Panther Cheer Athletics walked away with four top placings at the third annual Snowflake Cheer Championships held at the Richmond Olympic Oval this past weekend.
The Panthers took eight teams to the event and brought home four first place finishes and a Grand Championship banner for the senior level 4 squad. This is given to the highest score in their respective level across all age divisions.
It was the Richmond club’s first competition after the Christmas holidays and the first in a series of competitions that will see teams heading to Abbotsford, Tacoma, and Portland over the next couple of months.
Owners Stephanie Kennedy and Dawn Silver, are incredibly proud of the grit and determination demonstrated by all the athletes in the weeks leading up to last weekend’s event.
“Hitting the competition mat in January is always a tough time in the season as our athletes are just coming back from holidays and we are smack dab in the middle of a season where the flu rears its ugly head,” says Kennedy.
“It always brings the coaches such pride to see each of our teams come together and battle hard to hit new stunt combinations, perform new tumbling sequences and to wow the crowd with their outstanding performances. It is also so incredibly satisfying for the athletes and their coaches.” Silver adds.
While Panther Cheer shows excellence on the mat, they are also creating the leaders of tomorrow off of it.
Their recent philanthropic event “Panther Pups & Puddles walk for RAPS” was another huge success.
The 5km walk raised $2,500 and had over 100 people participate, along with many, many dogs.
Kennedy and Silver credited the success to their team member, Taryn van den Boogaard (the technical director at PCA) who put in many hours working with RAPS to put on a first class event.
“We are so incredibly proud of the philanthropic endeavours our athletes participate in every year. It is our program-wide mission to develop our young athletes into the empathetic, caring and thoughtful leaders of the future.”
This weekend Panthers is hosting a free “Friends, Flips & Fun” event on Saturday at 11a.m. Pre-registration is required and can be done via email to [email protected].
Panther Cheer Athletics provides character and fitness training to about 300 athletes through cheerleading, tumbling, trampoline and ninja classes.
