I'm Back!

Sorry for the delay! I had some doubts as to whether I should continue writing my blog or not. With much deliberation and though put into it, I have decided to continue to write. We have much to catch up on since my last post!

Last Friday night was one of our first performance as a team. It was at Homecoming's Rock Rally. We first went to the IAC to warm everything up, we over estimated how much time it would take. We were done in no more than 20 minuets, this left us with a little less than an hour before show time.

The waiting game was our next battle we had to occupy our time in the tiny crowded hallway next to Plachta Auditorium. Thank the lord for the invention of smart phones. I'm not going to lie i spent the majority of the time defending the reasons I wanted to buy my tree. Its this Halloween tree from Target, its all black and sparkly. I really don't know why I want it but I'm in love with it.

Finally it was time to move to the back of the auditorium and wait even more. The band and the football team were on before us and watching them really got me excited.

It was our turn. The MC gave us a nice introduction and we were on. I honestly forgot how much I miss performing. The nervous jitters easing away to the excitement of hitting a routine. We nailed our routing, getting off the stage everyone was all smiles. Looking around I realized I can't wait for all of us to be down in Florida and doing our routine.

Now onto Saturday.

Saturday was our Homecoming game. Small was able to cheer the parade. I was all cute with my hair looking good and everything. Then the weather decided to be muggy and poof! there goes my perfectly straight hair. Oh well, the parade was a ton of fun anyway. A picture of us cheering even ended up on Central's Homepage!

After a group of us went to Lil' Chef and ate some breakfast. I stuffed my face...and then some. We were exempt from walk of champions, so when we went to the IAC we got to lay around and let our stomachs settle.

Once the rest of Small showed up we warmed up portions of our routine and showed off to the Alumni. It was super cool hearing all of the positive feedback from them. The ooh's and Ahh's that went along with each element were even better!

Once the rest of the team got back from we warmed up for the game. Then we went out to tailgate. My parents showed up five minuets before we had to go onto the field. I wish I was able to spend more time with them. I haven't been able to go home in over a month. I'm just a little bit homesick. Nothing the game couldn't fix!

The game great! We had a great time, Alumni is allowed to cheer the game, it was funny watching them fool around on the sidelines.

As you can see the alumni were not the only ones having a great time!

Sunday's practice.

Since it was about a week ago and we have had two other practices since then I don't remember much so here is what I can recall.

We learned an alternative team stunt, which consumed a mass majority of our time. We also took time to work on the elite.

We worked on Delgado's side of the pyramids they made a ton of improvements.

With a half hour left we moved the mats over and worked on cleaning up our tumbling. While working on our tumbling we were running different elements of our routine.

I ran the entire first part of our routine. One third of our routine! I was beyond thrilled, we actually did a little more than a third because we did run a few other elements but that was besides the point. I can't believe that its only October and I ran a third of our routine. I don't think anyone realized how excited I was.

Wednesday's practice.

Wednesday was also the two year anniversary of my Oda's passing. To have practice on this day kind of felt like a blessing. All day I thought about him and how proud he would be of me and my sisters. He has two granddaughters competing in D1 athletics at the collegiate level. One of his favorite things to do was come and watch me cheer. Knowing how far I've come from making my 7th grade cheer team to having the opportunity to go down to UCA Nationals I know he is looking down on me with pride.

Wednesday we had a theme practice. It was 80s theme! Needless to say we looked great.

 

 

The majority of this practice was spent on pyramids. We had a former cheerleader come in and help us with our elements. We mostly worked on cheer pyramid. Although it was a bit rough for everyone I believe that we made some great strides.

 

Delgado's side of first pyramid also got a full out hit, which is super good! I still can't believe that its only October and were so far into our journey.

 

We worked a little bit on team stunt and elite. Team stunt is frustrating me. I know that as a team we could hit the elite elements in it, but it may not be clean. Its mostly a personal thing. I want to be able to do an elite stunt on the mat. Maybe with the fire lit under our butts we will be able to.

 

Not going to lie that's about all I really remember from Wednesday's practice.

