Pushing past boundaries

Grand Falls-Windsor teen wins NLCA scholarship

When Blake Power first encountered cheerleading at the age of 11, a love for the sport was immediate.

He was involved in dance for some time and heard cheer was similar. He was intrigued by the more competitive side of the sport.

“I fell in love with it instantly,” Blake says. “Every part of it, watching tumbling passes with back handsprings and back tucks, jumps with perfect height and form, basket tosses that are so high it makes your heart sink and dances that captivate you and bring contagious energy that you can’t help but smile at.”

In 2018, he joined the Exploits Valley High team to compete in Worlds in Orlando, Fla.

“During that trip he watched college boys execute one-person stunts outside our hotel in the grass,” Blake’s mother, Wendy Power, recalls. “He was amazed and asked if he could do that one day. He set a goal to execute this stunt before graduation. With the support of his coaches and trust from his flyer, we were thrilled that he was able to execute this oneperson stunt live with an audience before he graduated.”

Blake joined the Exploits Extreme Senior Smokeshow program in 2019 — the year they travelled to Niagara Falls for nationals — and he has been cheering with them ever since.

The now 17-year-old says they typically practice four hours a week, with many extra practices and individual stunt group time when closing in on a competition. Everyone who gets on an all-star team such as this is required to give their full commitment of time and effort throughout the season to make a routine come together.

Their results at the NLCA Provincial Championships at the end of April shows this approach works.

Provincials has “36 teams of all ages and divisions coming together in CBS Arena to compete for division titles and banners,” Blake explains. “Exploits Extreme as a gym received five banners.”

Individually, Blake was named the NLCA Provincial Championship MVP for Exploits Extreme Smokeshow and received the 2022 NLCA Graduating Athlete Scholarship.

“It felt and still feels like a dream,” Blake says. “To be recognized as deserving of a $1,000 scholarship in this way at a provincial level and, on top of that, being declared the team MVP among athletes who all equally deserve the title praise, means the world to me.”

Being his last high-school competition was bittersweet.

“It hurts me to go and leave this team, but I am planning on continuing with cheerleading in post-secondary,” he says. “I'm hoping to take this sport further and push the boundaries of what men can do on the mat.”

He will keep training and conditioning until he can cheer again.

“Cheerleading has given me a creative outlet, a place for work and play, friends I could have never made otherwise and a place to be myself unapologetically.”

“Blake’s coach wrote, ‘He is a human who makes other people better humans!’” Wendy adds. “He is a role model for the younger athletes, showing that consistently working hard will help you achieve your goals. He is a caring, patient, passionate and determined leader …”

“Blake just shines when he is on a cheer mat; there is no question for us that he found his sport,” his father Tim Power adds.

The music is loud, the crowd is excited, and the energy level is through the roof, his parents say, but, after these past two years, this last competition was special.

When Blake won his award and scholarship, his parents were “beaming with pride, and of course, there were tears.”

Wendy adds, “If the team had performed so well, he would have been proud. If he had been selected as team MVP, he would have been happy. If he had been selected for NLCA scholarship, he would have been honoured. If Exploits Extreme Heartthrob had won first place, he would have been happy for them.

“If his team Exploits Extreme Smokeshow had placed first, he would have been excited, but the icing on top was their team being recognized by the judges as the best team of the day. Any of those would have made the day special but it was more than any of us could have hoped for.”

The Exploits Extreme program and its coaches have had a profound influence on Blake’s growing up in Grand Falls-Windsor, the parents say.

“Their programs are developed to be inclusive and their positive approach to leading diverse athletes creates a close-knit team atmosphere,” Wendy says.

“Shauna, Meg and Jess have left a lasting impression on Blake that he will take with him no matter where life leads.”

Tim adds, “Blake has said for years he wanted to perform well enough to leave his mark on cheerleading in Newfoundland and Labrador and we think he did that this weekend.”