Cheerleaders hope to take Disney World by Firestorm
After impressive showings, Okanagan team to compete in Orlando
It was a record-breaking weekend for Okanagan Firestorm Cheerleading athletes as they took home podium finishes in seven divisions at the Feel the Power Championships in Vancouver on Saturday.
The 140-member gym is the only B.C. Cheer Association recognized all-star cheer program in the Okanagan Valley with athletes attending from Armstrong to Penticton. Seven teams of athletes, ranging in age from five to 18, competed in Vancouver.
“It was completely unexpected,” said gym owner and director, Nikki Parrotta. “We have an amazing team of coaches who have worked tirelessly to learn the new scoring system since cheer became a recognized Canadian sport this past year. Our athletes have trained hard all season and are ready for competition, but top three finishes in every division at our second competition wasn’t something we expected going into the weekend.”
With routines comprised of dance, tumbling, jumps and stunts/pyramids, each team is judged on the difficulty of its skills, technique, performance and lack of obvious mistakes/falls.
The competition at the PNE Forum attracted teams from B.C. and Washington State.
Mini Flames (ages 5-8) had a zero deduction run and finished second. Youth Heat (ages 7-11) had one deduction, but had a raw score high enough to maintain first place.
Senior 1 Wildfire (ages 11-16) had a zero deduction run and brought home the third highest score of the day for the local program, placing third of five in one of the toughest divisions.
The program continued to bring in top honours with a second-place finish and zero deductions for Junior Spitfire (ages 8-12), narrowly missing first place by .03 points.
The Spitfire team, with coaches Ana Donetz, Marika Fujisawa and Ashley Stephenson, was also invited to compete at The Open International Championship in Orlando in May.
Senior 3 Hot Shots and Senior 2 Sirens (ages 1118) both had areas for improvement in their routines, but with high difficulty and performance scores brought home first place in both of their divisions as well, leaping ahead of multiple teams that had placed above them in previous competitions.
The day also marked the debut of Okanagan Firestorm’s first international junior team, Intensity, which was to compete at the Universal Cheerleading Association Championships starting today in Orlando.
Made up of athletes ages 11-16, Intensity hit the floor last weekend to shake off nerves and get judges’ feedback before the trip to Disney World. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of nerves, however, as the team secured the highest score of the day for the program and took home second place with a raw score of 96.2, one of the top scores of the competition of more than 50 teams.
The next competition is The Sea to Sky International Championships in Vancouver from April 6-8.
See okfirestormcheer.com for more information.
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