Sports

Orangeville’s Cheer Academy team wins gold at PanAm Cheerleading Championships

October 3, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

A cheerleading team from the Champion Cheer Academy in Orangeville competed at the international PanAm Cheerleading Championships at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa from Friday, Sept. 27 to Sunday, Sept. 29,  and took home gold.

The competition featured cheer teams from Canada, the U.S., and as far away as South America.

The girls, all ages from 12 to 15, competed in the Youth All-Girl Median Non-Tumble division.

“This team was created specifically for this event,” explained Academy owner, and coach, Samantha Marit. “They ranged in age from birth years 2009 to 2012. Back in August we were given this opportunity compete at this event. We have two other teams that compete competitively and we took girls from both teams that fit into that age group. We brought them together and they trained for five weeks and put together the routine in that time. All these girls have been at the Cheer academy for at least five years so they all grew up with the program.”

The event featured nine different divisions with teams from across the continent, so there was a high level of competition.

“I was very happy with how they performed, it went well,” Samantha said. “It was a three day competition. There were semi-finals and finals. Both routines that they did were very strong, and we were very happy with it. They were up against a team from Ecuador. This even happens every two years.”

Teams also arrived from Mexico.

“There are a lot of different aspects to cheer,” Marit said. “It was a 2 minute, 15 second routine. Before that, they did an actual cheer with pompoms and signs, and they had to do a 30 second cheer before they got into all the lifting.”

The event is a highly charged competition, with teams cheering each other on when they see other teams performing a routine well.

The squad from the Champion Cheer Academy won the gold medal in the event. 

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