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Cheer Legacy Athletics honour Broncos at nationals

Apr 9, 2018 | 5:00 PM

It was an impressive performance for Cheer Legacy Athletics at nationals in Niagara Falls, Ont. this past weekend, and it was also a special performance. The competition team wore green bows to honour the Humboldt Broncos involved in Friday’s tragedy.

The North Battleford club sent its junior level-two team, made up of 14 female athletes and one male athlete between the ages of 10 and 13, and they managed to tie for second place after day one and ended up fourth after the final day of competition.

“Their first performance had us in tears. It was just so so awesome,” CLA head coach and founder Lesia Rathje said. “The stage that they performed on was the largest in Canada. To see them on that stage and smiling and having fun and enjoying themselves, and putting on the floor what they’ve worked for all season just made us, as coaches, so, so proud.”

Rathje said the routines the team performed were also error-free, or, to use the cheerleading term, they ‘hit zero.’

“No deductions against our score for any falls or any other errors like that,” Rathje said.

While the coaches shed tears of joy for the team’s first performance, there were also tears of sadness spread over the weekend.

The five Saskatchewan cheerleading clubs — CLA from North Battleford, Prairie Fire Cheerleading from Saskatoon, Rebels Cheerleading from Regina, Gymnastics Adventure from Regina, and Cheer Infinity Athletics from Moose Jaw — took part in a vigil to honour the Humboldt Broncos, who were involved in a tragic collision Friday night that claimed the lives of 15 players and staff members and left 14 more with injuries.

Alberta Cheer Empire also joined in the vigil.

“It was hard. Most people there were in tears,” Rathje said. “Even if you’re not directly affected by it, you can just empathize with the people that are. That’s really, really tough. I don’t think there was a dry eye there. We’re all thinking about what those families must be going through, thinking about what the survivors are going through.”

The waterfall itself was also lit up in the Broncos’ colours of green and yellow during the vigil, which coincided with the one held in Humboldt.

“That really, really shows just how a community, not even a community: a continent comes together,” Rathje said. “The falls are shared with the United States and both sides of the falls were lit up green and yellow.”

The idea for the ‘Light up the Night’ vigil came from a group of parents with the GA All-Stars out of Regina.

“They kind of coordinated it and went out and purchased the candles,” Rathje said. “[We] lit up candles and had a moment of silence and a prayer.”

 

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11