Muskies cheerleaders turn in ‘golden’ showing

It takes a lot of heart to go out and win a NorWOSSA cheerleading championship.
So when Muskie coach Chantelle Johnson couldn’t make it to the NorWOSSA showdown in Kenora on Saturday, she decided to give the girls some inspiration–and a heart sticker–to put inside their uniforms.
And it worked wonders for the Muskie squad, who finished with a score of 261.2 to win the NorWOSSA large competitive group crown over Dryden and Kenora.
The Eagles were second at 259.4, followed by the Broncos (253.3).
“Their progress was amazing, that’s the best word to describe it,” said Johnson, a former cheerleader herself in Thunder Bay. “They had a more advanced routine . . . I pushed them and they had to get it.
“I’m very proud of them–they worked very hard,” she enthused.
Johnson said the judges noted they had a “good flier” and a strong beginning.
“The girls were younger [than Kenora and Dryden] so it was more of a challenge but one that could be achieved,” she added.
And that hard work certainly paid off for the Muskies, who now will be looking to “fine-tune” their routine for the regionals competition March 5 in Thunder Bay.
There, they’ll be competing against 10 or 12 other varsity teams from Dryden, Kenora, and Thunder Bay. They have a shot at advancing to the all-Ontarios by either finishing in the top three or with a final score of 70 or better.
Joyce Scott, who watched the NorWOSSA competition as a teacher rep, said the Muskies’ performance was “exciting,” and that they had come a “long way” since the start of the season.
But she also admitted they may be adjusting their routine a tad to improve their shot of moving on to the all-Ontarios in St. Catharines on May 4-5.
The Muskies managed to win NorWOSSA despite having three “controlled” falls during their roughly three-minute routine.
Kenora had a fall of their own early in the competition but it was deemed “uncontrolled,” costing them “half of their technical marks,” Beaver Brae coach Barb Marchant said.
“Our girls haven’t performed worse . . . the girls are really frazzled,” she noted.
Dryden also lost big marks–five to be exact–when their mascot was deemed to have crossed in and out of the “cheerleading court.”
Kenora won the small competitive group title over Dryden (the Muskies did not compete).