The Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) Elecs cheerleaders are still the best in Saskatchewan.
The Elecs travelled to Regina for the provincial championship Saturday, and took top spot in the Grade 9-12 scholastic intermediate division, which had 10 teams entered. Coach Bonnie Chepil-Kvamme said that’s the highest number of teams they have ever faced.
“I was just really hoping for a nice, clean routine, with all of the stunts going up and everything in sync, everything nice and clean,” said Chepil-Kvamme.
She didn’t have any expectations of taking top spot prior to the competition, even though they had won the Best of the West Cheer and Dance competition earlier this season.
They came out strong at provincials, and finished with the top score of 93.37 per cent. They didn’t have any deductions.
ECS received a score of 27.60 out of 30 for team building, 23.6 out of 25 for tumbling, and an overall score of 42.17 out of 45.
Estevan also had the best overall score in their session. Four sessions were part of cheerleading provincials.
“There are thousands of athletes at this, so in our session, which is the last session of the evening, we had the highest score, which made us grand slam champs,” said Chepil-Kvamme.
The other half of the grand slam stemmed from their results at the Best of the West, and their status as the top team there.
ECS also had the highest score of all the scholastic teams at provincials.
“The judges have always loved our dancers,” said Chepil-Kvamme. “Traditionally ECS is known for good dancers. It was sharp. It was clean. So that was half of our performance quality.”
Their stunts, dance, creativity and composition all earned praise from the judges.
“All of our stunts went up without fail. They were nice and clean for the most part, which is a tough thing to do.”
ECS was up against teams with co-ed entries, and others that had many more cheerleaders.
The cheerleaders have worked tirelessly on their routines and their conditioning. Community coach Danica Friess, who is a former member of the program, has made a big contribution.
“I’ve had most of them since Grade 9 and some of them since Grade 10,” said Chepil-Kvamme. “They put the work in, and they take the corrections, and we make a lot of corrections. They’re able to take criticism, and they correct themselves. And they’re just very strong athletes, too.
“They’ve worked very hard to build up that endurance, they have put up with our dynamic warmups, and all the training that needs to go into it before we even look at putting a routine together.”
There is a lot of trust associated with throwing and lifting people.
“This team is very cohesive, and they all get along quite well, so they have that trust factor. They know they can count on each other, and I know I can count on them,” said Chepil-Kvamme.
In her 27 years of coaching, she believes she has had only three or four teams that have been so good to work with.
Chepil-Kvamme noted the team has been invited to compete at the world championships in Florida in 2020, but she had to decline, because six of the 16 team members will be graduating in June, which means she will have a “brand new team” next year.
