The X-Women Cheerleading Team Takes on Maritime Meltdown
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This past weekend, the StFX X-Women Cheerleaders attended their first cheerleading competition of the season. The team travelled to Truro, Nova Scotia to compete at the Annual All-Star Cheerleading Competition hosted by Halifax Cheer Elite and Extreme Athletics called “Maritime Meltdown.”
StFX Cheerleading has two teams: the blue team, which preforms at basketball and football games, and the white team, who trains to compete at competitions against other university cheer teams. The white team competed at Maritime Meltdown this weekend. The team practices three times a week all together, plus one extra practice with just their stunt group. The team is coached by four students, Head Coach Courtney Barkhouse, and Assistant Coaches Nikki Sutherland, Marie-Anne Sergent, and Lauren Dolhai. Due to some injuries, the coaches had to make the difficult decision for the team to go from a level 4.2 to a level 2.0. The X-Women Cheerleaders learned a new routine less than two weeks before Maritime Meltdown and still preformed a great routine!
The team started their warm-up with some east coast step dancing to cotton-eye joe and finished by hyping themselves up, getting a little bit rowdy, and cheering on their competitors. The team does this cheer right before they step onto the competition floor to get everyone excited to step onto the mat:
“Hail and Health, White and Blue, Hail and Health, White and Blue, Hail and Health, White and Blue, Go X on three, One, Two, Three, Go X!”
Following this cheer, the girls hit the mat and competed a great first routine, getting no deductions. Head Coach Courtney Barkhouse explains that hitting zero, also know as getting no deductions means that “difficulty level and our creativity level got top scores for and the zero deductions, which means that every single aspect of our routine hit, it went perfectly. We had some things go at different times, but it all hit and with no deductions it means that everything was great!”
The team won second place during Maritime Meltdown and felt great about their first competition. After the competition, I sat down with the Head Coach Courtney Barkhouse, who has been cheering for six years, and coaching for two. I asked her how she felt about the X-Women’s performance: “I feel amazing, we hit an awesome routine today, despite the little bobbles that happened. We still put our hearts out there and put it all on the mat.”
The team is busy getting ready for their next competition, The Cheerleading National Championships, called “Cheer Expo,” being held in Halifax, Nova Scotia on March 28 and 29, 2020. During the Cheer Expo, the X-Women will compete twice, and can participate in different classes taught by cheerleading experts throughout the day. The X-women will be going against Saint Mary’s University as they compete for first place.
