Thursday, February 9, 2012

Why competition is a tough concept to rookie teams.

Hello readers,
   I am going through a rough patch. Working my regular job from 8-3:30 and then going to cheerleading from 3:30-7 (7:30ish) makes for a long day. I have been getting migraine headaches; which the doc says just happens sometimes in pregnancy and there's not a whole lot that can be done.  I'm exhausted by the end of the day. However, most of the time I feel accomplished and like we are moving forward.

Lately the cheerleaders have been stuck in a rut. They are struggling with motivation and energy. That's the hard part about a rebuilding year. None of my girls have ever even seen a cheerleading competition...so they are having a hard time understanding why I am kicking their butts every day. They've come a long way, but it's a bummer when they don't understand the importance of keeping a positive attitude. That has always been their strong point; attitude. We are deciding today if we move forward for the next 3 weeks or if we don't want to compete this year and use it as a learning experience. Either way I feel like I'm fighting a battle. I'm not one to beg my girls to work hard. They either want it or they don't. On the other hand, I've never backed down from competition....although, it would be nice to be home in time for dinner...it's a tough choice either way. I'm so very proud of how far the girls have come. Either way, we've achieved what some have thought impossible. Keep us in your prayers. :)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Homecoming weekend

Hello Readers,
  I am now 16 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I've hit 4 months! :) Whoo!

Homecoming weekend was super busy. We ended up taking the ferry on Thursday at 10:15pm; which landed us in Wrangell around 2am. So I was exhausted on Friday. I had requested practice time around 1pm on that day. The school called 11am and told me that they didn't have gym time available after 12, so if I needed practice it would have to be before then....again, they called at 11am. I was so frustrated. I met the girls at the school at 1 and got them warmed up. We marked through everything we could, but we couldn't do much without a place to stunt. The JV games went fine, we did basic stunts since we didn't have practice. We then went out to find a place to warm up our more complicated stunts. When we asked the athletic director for a space he pointed out the top level of the common area complete with balcony. I decided balcony's and flying girls didn't work out. So we were offered their middle school commons, we went to that area and threw the flyer in a half. (pretty much they were holding her feet at shoulder level, a basic stunt). She could touch the ceiling with her hands....so we ended up in their band room....it was awful.

The varsity games that night didn't go much better. The girls were in their cheer line-up...cheering, when one of my freshman was harassed by an old man (like in his 70's +). He told her to leave because her fans were on the other side of the bleachers. This just wasn't true, we had Viking fans directly behind him. I told her to shake it off and keep her chin up. I also informed the athletic director that his crowd member was being rude and that needed to be checked...he did nothing. Later that game half of my line-up stared at me with their jaws dropped. I asked what was wrong and one of girls said "he just threatened to hit her with his cane"...I just about jumped over 2 rows of crowd members to get to the old man. "sir" I told him " if you are upset with somebody about her cheering here, you can be upset with me; because I told her to stand there".  He informed me he did not care. I  replied " you are a grown man. This child is a freshman, she was just in middle school. All she is doing is exactly what I tell her to." He told me that our fans were over on the other side of the bleachers and we needed to move. "sir, if you are not enjoying the game you can always change your seat. Please grow up." He again told me he didn't care..."Sir, you will care".  I raged out of the gym to track down the athletic director. I was shaking from my poorly controlled anger. I practically screamed at the athletic director "your crowd member just threatened to hit my FRESHMAN cheerleader with his cane." The director thought I was joking...until he saw my face. I told him that something needed to be done and I would like the man removed from the court if he could not stop threatening little girls. He said he would take care of it. He told the man he should be embarrassed of himself and needed to stop.....not quite what I was hoping for. I called our principal and told him what had happened and how unhappy I was with how things were handled. Our principal told me that I had every right to pull the girls from the court and let them cheer from the stands. I considered this because my girls were upset; as was I. I told him thank you and that I would think about what our next move would be. I decided the girls could stick it out because I wasn't going to let my girls be bested by a grumpy old man.

Thank God I have a great squad and tough girls. They stuck it out and cheered their hearts out.

The next day was uneventful in comparison. The highlight being that I had a migraine and got to chaperone the dance...ugh.