 

Thursday's Practice.

 

The first part of practice was game practice. It went well, we have another game verses Akron on Saturday. All girl had 24 girls throw standing tucks! It is a new record in CMU cheer history! That was super exciting.

 

After that bit, we divided into our Young Champion groups. I am a little bitter sweet about this clinic, just because it is my older sister, Audrey, Big Ten Cross Country Race, and my entire family is going. Not just parents but extended family and like I said earlier I am a little homesick. But I do enjoy working Young Champions! I get to private coach pretty much all day, I love private coaching because you actually get to work one on one with a team and I love putting together stunts! This clinic will also be our biggest one in our history!

 

At smalls practice we had about 25 minuets to work through our elements. We again switched team stunt, and got a new back up. The more I think about this, the more I agree with it. It will be a lot cleaner. Then we worked pyramids for the last bit. Our side of the pyramid had a pretty close to perfect hit, it was beautiful  not going to lie.

 

Sorry about the delay again! And for such little detail, I'm in a rush to get to the football game! FIRE UP CHIPS!

 

ps. I will start bio's on my next blog! Ran out of time!



Time Crunch

Today we started practice an hour later than usual because the Tigers were on. No, I am not lying. My coach postponed practice a full hour because of a baseball game...but to be completely honest, no one was complaining. Good news is they won!

The majority of our practice was a game practice. This weekend is homecoming, needless to say all of us vets are super excited. This game practice was much more laid back than usual. We didn't have to go out on the field which was a relief because it was raining all day. We had to practice in our warm ups and some of the new people are not used to it. I will admit the new warm ups we have are a tad more difficult to move in than the old ones.

Everything went decent, nothing amazing. It wasn't like we were switching around anything. Once we broke into two teams we worked on our individual skill set. Again nothing too exciting. All-girl has sweet new pyramids. Its exciting to know that everyone is still progressing. Not that I think they wouldn't without a handful of vets. The vets on the team are good leaders and are taking the team in the right direction.

After the game material, coed and all-girl broke out and left. At this point Small moved onto our nationals elements. Pat addressed the team and let us know that we have about 25 minuets to test out of all the elements. We were racing the clock.

We started off with tumbling. Easy as pie. Then moved onto the elite, all-girl did good, we still need to work on timing. Coed made some great strides today each group did the elite dismount. Already an improvement and we were only ten minuets into our practice.

Next was first pyramid. Our side did one rep, it was a hit, so the majority of the time was spent on the other side. Again more improvement.

Now onto the cheer pyramid. Jessy's side ran full out, the first two were shaky. We moved to our side. Pat gave us a little pep talk, and we hit it! It was not pretty by all means but a hit is a hit. After Jessy's side also got a hit and we moved on.

The last thing we worked on was team stunt. My group did good. We just need to spend time on cleaning it up. Its one thing to hit it, its another thing to hit it clean. I think it will get better with reps.

We got out of practice a little bit late. But within the half hour that we had time to work we were able to improve and that is one of the main focuses of this point in our journey.

Starting Sunday I am adding a new segment to my blog. Meet the team! At the bottom of each post I will write a short bio and provide a picture of a different member of my team.

I was searching CMU Cheerleading on the Internet and I found this. Old CMU Cheer Website Enjoy!

Time to Move On

Before practice today I went into the IAC early and helped tape Jessy and Carter's partner stunting routine. I left to go pick up Adam from his class because I am such a good friend and it was raining.

I'm not going to lie I was a bit nervous for how it was going to go. Carter posted on our facebook wall asking for everyone to show up a bit early for practice so that we could talk.

As soon as the majority of the team arrived, Carter brought us all together Pretty much  told us that we could either continue to be angry or we can not dwell on it and move forward.

We started off with a a full out mark and then jumped right into running elements. Middle layers and basket timers were added first. Then we had some time to warm up our tumbling.

We took a longer time to work on tumbling. We worked on timing in our spring tucks and running tumbling. We also worked on cleaning it up. After we added full out tumbling into our running.

