You’re never too young to cheer on your school.
Dr. Morris Gibson School became the lone elementary school south of Edmonton to have a cheerleading squad when its Hawks cheerleading teams were started in September.
“While during my master’s I was doing a paper on how to involve community, children and our school,” said Dr. Gibson Grade 2/3 teacher Allison Stewart. “I thought the Grades 4-6 students have so many opportunities and I thought I wanted to offer something to Grades 1-3.”
Stewart, a former cheerleader while attending high school in the Los Angeles, has a daughter with the Foothills Falcons cheer team. As a result, she felt cheerleading was a natural fit for the elementary school.
The Hawks cheer team has resulted in a Okotoks Minor Hockey-Dawgs-football Eagles-like program as there is now cheerleading from elementary to the high school level. There was plenty to cheer about on Jan. 30 as the Doc Gibson Hawks Grades 1-3 and Grades 4-6 squads, as well as the Okotoks Junior High School Ocelots and the Foothills Composite Falcons, took first place at the Imagine Cheer and Dance competition in Lethbridge.
Ironically, Grade 2/3 teacher Amy MacDonald was thinking of starting a team at Gibson while Stewart was pondering the idea.
“The girls in Grades 4, 5, 6 were always doing cheerleading on the field during recess and they were asking: ‘Can we do this? Can we do this?” she said. “I think it is mostly because they had seen the OJ team and at the Composite.
“The interest for me came from the kids.”
MacDonald, a former world-class gymnast, got involved into cheerleading at the University of Lethbridge.
“I thought it was a natural way to keep doing gymnastics, meet people and have the team atmosphere,” MacDonald said.
Now that feeling of team has spread to the students.
“There is definitely a lot of teamwork because especially with the stunts, you have to know that person well, get along with that person – there is a lot of trust,” said Grade 6 student Ceili Parker.
“When I heard they were going to have a team, I got really, really, really excited – I went to the gym (for the meeting) and I could barely sit still.”
Just a few months later, she and her teammates channelled that nervous energy to a first-place finish in Lethbridge.
“When we were stretching we were all ‘oohhahhh’ a lot of jibbers,” she said. “Once we went out, I couldn’t get a smile off my face.”
Grade 3 student Easton McAlister is one of two boys on the 22-student mini-Hawks team.
“I joined because my sister did and she tried to get me convinced,” he said. “When I joined, I was excited. I thought this would be a good new sport.”
He also competes in BMX and hockey.
“Cheerleading is a sport because there is competition, practices and a team – and you work hard.”
Megan Coutts, co-captain of the Foothills Falcons, has been part of a cheerleading team for the past six years, starting with the Ocelots.
She was thrilled to see Gibson had two squads.
“I think it’s incredible,” Coutts said. “As you progress it gets harder, you gain skills that you can use for life – like teamwork, leadership.”
There was almost a gap in the cheerleading continuity due to some babies. The Okotoks Junior high program nearly didn’t continue as both of the two coaches are on a maternity leave.
Teacher Charmaine Ferguson took over in November.
“I was part of a cheer team in junior high, high school and university (of Alberta) and I just felt it was a really good thing for me,” she said. “You’re part of a close-knit team and a diverse sport.”
With the Doc Gibson squad starting, she didn’t want to have a gap at the junior high level before the students moved on to the Comp.
The diversity extends to the students.
Stewart scoffed at the notion of cheerleading being restricted to the blonde-haired, Pepsodent smile crowd.
“You don’t have to be this body-type or that athlete – there’s a spot there for everyone,” she said. “A student comes in where they are at and we build from that. It’s a very inclusive sport.”
Grade 2 student Paisley MacTavish said she is excited to be part of another team. She is a soccer player as well as cheerleader.
“You get lots of exercise,” she said of her new sport.
