The Cheer Pride All-Stars are coming off a successful season where several teams finished strong and one even had a perfect year.
The cheerleading organization, located in south-end Barrie at 30 Mills Rd., took part in the nationals earlier this month.
The Canadian Cheer All-Star National Championships happened in Niagara Falls from April 8-10 and featured teams from across the country at different age groups.
Coral is Cheer Pride’s U12 Level 1 team and had a perfect season, going undefeated in the three competitions. The team members are aged nine to 12 years old with 17 athletes on the squad.
Cheer Pride owner and director Josh Lindberg said Coral attended three competitions this past season and he's very proud of what they accomplished.
“We would normally attend five or six events, but a few were cancelled due to the January shutdown (COVID restrictions),” Lindberg told BarrieToday. “Having teams going undefeated is amazing for the athletes and coaches of that team. It makes the sacrifice and hard work worth it and makes them understand what it takes to be a champion.”
The competitive cheer season starts in May, when tryouts take place, with practices beginning in June to be ready for competitions in November. With 19 staff at Cheer Pride, getting competitors ready is a daunting task, but one they’re ready for.
“There are practices every week at different skill levels and we work with the kids to get to the level and to be ready for competitions,” Lindberg said. “We also have a novice and recreational program, which is for teams who don’t necessarily want to go to competitive events but may want to see if they like the sport.”
Lindberg was cheerleading in university in about 1999, doing it for the athletic challenge. In 2001, he began teaching it at a high school before eventually taking over the current studio.
“It has been great. We’ve really enjoyed being a part of helping people learn the sport and watching them excel at it,” he said.
The organization got back to somewhat normal in August after a couple years of the pandemic and competed in December, but Lindberg admitted no one was fully prepared for that event.
“We got shut down in January again and our first major competition was at the beginning of March and this Niagara Falls event was the second one,” Lindberg said. “We were hit pretty hard by the last two years, but we did what we could with the tools that we had at our disposal. We had a lot of outdoor practices in the summer and like everyone, we did a lot of Zoom calls.”
For more information on Cheer Pride and their programs, click here.