Next part of practice we moved onto pyramids. First we worked on first pyramid. The first attempt we made we had a hit. Its relieving to know we have our first pyramid. The other side made some good strides too. Gera and Pep are getting better at holding the pyramid. Like I have mentioned before me and Pep don't have back spots so its just us and our fliers...and then the flier on top of them. Moral of the story we have to be machines.

Cheer pyramid was next. Jessy's side went first. Their first run was great! Our side... not so much. For some reason everything was just off for us. We attempted a few more attempts Pat brought the team in. Our practice was not like last Sunday. We had no passion in everything we were doing. We were just going through the motions and that is not enough for what we have to do. Another thing we weren't having fun; On Sunday's practice we got everything done and had a ton of fun doing it.

LA had an idea...it was to make the girls go stand in one area and the boys go stand in another. I still don't understand why he did that...I don't think anyone else does either.

We moved onto team stunt next. Our reps have gotten significantly better. Especially our dismount at the end. Everyone is progressing in the elite too. We didn't spend much time working on them this practice.

I can't wait till after we compete and I can post the video on here so that people actually know what I'm talking about. I know that if I was reading this I would be super confused. I am sorry for this inconvenience, we are competing so the less people know the better. We don't want people stealing our routine...like in bring it on.

Friday we are preforming at Mockrock so the last hour of practice we put together a routine. We will be on at 7:20pm in Plachta Auditorium.  We will be doing some elements from our routine and this is our first performance as a team!

We all have the same goal in mind and before we can reach that we need to act like a team again. We need to have practice like on Sunday were we got things done but had a great time doing it. Just like our routine our chemistry is a work in progress, and we have proved time and time again that when situations get us down we are there to pick each other back up.

Captain Carter to the Rescue

Carter lead our practice.

We started off warming up the elite sequence. Elite for my group is easier than team stunt. So after we warmed up that twice we switched to  team stunt. I finally figured out why our full ups were going so bad. Me and Gera were so used to hitting them at the top that we forgot one important part of All-girl full-up technique. Absorbing. As soon as we figured out our full-ups were significantly better.

After a few more reps of the elite and team stunt we repd them as a team. We started with team stunt, we did it side by side. We hit each time which was a sweet relief. Then we obviously moved onto elite. All-girl elite was a little off so we took some time to fix the timing on stuff. It was nice to take time out to fix some of the small stuff.

When we hit a decent number of reps we moved onto the cheer. The few times we reped the pyramid at the game, we just did the first part of it, it didn't go as well as it could have, so I'm not going to lie I was a little bit nervous. Carter and Jessy's side went full out first and it was a perfect rep. Next our side went full out and we hit our first rep too! It was rough but its a hit, but a hit none the less. Carter's side had more good reps. Our side had a few more good reps we decided to add our sign into the mix. And it went pretty good the first rep, the next few reps were not so good, we were attempting to save all the reps which is a good progression. Finally we had a pretty close to perfect rep and it was a good feeling knowing that even with all the outside factors that were affecting our practice today we can still come in and get productive things done.

We then had to work on our first pyramid. Our side had a good rep the first one, there are still some things that we need to improve on but we made some great strides. By the end of working on it, we were running from the section before it. The other side also made some great progress, they finally ran it full out, the only element they have not done is the elite dismount.

After we did probably every ones least favorite thing, baskets. Today was a little rough for all-girl. Sander finally threw the first part of her elite basket, she did great! Our basket on the other hand was a little off today. I honestly think we just need to get more reps on them. Jaclyn was able to throw, one of her elite baskets. So we actually had a pretty decent basket day. I guess just disregard my first comment about them going badly. Although at one point I  got knocked in the mouth and I thought for a second my fake tooth fell out. Don't worry I'm not a hillbilly its still there. Thank the Lord.

One of the last things we did was tumble. At this point in time I was extremely grateful that Carter was running our practice. We started with the tumbling in our cheer, then we made our way to mine and Gera's favorite part, spring tucks. Thank God we were pretty much just testing out of our reps. We did two reps and moved on. Then we went to running tumbling, Me and Molly went together and we had perfect timing. The rest of the tumblers went, and we did some reps with the elite tumblers and the not so elite tumblers. For tucks we got to do one of my favorite things, tuck circle. The goal for everyone was to stick their landing. I killed it.

