Cheer Squads see Grey Cup as Uniting Force

Teams from rival clubs join in spirit of friendship

By Ben Gelinas
Edmonton Journal

Think of the Grey Cup’s Cheerleader Extravaganza as a family reunion, only the girls get tossed two storeys in the air and the outfits are probably a little skimpier.

Saturday night’s hopper of a show, featuring squads from all CFL clubs, has become an annual highlight of Grey Cup festivities. The point isn’t for the different cheerleaders to compete so much as mingle and perform their best stuff, in a celebration of the only sport in support of a sport.

Cheerleader Extravaganza is the baby of Edmonton Eskimos cheer coach Dianne Greenough, who has coached the Eskimo squad since 1996.

In her first full year on the job, the Eskimos made it to the Grey Cup in Hamilton. When she got there, Greenough was disappointed to find that only the teams actually playing in the big game brought their cheerleaders on the trip.

“It just seemed rather strange to me that these people who dedicate so many hours all year didn’t have a chance to celebrate things together,” Greenough says.

The Grey Cup was in the Edmonton the following year, and Greenough challenged every team in the CFL to send their cheerleaders for the party, regardless of which teams actually played the game. All the teams sent their cheerleaders, and have done so every year since.

The Extravaganza is the only time during the year that all the squads come together. They raise money through calendar sales to pay for the trip. In the past, the event has been held in beer gardens and bars. This year it was the kid-friendly gym at Grant MacEwan University’s downtown campus.

Saturday night, they shared one stage in front of packed bleachers, and took turns hauling out the fireworks: dazzling routines that showcased the variety between the different teams.

Calgary’s squad, called the Outriders, tipped their Stetsons. BC Felions literally bent over backward.

Edmonton’s cheer team has well over a dozen guys, who bolster a powerful stunt component in their routines.

They toss girls around like human batons, high enough to give the godfearing in the audience time to say a prayer for a safe landing.

Edmonton and Saskatchewan are the only teams with men and the only teams that stunt.

The rest focus heavily on dancing, and some, like Calgary, on gymnastic tumbling.

The show began with a team of junior girls, ages 8 to 11, also coached by Greenough, followed by mini-routines by Eskimo cheer alumni from as far back as the 1950s.

Ashley Croden, 44, performed to a Michael Jackson medley with fellow Eskimo cheerleaders from the 1980s, on the same mat her daughter, 11-year-old Grace, had just tumbled off as part of a junior squad from Greenough’s Perfect Storm Athletics.

“It’s pretty cool to have someone who can help you perfect your moves and stuff,” Grace said of her mom after the show.

For veteran Eskimo “stunters” Dylan Fry and Mitchell Dewing, Saturday marked one of the last times the guys will perform as Eskimos.

“For me, it’s the best part of the whole season,” Dewing says. “We get to see what everyone else is doing and kind off feed of that and support each other.”

Friendships have been made between squads because of this event. The rival squads even stay in a hotel together, home team included, to make sure they all get up and organized on time.

“It’s like family. You see these people for a full year, or a couple years straight,” says Robin Norsworthy, an Eskimo cheerleader in 2006. “You’re always with them.

“And once you’re alumni, everyone kind of just separates a little bit. At events like this, you see people you haven’t seen in years and it’s like no time at all passed.”