Concordia cheerleading – The Concordian

Cheerleading team will perform at Stingers home games donning new uniforms

Before Monica Knaapen and Arianne Bellerive ushered Concordia’s cheerleading team through their first halftime show in over a year on Oct. 23, the pair took a moment before showtime to reel in their excitement and reflect on how far the club has come.

“When I started, the cheerleading program wasn’t very stable,” said Knaapen, who currently studies political science at Concordia with a minor in human rights. “Once I started getting more involved with the team, my aspirations started to grow and over the years, [and] so did the club.”

When the co-captains of the club for the second year in a row first set foot on campus back in 2017, they were coming from competitive cheerleading backgrounds at Dawson and Vanier. As first-year students, they welcomed the notion of participating in Concordia’s cheerleading club despite the university’s lack of enthusiasm for the sport.

“Other universities have bigger cheerleading programs that are backed by their schools,” said Bellerive, who graduated from Concordia with a degree in sociology in 2021. “But it didn’t bother me because I was competing for so many years, I figured I could use a break.”

Concordia Cheerleading co-captains Monica Knaapen and Arianne Bellerive

At the time, the team coordinated outfits but did not have a uniform they could call theirs. The girls would make appearances at sporting events but wouldn’t perform. The club merely existed, but didn’t push the envelope and left a lot to be desired by Knaapen, Bellerive, and some of the other passionate veterans that are still involved with the team today.

This year, cheerleading tryouts were held in September and saw over 70 students try out for the team, the biggest turnout in the last four years. According to Knaapen, of the 26 girls that made the final team, eight are returning veterans who will steer the team’s fresh talent in the right direction.

“The fitness coordinator, social media and events coordinator, team manager, and treasurer are all positions on the team that are delegated to our returning team members. It’s a lot of work but thankfully we’re up to the task,” Bellerive said.

As co-captain, Bellerive said that her responsibilities go above and beyond allocating the team’s budget and coordinating with Concordia athletics.

“There’s a lot of stuff that Monica and I are constantly dealing with behind the scenes,” Bellerive said. “But I think most importantly, we try to be there for the girls if ever they need emotional support.”

In the last four years, the co-captains have faithfully worked towards putting Concordia on the cheerleading map. When they performed their first halftime show in early 2020, Knaapen said the amount of attention the club received immediately afterwards was unlike anything she’d ever seen.

“People were hyped up, to the point where we were getting students from other schools asking about our team and how they could get involved. The cheerleaders are there to show their support to the sports teams first and foremost, but it felt like people took real notice after that performance,” Knaapen said.

When the pandemic struck, a lot of the cheerleading team’s traction stagnated as the club couldn’t meet in person to practice and interact as a group. However, instead of drifting apart, Bellerive and Knaapen continued to put in the work to keep their tight-knit community alive.

“One of the things we could control was our activity and presence on social media. So, we made a TikTok account, just to keep the team’s spirits up and continue to engage with potential recruits from afar. Once it became clear that the pandemic wasn’t going anywhere, the easy solution would have been to shut things down and wait it out. But we tried to take matters into our own hands as best we could, and I’m proud of that.” Knaapen said.

The cheerleading club has come a long way with their flashy new team uniforms, team sweaters, and eccentric halftime shows to come, but Bellerive’s end-goal hasn’t yet been reached.

“Ultimately, we want to be competitive as a school,” Bellerive said. “I don’t think we’ll get to that point this year, but that’s certainly on our radar.”

When everything is said and done, Knaapen knows she likely won’t be around to experience the better days ahead firsthand. But she finds comfort in knowing that she helped lay the foundation for Concordia’s cheerleading future.

“When Arianne and I are gone, our hope is that the team continues to grow and gain popularity at Concordia. It’s not about us, we’ve already had our time. We want to instill the passion in our new recruits so they can carry the cheerleading torch.”

The last year and a half has been difficult for the team, with the nature of the pandemic threatening the very essence of the club. The road to a fresh start began with their captivating halftime show on Saturday, with Knaapen and Bellerive in the driver’s seat from the very beginning.

