Two former members of the Argos Cheer team are reppin’ the Argonauts and Canadian Football League on the current edition of The Amazing Race Canada.
Leanne and Mar spent a combined seven years with the Argos, culminating in last year’s Grey Cup win, and are now playing the sixth season of CTV’s reality game show.
That should read challenging for — the duo won the season’s opening episode in British Columbia,
“We looked at each other and said ‘wow, we can really do this, we have a fighting chance’,” laughed Mar, a Waterloo graduate, from the sidelines at Saturday’s Argos home game. “We do have the stereotypes of being cheerleaders, being underdogs, but being able to win first place after three physical challenges as an all-female team, I think that speaks volumes.”
The duo also spoke volumes in the Toronto community during their time with Argos Cheer through the team’s Huddle Up bullying prevention program.
“I was with the Argonauts for three seasons, and I was fortunate enough to go to Winnipeg, experience a Grey Cup in Toronto (and) our best Grey Cup in Ottawa — that was a huge moment,” said Leanne, who now works at an event marketing company in Toronto. “But the best part of being an Argonaut has been being a part of the Huddle Up program for all three years I was on the team.”
The program sends Argos players and cheerleaders to local-area schools in an effort to make a difference on the issue of bullying.
“The kids we work with, it’s great seeing their faces light up when we walk in a room,” explained Mar, for whom the program is near and dear. “Being able to tell them ‘hey, I went through what you’re going through right now’…I was picked on and I was bullied, but I persevered and came through it.”
Mar recently moved to the nation’s capital, and is hoping to start a similar program with either the REDBLACKS or NHL’s Ottawa Senators.
“I really want to be able to start a safe-space school environment program in the city of Ottawa,” she said. “I want to make a difference, (and) continue pushing forward (Huddle Up). Kids all across Ontario need something like this program.”
This season’s edition of Amazing Race Canada features a second CFL connection, as Kwame Osei — a receiver who had a brief pre-season stint with the Toronto Argonauts in 2011 — is also competing.
Osei, who captained St. Francis Xavier at the collegiate level, is now a phys-ed teacher and football coach in Fort McMurray, Alta.
The second episode of the competition, hosted by former Olympic skeleton racer Jon Montgomery, will air Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET; the Argos alumni will be in the Yukon, hoping to build off their Week-1 success.
