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CLA Dynasty represents the Battlefords at USASF Worlds

May 2, 2018 | 5:00 PM

Cheer Legacy Athletics founder and head coach Lesia Rathje couldn’t hold back tears — tears of joy that is — when she saw the club’s Dynasty squad enter the stage at the USASF World Championships at Disney World last weekend.

Even in her phone interview days later, it was tough to not tear up a little.

“It’s just an incredible feeling to see your kids and to see your program, your uniform, your gym name, your colours, your kids out on that floor,” Rathje said. “When the team comes out, they put up the team name, where they’re from and the coaches name up on the screen to the side, and seeing my name on that screen was just amazing. Something I never thought that I’d have the opportunity to do.”

For the 15 athletes on the Dynasty team, 13 girls and two boys, the emotions after performing were much the same.

“As soon as they came off the floor, everyone was crying and hugging each other. It’s just a real sense of accomplishment,” Rathje said. “When these kids came to our program, I don’t think any of them thought they’d have the opportunity to go to worlds and compete on that stage.”

Dynasty was one of five Saskatchewan teams to compete on the international stage, along with Prairie Fire Fever from Saskatoon, Rebels Cheerleading Athletics Smoke from Regina, 306 Elite Fame from Regina and GA Lady Lumious, also from Regina. It was a first for a team from CLA to get invited to such a prestigous event.

The North Battleford club competed in the small co-ed level five division at the international competition. Although they didn’t place and didn’t quite ‘hit zero’ (cheer slang for a perfect routine), that wasn’t the point.

“They all felt really good about their performance and that’s all we could ask for,” Rathje said. “We wanted to put out a performance that was repectable and something that the kids back home from our program that were watching us live would go, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s our gym. They did so amazing.’ And they did just that.”

Many CLA members tuned in to watch the live stream, despite the performance being held on a Saturday morning at 8 a.m. Saskatchewan time.

Rathje said she felt suport from beyond just the club and its members.

“Even outside of our program, the community as a whole really came together to support us,” she said. “It was just a really incredible opportunity to be able to represent our program and our community.”

After competing on the Saturday morning, the club had time off on Sunday to go to the Disney Parks but they made sure they convened on Monday morning to watch the finals.

Even having that experience meant a lot, Rathje said.

“Finals are obviously the best of the best of the best cheerleading teams from around the world and it’s just really exciting to watch,” she said. “All the kids left feeling really motivated and eager to get back in the gym and keep working harder.”

So will CLA be back next year?

Rathje said the plan is actually to return in 2020.

“It takes a lot of time to build up athletes to be able to compete at that level. We are hungry to go back in the future and we are hoping for possibly 2020,” she said. “You can’t just hop into a team at that level and be successful. It takes time and hours of training. The team that went this year, there were a few people that were in their second, third year of cheerleading … but the majority of the athletes had been in the sport for about six years.

“We keep calling it a once in a lifetime experience because it feels that way but we don’t think it’s going to be: we think we’ll be back.”

 

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11