Press Release
During the 2009-10 school year, St. Francis School had a cheerleading team for the first time in its history.
The team is made of mostly Grade 7 and 8 girls who signed up last spring.
The cheerleading season began last summer with a week-long clinic at the Seven Generations Education Institute here.
At the clinic, the girls learned a few cheers, chants, some basic stunts, jumps, and the basic fundamentals.
The cheerleaders learned most of their routines during that clinic, then practised weekly at St. Francis to keep them fresh.
They had the chance to cheer at a Grade 8 boys’ basketball tournament at Robert Moore, rooting the St. Francis team to a gold medal.
This was a great experience for the girls and they cheered as if they had done it several times before.
We were hoping to have had more opportunities to cheer at games but with this being a new activity, it was difficult to get approval from other schools to allow cheerleaders.
If this continues, we hope other schools will be more open-minded to allow cheerleaders at their tournaments.
The St. Francis cheerleaders finished their season with a pep rally at St. Francis last week for the student body, which was a huge success.
The squad performed two cheers and dance, choreographed by coach Sadie Windego and cheerleader Alyssa Clendenning.
They also presented a slideshow with baby pictures and stories from various Grade 7 and 8 basketball players and cheerleaders.
It was a first for St. Francis School, but it went off without a hitch.
Maryam Seid and Mikala Matias are our Grade 8 cheerleaders, and are very talented. They were our leaders all year long.
Kate Parsons, meanwhile, always kept the group on track and made sure everyone knew the routines.
Shanleigh Fryer brought fun and enthusiasm to the team while Nicole LePine was very dedicated to the group and practised often.
Clendenning is a natural choreographer and was a big help with the dance.
These girls should be admired for their bravery to start something new. They stayed with it—even when things did not go their way.
“I am so proud of these girls,” lauded Windego. “After the pep rally, I realized how far they had come and I am so happy that stayed with it.
“They learned a lot and they will never forget this,” she added.
The St. Francis cheerleaders are coached by Windego and Denise Clendenning, who are teachers at Seven Generations.
