They definitely have the spirit, but a local hockey team needs some community support in order to win their new cheer contest.
The Atom C1 Saanich Braves are in the running for the Rogers Hometown Hockey Cheer Contest, which pits teams from all over the country to cheer their hearts out. The Braves were entered in the national final, which is determined through online voting, after winning the regional final at a Hometown Hockey road hockey game.
“We had a practice coming up and we did a little cheer, and we ended up getting a lot of votes and making it into the regional finals, which meant we had to perform our cheer onstage at the Hometown Hockey event live on television,” said Tanya Twynstra, whose son Owen is on the team.
“They ended up being on Hockey Night in Canada – Ron MacLean introduced them and everything. It was a pretty cool experience, and they all won brand new Bauer hockey sticks.”
While Twynstra laughingly admitted it was a little tricky getting 18 nine-year-olds on the same page, their effort paid off. The Atom C1 Braves are now up against teams from across Canada for a $70,000 grand prize package.
The winning team will receive a two-night trip to Vancouver, where the team will attend a Canucks practice, watch a game between the Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers, and perform their cheer in the dressing room pre-game.
Needless to say, the team is pretty psyched about it, and they’re already brainstorming how to get more votes.
“The other day, we said to them, ‘How do you think we should try to get more votes?’” recalled Twynstra. “One of the kids said, ‘We’re going to set all the computers at school to the voting site and get all the kids to vote.’”
Voting opens on March 27 at 10 p.m. and ends on April 1 at 11:59 p.m. The winning team will be announced shortly after.
To vote, visit hometownhockey.com.
