At the end of the two-day competition, no one had any idea of what the final result would be and that’s unusual in cheerleading.
That according the Edwin Parr Composite head coach Barb Lachance.
“Things were so tight this year,” Lachance said of the co-ed division at the 2015 Alberta Schools Athletic Association cheerleading provincial championship held at Edmonton’s Oscar Romero High School last Friday and Saturday.
The competition consists of performing the same routine on different days for two different sets of judges, and EPC was the first out on the floor to open the event.
“We wanted to go out and set the bar fairly high,” Lachance stated.
“They were a bit shakey, but after that first day everything was fairly close.”
That’s a bit of understatement as EPC was in second following that performance, with Edmonton’s Victoria School of the Arts and another squad separated by just 0.05 of a point.
“Victoria hasn’t been beaten at provincials in about 12 years, so the race was going to be very tight the next day,” she said.
Day two came and saw EPC come out with a good showing, just edged out by both Victoria and Austin O’Brien of Edmonton on the podium.
“I knew they worked really hard, but it was just a fraction that had us third. A couple of things that normal hit for us will slightly off,” she said, “but I told them it isn’t just those things, but it’s the entire routine. It was just that close this year.”
Lachance is proud of how the team did and knows they are on the right track.
“We are fairly close to those teams, and we have some talented athletes,” she stated.
“They have the desire and want to challenge themselves. That’s good.”
Lachance wanted to take the time to thank everyone – from parents to the volunteers and anyone else that helped out this season.
“Without them, we simply couldn’t do what we do,” she added.
