THUNDER BAY – Fourteen teenage athletes from St. Ignatius High School are set to tumble and twist their way into Thunder Bay cheerleading history.
The youngsters left on Thursday for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., where they’ll take part in the three-day 2020 World School Cheerleading Championships, the first team to the city to advance to the prestigious event, earning the berth with strong performances at Canadian nationals in Brampton, Ont.
Ashley Wright, a Grade 12 student at St. Ignatius, is in her second year on the team and said the competition will be the culmination of months of hard work putting a routine together to wow the judges.
“It takes months to learn it and months to get it really nice,” she said. “We’ve been trying to pull it together as best as we can, because we found out with such short notice that we were going (to Orlando).”
Most teams know six months in advance, but the Falcons only had about three months to prepare.
She’s been spending up to 12 hours a week with her teammates, getting all the little things right.
While Wright knows she’ll be up against schools with much better track records and experience at an event like the UCA Nationals, she’s still pretty confident they can do well when they hit the floor early Saturday evening.
“I think we’re looking pretty good, pretty caught up to where they are,” she said.
Teammate Jacey Witiluk, a Grade 10 student at the school, has been involved in the sport for the better part of a decade, her mother Christine one of three coaches heading to Florida to guide the team through the championship, along with Teighlor Santerre and Carly Hughes.
She joined the school team last year and said it’s hard to believe how far they’ve come since then.
“It’s so crazy and it’s going to be such a good experience. I’m so excited. Our team has practised really hard for this,” the 15-year-old said on Wednesday, a day before departure.
“We’re all kind of nervous because this is our first competition and it’s so early, but we’re all just going to do our best, that’s all,” the younger Witiluk said.
At their final practice on Wednesday, the coaching staff worked them through their routine step by step, stopping every few seconds to tweak everything from how loud they were cheering, to their precise placement on the mat to the manner in which they picked up or put down their signs.
It has to be done right or the judges will deduct, Santerre said.
Practice makes perfect, she said.
“You kind of break down each part of the routine to slowly build it up,” Santerre said, adding the coaches’ job also includes making sure the team gets proper rest and nutrition and has all cylinders firing during warm-ups to avoid mistakes.
“Then it’s go time and we’re ready to go on the floor. We have two minutes and 30 seconds to give it our all and pray that we’re ready and prepared as we should be.”
The current crop of Falcons have three titles to their name, including first place in the Superior Secondary Schools Athletic Association championship, the Ontario Cheerleading Federation Regional and the Ontario Cheerleading Federation Nationals.