The last part of our practice we were supposed to rep team stunt more, but everyone who was working on elite tumbling skills had to go over and work with Scotty. So we were left with the boys and like a hand full of us girls. Jessy was one of the leftovers and SHE ASKED to stunt on all girl. Obviously we started stunting. The look on Carters face was priceless when he saw her stunting with us. We started off with just some basic stunts then we tried a rewind. The ones we did were great, then we tried it to an elevator just for fun and it hit. Jasmin and me freaked out it was crazy how perfect it was. Jasmin literal could not talk it was hilarious. Here is the video of our success.

 

 

We ended practice with a full out mark as always. Put away the mats and broke out. I think today's practice went great. With Pat leaving, we could have easily had a very unproductive practice but instead we were blessed with a fantastic leader on this team. Carter took charge of our practice and we progressed in every element we did. As a team this says a lot. We have had so many different obstacles that are out of our control affecting our every move as a team. The fact that we stuck together, listened to Carter and had a very productive practice shows that we are on the right path of the journey. That being said I think I speak for everyone on our team in saying thank you to Carter for stepping up and helping us out at today's practice.

 

 

Carter just mentioned to me that he is the second best tumbler on small coed. I disagree, I think Jimmy is, Carter has not thrown a sanding tuck since February and Jimmy threw his like a month ago. So at our next practice, Carter and Jimmy are going to have a tumble off...consisting of cartwheels and round offs.

Games on Games on Games

Thursday I was blessed. God really is looking out for me on this journey. Instead of going to practice, Pat forgot about a volleyball game, so the All-girl small coed stunt groups got to cheer the game! At Thursdays practice everyone else had to bundle up and hit the field for another game practice.

I was game captain of the volleyball game. Not going to lie I have not cheered a volleyball game in two years. I was a bit nervous, it all ended up okay. I was cheering with all vets and Gera. Earlier in the day Pat got in contact with me to tell everyone we had to cheer and Gera thought it was just going to be us two cheering. When she told me this I nearly lost it. Think of how ridiculous that would look, only two cheerleaders cheering on the sideline of a large arena.

The game went great! I love cheering volleyball, our team kicks some ass, no lie. After the game we ran over to practice, they were already back inside.

We got back just in time for tuck circle. Tuck circle is when everyone forms a circle and each person has the opportunity to go into the middle of the circle and do their back tuck and spring tuck. Opportunity, ha no you don't have an option if you go into the circle or not. It's a way to test out of tumbling without having a ton of pressure on you.

All-girl and Coed left after that and Small stayed and practiced. We just ran through our routine elements.

Starting with a full out mark, I don't think All-girl was ready for testing out of EVERYTHING. This included tumbling. If you couldn't tell already, for many of us tumbling is one of our least favorite things to do. Be on the bottom of a pyramid? Heck yeah no problem! Throw a spring tuck? SWEATING!!!

We started off with tumbling and it went bad. I didn't really understand that he wanted us to go full out, as in move to our spots and what not, so we did our opening tumbling and then froze just before our standing. He was not too pleased about that. I think he could have been a bit clearer.

After tumbling we went to our elite stunt. For my group we are more consistent with our elite stunt than we are with team. Ironic right?

We then moved onto the cheer pyramid. Both sides hit and we moved on. First pyramid was next. The first rep on our side was shaky. Then Pat went and gave a pep talk to the other side. We waited patiently as he was talking smack about us. We just let the haters be our motivators.

The other side did the pyramid full out! It was really exciting. Our side went and we hit our rep. It pumps me up knowing that we are improving and getting closer to our goal.

Team stunt was next. My group was decent. Its a work in progress. Everyone else did good though.

The whole hour we practiced was productive.

Last night was our first game in a month. I was so happy to get back on the field. This was also the first game that Nicky was in charge of. He did a great job! I had a ton of fun at the game.

