Four Sylvan Lake athletes are heading to the 2020 Cheerleading World Championships at Walt Disney World.
Halle Murray, 11, Charlie West, 12, Ruby Wynnyk, 14, and Sophie Moffet, 15, alongside their Premier Academy Cheerleading and Tumbling’s Ivy League teammates will be the first ever Red Deer team to go to the competition.
The all-girls team has only been practicing together since September, but they will be competing in one of the toughest divisions at Worlds, the Senior 6 Division.
“We knew it would be a challenge because none of the team has gone for a bid to Worlds before and so we knew it would be a challenge, but one we knew they were ready for,” said Riana Luck, who coaches the team alongside Matt Wiggins.
Murray, who has been cheering for nine years, says she feels “really good” about how the team has meshed over the season, while West, with eight years of cheer experience, says she thinks it was good the team got the bid right from the start.
Moffet and Wynnyk have three and four years of cheer under their belts respectively.
The Ivy League received the bid to compete in Worlds at the Cold Snap Cheer competition in Edmonton on Jan. 26.
“Both Matt [Wiggins] and I are super proud of all of them and they’ve all been here for a various number of years, some for a long time, so it’s pretty exciting to see them reach this goal and accomplishment,” Luck said.
In the time leading up to Worlds, April 24-26 the girls say they are going to be putting in lots of practice time, getting into the gym as much as they can and continuing to create that bond with their teammates.
West also said they will be focusing on taking what they can do in the gym to the mat at competition, with Murray adding the aspect of getting comfortable performing in front of crowds.
Coming up at the end of the month the team will be trying to upgrade their bid to one that is partially paid, which would provide $5,000 towards travel expenses.
Moffet, Wynnyk, West and Murray are grateful for the support they have already received from the community in Sylvan Lake.
The team will also be hosting a fundraiser to help raise money for Worlds.