A Moose Jaw cheerleading squad is taking their talents to Florida in May to compete against some of the best in the world.  

Back in December, Infinity Athletics' U12 Supernovas placed first in a virtual competition, earning themselves an at-large bid and booking their ticket to the Allstar World Championships in Orlando, Florida, from May 4-7.  

This marks the first time that an Infinity Athletics squad will compete at a world-level competition and the youngest team in the province to qualify for such an event.  

“The girls are just thrilled,” says Melissa Marzolf, one of the Infinity Athletic owners. “A lot of these girls have been working together for quite a few years and the passion and excitement for the sport of cheerleading are so fun to watch. It’s very exciting to see them get this and now working hard to get onto that world stage.” 

The team decided early on in the season to compete in this virtual competition to see if they could qualify sooner for the world event. This gave the team more time to prepare than if they waited for the qualifier in Cold Lake, Atla, in April. They will still attend the competition in April with the hopes of getting a paid bid to help subsidize their registration fees anywhere from $75-$300 per person for the world event in May. 

Marzolf adds that in order to attend the event the team needed to receive an official invitation such as an at-large or paid bid.  

In their December competition, the squad had to submit a 2:30 routine and had to encompass all the components of cheerleading such as tumbling, dance, jumping, and stunting.  

“They had to perform their competition routine, we recorded it at our gym, and then submitted it online. Their judges looked at our video and sent out all the awards and bid announcements.” 

The nice thing about the virtual competition was the team was scored by the judges that will be at the world event.  

Marzolf explains that the team's reaction was memorable when they found out they received an at-large bid. 

“It was a video and the names were going across the screen of who got a bid and it’s the first time we’ve received one and some of them were saying, were they just saying our name or did we get it? The coach then said guys we’re going! Then the excitement and the tears started rolling. It was very touching and exciting to watch.” 

Leading up to the May event, the team will be attending several competitions and taking the judge's feedback each time to fine-tune their routine for Orlando.  

“There’s also a couple of different options that we can send the routine to the United States as well to preview and get a judge's opinion as we get closer to make sure they’re maximizing the scoresheet while they’re down there.” 

It will be a busy schedule for them once they are down in Orlando, as it’s possible they could perform three or four times in four days.  

“It’s all broken down into ages and divisions. They will start in their first round, and if they make it past the first round, they will head onto the preliminaries and then into their finals. This all depends on how far they make it.” 

The squad will begin to ramp up their training routine in the months leading up to the world event. Right now, they practice twice a week – an hour and a half each time, but in the coming months will add some extra training sessions to prepare for the competition.  

Fundraising efforts will be announced in the coming weeks to help the team with their registration fees, flights, food, and hotels while in Orlando.