Games are games, I always have the time of my life in front of the crowd. Even though we lost, our team did great. Me and Bri were doing some pretty ridiculous stuff on the field such as making up cheers, having yelling contests, and jumping contests. Also at one point we were in a stunt on the field and Bri decided she was going to dance while we were holding her. It was absolutely hilarious. Nothing too exciting happened yesterday, we hit our stunts and tumbling and just spent the whole game trying to stay warm.

Here is a recap of last nights game. CMU V NAVY

One Step at a Time

Last nights practice was run by Nicky. In my opinion it was one of our better practices since switching around the routine.

The way he ran it we did everything for a limited amount of time with a reasonable amount of repetitions. We started off with our elite sequence. We took 15 minuets to warm up then we would ran it. My group is killing the elite! Its funny because this is the part that should be hard but I guess the elements the All-girl groups are doing are pretty basic.

The next thing we worked on was the cheer. I'm not going to lie I was pretty nervous about doing the cheer pyramid again. Even though I did it after I got my bloody nose, I was just a little nervous. I think I had a right to be, I caught the girls with my face for Gods sake. They pyramid went really well! Our side is working especially hard to save every rep. I feel like the more we get into the habit of that, we wont have to worry about saving it, we will just be hitting it. Jessy's side was looking great too, with multiple full out hits.

We then moved onto team stunt. The last time we worked on team stunt it was pretty bad. I know everyone in my group wanted to do better and we did. We only dropped one, which is pretty good stats. As we were reping team stunt, Pat showed up. I think this made everyone a little more tense than they were with Nicky. But even with Pat there we did good.

After team stunt we worked on first pyramid. We did middle layers like twice then our side ran full out. The first one was decent, being as we hadn't done it full out in over a week. The second one something was off in a part so the counts stopped and we popped down on one instead of five. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but if we were to do that in a routine it would be totally off. Then again our counts wouldn't be off in a routine. Carter sassed at us because of that, I was just glad that me and molly were on the same page because it could have been 100 times worse if one of us popped down and one didn't. But other than that our side of the pyramid is going smoothly.

Delgado's side of the pyramid made some great strides also. They just have to add two more elements into it to run it full out. I was very proud of Pep. Me and her don't have back spots during this pyramid and she is holding her ground like a champ!

The last portion of practice we worked on baskets. I love that Bri is not afraid to go for anything. We had to start with the basics to get her used to being back on All-girl, but I really think that being on coed for that little amount of time helped both her and Alyssa on their baskets. They at least feel a ton better. We got to the first part of our elite basket which was pretty cool.

Overall the practice went good. Although at one point I felt as though everyone was stressed you would have never been able to tell based on the performance we were giving.

At the end of practice Pat mentioned how happy he was to come into practice to a full out hit to team stunt. I know I really didn't see our progress in the elements, so it was a breath of fresh air to hear Pat tell us how well we are doing.

Nicky did a great job with handling us. I like the way we got to work on everything in a timely matter, practice seemed to go by faster than usually. It felt productive. Game on Friday versus Navy,  as much as I love doing nationals stuff, I can't wait to be out on the field again!

 

Top Gun All Stars do not compete against us, but just like HPU they are a fantastic team. They also put on a ridiculously cool routine and have won worlds multiple times.

Game Practices

Well, I tried to post something after last nights practice but forgetful me  forgot my user name and password to my blog. No worries I figured it out again.

Pat left for San Diego last Friday and he wont be back until Thursday so that means that Nicky is running practices this week.

Sundays practice consisted of game practice. I had a ton of fun. Other people not so much. Although it is frustrating to have to relearn game stuff its nice to have a relaxing practice. We combined into two teams for the game there is an All-girl sideline and an coed one.