Photographs by Catherine Reynolds

Squad looks for more funding in second season

If you’ve been to any Stingers football or basketball games in the past two seasons, you might have noticed a Concordia cheerleading team. They get the crowd pumped, keep fans entertained and support their fellow athletes.

“I love going to sports games and watching sports so I have a great time with the fans, even when I’m cheering on the field,” said Arianne Bellerive, a captain of the cheerleading team. “The fans are so receptive to us, even some of the older fans and kids will ask to take pictures with us.”

The Concordia cheerleading team was started by Lea Pandelidis and Paola Escudero prior to the 2017-18 athletics season, being the first cheer squad at Concordia. But this team is different from most other athletics teams at the university: they are just considered a club.

When the squad started a year ago, they didn’t participate in any competitions. Bellerive was on the team last year and joined their administration this year, helping supervise an overhaul to have a competitive team.

“We had proper tryouts to make sure girls have the proper skillset,” Bellerive said. “We want girls committed and we have standards.”

“We’re trying to show [the athletics department] what we can do and the talent we have,” she added. “We are serious, so hopefully we can transition into an athletics team.”

Like the Stingers baseball team, they are moving towards varsity status. Without it, the cheer team doesn’t get the same benefits and funding as the other Stingers varsity teams. Part of the reason for their efforts to develop a more competitive team is to prove they are worthy of varsity status.

However, without proper funding, the Concordia cheerleading team is left short-handed for practice time and facilities. Ellie Paxton, also in her second season with the team, said they have to find their own practice space, and its cost comes out of the team’s budget. Until now, they’ve been practicing outdoors, but had to cancel two practices because of rain ahead of the home football game on Sept. 29.

“It’s frustrating because we want to perform,” Paxton said. “But if we don’t have enough time with the girls, you can’t expect us to perform.” She said she wants to find an indoor facility in the coming weeks, but some gyms are too expensive.

Bellerive, who handles the team’s social media, and Paxton, who is the VP of Events, work together to organize fundraisers for the team. “[Arianne] will help me organize events, and I’ll help her with the social media and getting the word out to people,” Paxton said.

Bellerive said fundraisers include bake sales and clubbing events. On Sept. 22, after the homecoming football game, the Concordia cheerleading team hosted an event at Jet Nightclub, selling tickets for $5 and keeping the profit. She said more money helps buy extra equipment, like bows, which the budget doesn’t cover.

“No matter what we do, it gives us recognition,” Paxton said. “Whether it’s at a party, we show our faces at a game, or do a fundraiser, it gets the word out that there’s a cheerleading team.”

The Concordia cheerleading team is also working closely with the Concordia Swarm to create a fun fan environment at games. Bellerive is also an executive with the Swarm, so she acts as a liaison between both organizations to improve the atmosphere at games. “We’re always side-by-side, helping each other out,” Bellerive said. “Wherever the Swarm is, the cheerleaders will also be there to help out.”

Even when the Stingers are losing, like in the football team’s recent 74-3 loss against the Université de Montréal Carabins, the cheerleading team and the Swarm try to keep the fans engaged.

“With the help of the Swarm, they bring out the drums to boost the student morale,” Bellerive said. “Obviously it’s hard, we wanted our team to win, but I still had a great time at the game, and the fans still had something to talk about Monday morning.”

The team hasn’t been to any competitions , and since they can’t represent the school at any, they plan to take part in a friendly one in March 2019. Paxton hopes once the team achieves varsity status and can compete at a higher level, they can also get a coach.

“Right now we have coaches, but they’re still in university,” Paxton said. “If we were able to have coaches that weren’t part of the student body, but [are] just able to dedicate their time to make everyone better, that would make us stronger in competitions.”

Bellerive said there’s some roadblocks before becoming varsity, but she hopes it can happen as soon as next semester.

“Some people [high up in the school] really want us to get varsity, but others really aren’t making a lot of effort,” Paxton added. “There’s not much we can do apart from showing them we’re serious about it. It’s a long process.”

Main photo by Mackenzie Lad.