhere from 12 to 15-plus hours,” said Edmonds. “As well as being at the gym, they’re at home conditioning and working on their own choreography and they come to the gym whenever they are offered. So it’s not just their practice time in the gym, it’s also their actual commitment. These kids are phenomenal athletes. They are very dedicated.”
They’ll also remain busy leading up to May alongside the other Extreme Cheer Sensation teams with upcoming events in Red Deer next weekend followed by Edmonton.
“We’ve already competed in Medicine Hat and Calgary this year,” said Edmonds. “We’ll compete in Red Deer and Edmonton and then it’s off to Orlando. We’re just hoping to do our best. In order to make it to Day 2 you have to place in the top-10.”
Follow DWoodardHerald on Twitter