High school cheerleading teams from across Alberta will be in Airdrie April 12 and 13, when George McDougall High School hosts the 2019 Alberta Schools Athletic Association (ASAA) cheerleading championships.
George McDougall is the only school with a cheerleading team in Rocky View Schools’ jurisdiction, according to the team’s coach, Liese Reichert. She added it is also one of just two schools in southern Alberta, alongside Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks, that sends a team to the provincial championships.
“Come and see the team that represents not just our school, but our town and our community,” said Reichert, who has coached the Mustangs cheer team for the past nine years.
“We take that very seriously as a team – that we’re not just representing George Mac, but we are the representation of Airdrie and of our school district.”
The Mustangs cheer team has a lengthy tradition in the school, according to Reichert, having been formed by teacher Kari Carrier in the early 2000s.
There are currently 20 members on the team, Reichert said, including girls from grades 9 to 12. The team, which includes a competition team and a game-day component, has practiced three times a week since September 2018.
Along with the ASAA championships, the group cheers at Mustangs’ home football games throughout the fall.
“The game-day team goes back to the tradition where cheerleading started, at football games,” Reichert said. “We do sideline cheers, we do fight dancing, we do a crowd-leading cheer and a band song.”
The competition team features the same athletes but has a different objective, Reichert said, in that competition cheering features more elements like tumbling, jumping and throwing.
April 12 and 13 will mark the first time George McDougall’s competition team will compete in front of a hometown audience.
“We’re super excited to be hosting it, because there are not a lot of [cheer] competitions,” Reichert said. “In fact, there’s only one competition in this area for high schools to go to.”
For George McDougall students who are thinking of getting involved with cheerleading, Reichert said it’s a good decision, as the team is a close-knit group and cheerleading fosters a sense of teamwork.
“You’re trusting people to throw and catch other people,” she said. “You can’t have one person who is not getting along with somebody else – you have to find a way to leave all those difficulties off of the mat and be able to work together, which is a huge life skill.”
Cheerleading also builds a sense of confidence and resilience, Reichert added.
“You have to put yourself out there in a way that is not traditional and a lot of people don’t understand,” she said. “It’s a sport that is misunderstood and people will make comments about it. But [it’s about] rising above that and finding that grit and determination to deep going.”
The ASAA competition will kick off April 12 from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the George McDougall High School gymnasium, and will resume the following day with competition running from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 to 5 p.m.
