The 2019 competitive season is off to an unprecedented start for Scorpions Elite Cheer (SEC) based in Steinbach. With two competitions already under its belt, the competitive cheer team will be attending both the Nationals and Canadian Finals in Niagara Falls as well as the Cheerleading Worlds in Orlando, Florida come April.
In early February, the entire SEC club made the trek to Regina to attend Best of the West, a competition which hands out bids to Canadian Finals and Cheerleading Worlds to top teams. Nearly 100 Scorpions athletes performed at the one-day competition on February 9.
Mini Stingers won third place in their division while the Youth Strikers took the top prize in the Youth Level 1 Division.
Junior Green Venom and Senior Immortals both finished in second place in their respective divisions. Both of these teams have had challenging starts to the season with injuries and routine changes.
The International Open Team, Strike Force, came home with a big prize, a bid to the Cheerleading Worlds, which was a first for this young gym.
“We opened Scorpions nine years ago just wanting to share our love of cheerleading with others. We never imagined it would grow into a gym surrounded by amazing athletes and parents,” says Tiffany Recksiedler, who started the gym with her husband Andrew in 2010. “As the gym grew and the athletes’ skills developed, we hoped we would eventually get the opportunity to win a bid to Worlds. We look forward to sharing this journey with our entire cheer family.”
On January 27, SEC also hosted the first Manitoba Cheer Federation (MCF) competition of 2019 at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. Five hundred athletes attended the competition, which included 50 cheer routines—that’s 21 more routines than the previous year, a testament to the growth of the sport in Manitoba.
The Strikers won third place in the Youth Level 1 division, with a score of 91.08 percent. The Senior Level 3 team, Immortals, earned a second place finish with a score of 95.5 percent. Both the Stingers and Green Venom won first place in their respective divisions. The Stingers scored 89.5 percent while Green Venom earned a score of 95.1 percent, which was enough to also make them Level 2 Grand Champs.
Immortals, Green Venom, and Black Venom will be attending Nationals in Niagara Falls in April, and Black Venom will also be attending Canadian Finals that same weekend, having earned a bid at Best of the West in 2018.
“We have so much to look forward to this season as our gym continues to expand and as our athletes continue to build their skills,” Recksiedler says. “With trips to Nationals, Canadian Finals, and Worlds, 2019 is going to be a very exciting season for our organization.”