I am part of the All-girl sideline. I forgot how much our team likes to talk. We had a pretty good practice. One thing that gets me though is how much people don't clue into what is going on. Besides for the guys every girl has cheered before so they have all had to remember routines. How can people no remember where to go for crowd sideline or even time outs. Don't even get me started on pregame. First off one of our sidelines is going to be messed up just get to your spot and worry about it later. That's what us vets are for, you just follow us around until you get the hang of it. That's what I did my freshman year, I followed my vet base partner Silk around like a lost puppy dog. I hope things will be easier when we get to go onto the field Thursday.

After game practice small coed reped elite and team stunt for like 15 minuets.  Our team stunt has been off lately and I don't know what it is. Our elite on the other hand is going very nicely.

Nose update! There is still a little bruise, I do not have a black eye or anything thank Jesus! It should be back to normal by the game!

Thought this was pretty cool! I would probably break myself if I tried to do this now.
 Cheerleader Breaks Handspring World Record

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

We spent the majority of yesterdays practice preparing for our next football game. Working on our skill sets and fight songs. It was a lot of fun being over with all-girl again. Although we just worked on team stunt and elite stunt. Its kind of a bummer that were not in any pyramids, but it would be a lot of relearning and pretty much taking a step backwards for all-girl, so I understand. At this game small coed will be doing some of the elements from our routine which I am pretty pumped about.

So Bri and Eboni have been planning a surprise for Jasmin's birthday the past three weeks. They planned on having everyone over after practice and then we were all going to Wayside. Well, Jasmin just got a new kitten (pictured below with my best friend Jackie) and she got her shots and some sort of surgery so someone had to be with her at all times. Since Jasmin didn't know that everyone was going out for her birthday she was just going to stay in. Obviously Bri and Eboni had to then tell her about her surprise and we needed to find a cat sitter for her to go out. They kept asking everyone at practice and finally Church said that she would watch the kitty. Bri was so thrilled she was screaming across the track bay to Eboni, "CHURCH IS GOING TO WATCH THE CAT." It was just a funny moment from our practice.

 

After we broke back into our three teams we started reping our elite sequences. Pat was happy with how much we progressed. From the elite we went to the cheer pyramid. We made really good strides on both sides. When we have people spotting Pat told me to just run out of the way if the pyramid is falling. One of the reps our side was going down and I tried to get out of the way but there was not enough room for me to run. So I did the obvious other choice I dove through a gap between Carter and Jimmy. It was quite entertaining. Pat looked at me on the ground and I just said "You told me to get out of the way."

Then he had us run a block of our routine, we were running the cheer full out and team stunt full out. The first one our side of the pyramid fell and my team stunt was...disastrous to say the least. The second time our side of the pyramid fell again and I caught Bri and Delgado with my face. This was time where I couldn't dive out of the way. As I was getting up to go to team stunt I realized that there was blood on the ground and not going to  lie I didn't even realize it was from me until I saw more blood.

This was the first time I've ever gotten a bloody nose. I didn't know what to do, so I went in the bathroom and thank the lord Samme came and helped me out. It took a little bit for it to stop bleeding, I think its because I have a big nose. Anyway, when I eventually made it back to practice I got asked about 50 times if I was okay. I told them that I was going to be out the rest of the season. HA!

We jumped right back into running the block and my side of the pyramid still could not get a hit, and my team stunt was just as bad. Finally we just did the pyramid step by step and we got a hit. We ended practice on that.

At the end of practice, Pat gave us another lesson. This journey is going to be filled with bumps and bruises and we have to remember that its all going to be worth it in the end. So we can't sweat the small stuff and just push through the pain. Being as I lost half of the blood in my body through my nose, I was allowed to break out of practice. Which is just saying what we thought about our practice and then we go home.

For Better or Worse

There is a God and I owe him one...or five. But before I get to why let me just say Pat started off the practice by asking us which we wanted first, the bad news or the really bad news. As a team we chose the really bad news. The really bad news was that he plans on adding at least four more practices in the next month and a half. Some are going to be on Sundays and others on Friday nights. This news was not that bad in my opinion...then again I enjoy practicing.

