There is a long list of sports detailed on the Saskatchewan High School Athletics Association (SHSAA).
They include in no particular order, badminton, basketball, cross country, curling, football, golf, soccer, track and field, volleyball, and last but not least, wrestling.
There are about 20 or so students currently attending Sacred Heart that will tell anyone who'll listen that the writer of that list left one of0 of it.
And at least one teacher will back them up.
Her name is Cathy Brischuk and she's backed by a group of girls who've been practicing at Yorkton's only catholic high school for the better part of seven years.
Only problem is that the school board's athletic department doesn't quite see things the way Brischuk her girls company do.
That aside, the Sacred Heart High School (SHHS) Saints cheerleading and stunt team continues to operate at a rate that they've been quite pleased with so far.
This year's squad includes a handful of Gr. 11 students and one each in Gr. 9 and 12.Shelby Schill is among the newcomers to the squad and she told the paper that she's only been out to a few practices and showed her talent not long ago at the Saskatchewan Cheerleading Association's provincial competition held at Marion Graham in Saskatoon.
In only a handful of practices, Schill has shown the athleticism, poise, confidence and skill that should make her a keeper on the squad for the next three years.
"I started this year and made the team," says Schill. "I always wanted to cheer but didn't know if I could make the team."
She said the toughest parts of it are that the members all have to keep a "good face on." It's not easy to master all the techniques but she and her other teammates have to make sure that they all look good, she said.
"You have to make it look easy. You have to get the crowd into it," she added.
Sarah Holowatiuk, currently in her Gr. 11 year at SHHS, said she was hoping to be a "little farther ahead" as the team headed to Saskatoon for provincials back in February.
She is a three-year veteran of the squad and said the pressure never seems to go down despite her experience.
"This is how we've gone into routines since Gr. 9. There is definitely a lot of pressure to do well," she commented.
Holowatiuk added that SHHS goes into these competitions in very high standings.Brischuk said one of the reasons for that is due to the fact that the SHHS administration has always been supportive of the sport that apparently hasn't quite reached 'sport status' yet.
"It's way up there though," Brischuk told Yorkton This Week a week or so after her cheer/stunt squad returned from the University of Regina's Charity Classic.
"The school is absolutely wonderful for funding," she pointed out, (but) we don't get enough credit."
She couldn't pinpoint why cheerleaders, not just at Sacred Heart, but all over, don't get official credit for being a sport.
Some girls are cut out for it, some are not, she says. "(It's tough) cheering even when the football team is losing." Brischuk said there is quite a list of requirements for any cheerleader at any school, in both Canada and the USA. They have to perform some difficult routines, rely on teamwork to no end and look good doing it.
"It's all about getting together as a team, team building, character building and attitude and you always have to smile."
Cheerleading at SHHS has always been strong, and Brischuk has a group this year made mostly of Gr. 11 students, with a few Gr. 9-10s and one Gr. 12 who won't be returning to high school next year as per graduation.
Cheerleading teams are made up of anywhere from 12-19 girls falling under four positions: the top, the base, third, front and tumblers, says Brischuk; each position requiring physical conditioning.
"Some of the girls will start weight training. Everything (the moves) have to be done very well," she said, adding that they have to be executed "to look easy."
It's all about trust in their teammates."
Brischuk didn't say she's had any problems but training and commitment to cheerleading is huge for her team, as is attitude. Skill isn't as big she said, because it can be taught.
The cheerleading routine is designed to contain aspects of school spirit as well as competition.
The SHHS cheer/stunt team performs at football games in the fall as well as selected showcase invitational everywhere across the province.
"The team tries to put as many difficult stunts in as possible. They also have to make it look easy," Brischuk explains
Cheerleading is made up of organized routines that usually range from 1-3 minutes of elements of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers and stunts in order to direct spectators at sports event to cheer on their respective teams. They are also competitors at cheerleading competitions everywhere.
Cheerleading originated in the USA and remains a predominantly American activity with an estimated 1.3 Million participants in all-star cheerleading.
The SHHS Saints have been in two competitions since late winter, Brischuk goes on to explain.
The provincials in Saskatoon where they placed ninth out of 17 and two weeks earlier, participated in the University of Regina's Charity Competition, hosted by the U. of R. cheer team.
"We competed in the Girls' Fives which has teams of five girls perform a one minute collection of stunts (throws, lifts, held positions)," says Brischuk.
There were 14 teams from Regina, Estevan, Moose Jaw Balgonie, Delisle and Yorkton. The team of Sarah Holowatuik, Sarah Anderson, Shelby Schill, Kyra Brown, and Brynn Chupa placed seventh.
Brischuk said she wasn't overly happy with the results as the girls were much better than the scores would suggest.
The team Of Lori Malinowski, Sheenah Kalk, Jordan Daigneault, Tessa Medvid, and Justine Lutz, placed 10th.
HISTORYCheerleading started out as an all-male activity but females became involved in 1923 due mostly to the absence of other all-female sports to participate in.
Today it is estimated that 97 per cent of cheerleaders are female, however, males still make up half the population at the collegiate level.
The former Baltimore Colts of the National Football League were the first professional football team to feature organized cheerleaders at their games.
