By Michael Scoular (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: September 19, 2012
Since their official recognition as a varsity sport by UFV in 2011, the UFV cheerleading team has grown in number and presence. The team’s primary local competition will be at the annual Cheer Fest, which occurs February 2 at the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre. Until then, preparations and practice go on at the Valley Stars Athletics Gym, a short walk from the Abbotsford campus, where The Cascade talked to co-coach Brooke Ostendorf about the summer and new season of cheerleading at UFV.
How has the team’s training been going over the summer?
Good. We didn’t have too many people over, we had nine athletes. A lot of [the others] were on vacation because it’s really hard with university students. But some of our flyers we trained. And we did get some higher-level skills that we need for this year, so as long as they’re good we can throw bases underneath them.
Is that what you’re you looking to add to the team this year?
Yeah, we started tryouts yesterday and they’re going on today. I had nine new athletes come yesterday and so far two again today. We might have another couple come next week that weren’t able to make it. So [I’m] really excited with the numbers that we’ve got this year.
What competitions will the team be in this year?
We’re looking to be in for sure the Cheer Fest competition, which is the Abbotsford competition, and Sea to Sky, which is in the Vancouver Convention Centre. We did the Vancouver Convention Centre competition last year. We came fourth out of five for our very first competition ever as a training team.
How have you seen the team grow since this time last year?
[It’s grown] quite a bit. We didn’t get too many new people last year. We do a lot of team bonding stuff to make sure everyone gets along, and when we do choreography we get everybody’s input into the dance and stunt sequences. That way it helps the whole team feel that this is a team achievement rather than just somebody telling you what to do.
What varsity games will the cheerleading team be at?
We go to all of the home games for the women’s and the men’s basketball teams. I think there are twelve in total we will be going to this year.
What expectations do you have for the team this year?
Expectations are huge. If our numbers, if everybody stays that’s come out to tryouts we’ll have 24 people on our team, which is super exciting because we competed with sixteen last year. So we are expecting to get harder skills than we had last year and harder and more intense choreography.
