SMILING faces might be mandatory in the world of competitive cheerleading, but it's not all fun and giggles for troops performing their pressure-packed routines in front of judges with championships on the line.
The Icons, an elite all-female team from North Vancouver's Absolute Cheer and Tumbling, will have their game faces on this weekend as they vie for points and prestige at The Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, Fla. The 24-member team has just two minutes and 30 seconds to show the world that they belong on the sport's biggest stage.
"It takes a certain kind of person really to do this. . . . The stakes are quite high," said Absolute owner and team head coach Sonja Lucia Bocs on Tuesday, two days before the team departed for Orlando. "You have two minutes and 30 seconds to prove yourself. . . . We're not like soccer or baseball where you can just throw in somebody else and bench somebody. It literally relies on every single person to execute. It's very fun, a lot of pressure."
The Icons are competing in the allfemale, international Level 6 division, the only team from British Columbia in that category. Yesterday, after North Shore News deadline, they faced off against five other teams from Canada hoping to earn one of three berths in today's international championship.
Regardless of how the scores go this weekend, the Icons have put a lot of work into their routine since they began practising it last September.
"It's pretty cool - these kids train like three, four, five times a week just for two minutes and 30 seconds," said Bocs.
The team includes all-star cheerleaders, aged 16-25, from across the Lower Mainland, including two from the North Shore. West Vancouver's Brooke Senton, a 16-year-old West Van secondary student, is the youngest member of the team while North Vancouver's Nicole Jenni was added as a very last-minute replacement.
"She was an alternate and one of our girls is unable to compete due to illness, so she was called in literally two days ago,"
Bocs said of Jenni, an Argyle secondary grad. "She learned the whole thing in two days."
The Icons competed in the same competition last year and finished last out of the Canadian teams. There are many new faces this year - only seven are returning members - and expectations are higher this time around, said Bocs.
"They actually have a chance to do quite well this year - within the last calendar season they've improved about tenfold," she said, adding that they'll still be hard pressed to make it to today's international final. "They would need to hit a near perfect routine just to be able to qualify for (Sunday). It's a huge learning experience for them. For a gym that's only been around for four years, it's a huge accomplishment for them to receive this honour to represent their country."
The team's success defies the sport's relative low profile in British Columbia, said Bocs.
"It's kind of cool that such a small little community like the North Shore is able to represent our country on a world stage," she said. "A lot of people don't know that we even exist. Cheerleading starts on the North Shore at four years old and can go all the way up to 25 or 30 even."
For more information on the club visit www. absoluteacademy.com. For updates on the team's exploits this weekend check out their Twitter account: @Absolute_Cheer.
