Cheer Legacy Athletics headed to Warman Classic

It may the club’s fifth year attending the competition, but Rathje herself has been involved in cheer her entire life and has been to the Warman Cheer Classic since the beginning, which was 11 years ago.

She said the sport in the province has grown drastically over the last few years.

“When cheer first came to the province, it was usually associated with a school [and] there weren’t a lot of clubs,” she said. “Competitions were very low key. If I remember correctly, the first Warman [competition] that any teams in North Battleford attended was held at the Warman high school in the gymnasiums. So it can hold about 700 spectators and it was a one-day competition.

“[Now], there are five sessions throughout the weekend, so that’s almost 10,000 spectators coming in and out.”

When asked why she thinks it has grown, Rathje said the sport has a strong youth appeal.

“Every girl loves glitter and make-up and if they can have glitter and make-up while working really hard and being athletes then it’s kind of the best of both worlds, right?” she said. “They get to push themselves athletically and they still get to dress up like girly girls and have fun.”

CLA is also about to take a big step forward, as they will have a brand new facility to train at this summer.

The club began at the Industrial Park and has most recently been using the Frontier Mall, another temporary location.

A new building had been in the works for a while, but it was recently made public.

“Over the past two years, we’ve had a lot of growth in the sport…in our community and it just kind of had to happen,” Rathje said. “I’ve known for a long time that the building would be something that would happen. But now it’s public! Now it’s official. We’re hoping to move in spring/summer of 2017.”

The new facility will be on the 700-block of 109th street.

Before that new building is ready to go, CLA will also be trying something new.

On April 2, they are holding a trial camp for prospective athletes who could be interested in putting together a team to take a run at the World Championships.

Every year, the Cheerleading Worlds take place in Orlando at Disney World. In order to get there, you have to get a ‘bid.’

“You’re bid is your golden ticket to the world championships,” Rathje explained. “You have to have a certain score on your routine and there are only a few bids offered in each competition. So if there are five teams going for a bid and there are only three bids at that competition, the top three scoring teams would get those bids.”

The tryouts on April 2 are open to anyone 14 years and older, even those with no experience. The idea is simply to gauge interest. If there is enough talent to put together a team, they would train in the summer and compete in the 2018 season to try to get their bid for the 2018 Cheerleading Worlds.

“The trial camp is just to see who comes out and see where we can go with the team,” Rathje said. “It’s everyone’s dream to go to worlds but then it’ll depend on how many other people come out.”

The camp will run from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m at the Frontier Mall.

Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Cheer Legacy Athletics headed to Warman Classic

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