On to the bad news. This one was kind of a shock but not at the same time. He just told us that he was watching cheer videos the past weekend and he decided that we have to be "us." A switch flipped in my head and I automatically thought oh shit were watering this routine down... a lot. After he told us his plans on switching things in the majority of the routine, I asked the question that everyone was thinking, are we still going down with our original goal in mind. He eased my mind to say the least.

The first thing we changed is our opening tumbling. Our new formation is more visual. My part didn't change which was a good sign. The formation for the elite is the same. All-girl does a stunt then spring tucks. We just put counts to it today. Then first pyramid is the same also. So pretty much the only thing we changed from the beginning is the opening tumbling.

Now to the good part. I NO LONGER HAVE TO HOLD THE CHEER PYRAMID!! God must love me a whole lot, because I now do NOT have the hardest part in our routine! I don't think anyone realizes how happy my hair is. So instead of holding it I am backspotting it. Even when he put me in the position I was trying not to freak out I did a good job at practice but after my mind was going wild. Now I don't have to worry about it!

Team stunt got watered down. To be completely honest I'm kind of mad. I know every group including Carters was a bit shaky but I really do feel that if we had the time to work on it we would get it. Pat's rational was it would never be clean, which I can understand. But at the same time my group along with every other group was progressing well. It wasn't like any group was a total disaster in any of the elements.

Baskets changed and this part I feel like is an improvement. Our new baskets are gonna be bad ass, no joke. Oh, and we finally have an idea of what our end pyramid is going to be! Super excited about that. That's pretty much all the changes we made.

Although we watered down a few areas I don't think its going to have an effect on our overall goal. We now are in the position to have a clean and elite routine.

We even got the opportunity to start running a few elements of the cheer tonight. It was more frazzled than before, but I think its just because of all the changes.

One of the best moments from my practice today was when we were reping team stunt; Bri was falling out of a stunt and we were all over the place below here, I yelled save it and she just locked up. She froze and we saved the stunt. That is exactly why she is one of the best fliers. She doesn't just give up on stunts, she does her part to save every single rep. It makes me extremely happy to have her as my flier.

Even on days like today where we have to get a lot done in a short period of time I can't help but be thankful for each person on my team. They genuinely put me in a good mood. I know I can always count on them. In a stressful situation like nationals is its a relief to know that I have a strong support group around me.


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Time to Step it Up

Since I forgot to inform everyone about Thursdays practice that is where I will begin today.

Thursdays practice went as expected, lots of reps. Bri officially was moved to top girl on my side of the first pyramid and we took one group out of the elite sequence. We also added in spring tucks. As me and Gera like to say..."sweating." We were supposed to have a 6am on Friday morning but since we had so much to learn Pat gave us the option of staying until 11 that night. Which we all took thankfully.

It was like beat up Laura day on Thursday. While the two sides of the cheer pyramid were reping our middle group was doing our stunt. Sander, our flier for the stunt, came down weird and body slammed me into the ground. She didn't get hurt though thank the lord and all she did was knock the wind out of me... and rip off my nail. I have fake nails by the way. Then at the end of practice we were throwing our elite basket and somehow Jaclyn came straight down and her foot slammed into my leg and I just felt my leg smash down into my ankle if that makes any sense.

Other than getting beat up practice went well. Team stunts were very good. At one point a bunch of us were hitting the wall and that turned into us getting very very slap happy. Finally the people in charge of closing the IAC kicked us out.

Now onto tonight's practice. Let me just say this. I am starting to understand what Pat is saying when he has me repeat "I am a machine" because today one of the first things we did was redo our first pyramid. So after all these long practices of tying to get the first pyramid to hit, he changes it. Though I will say this, this pyramid is a lot more visual and its a little bit easier to hold.

We spend most of our practice on pyramids today. We repd team stunt for a little bit, while the coed couples were working with the coed team. My group struggled a little bit today. We are hitting the stunt fine, we just need to clean it up... a ton. That's just one of the things on my list to work on.

Here is the kicker of today's practice. I have officially been given the hardest part in our routine. I now am holding the cheer pyramid. So on top of doing everything else along with holding the other two pyramids... I have another one added on. Today was my first day even attempting it and I'm pretty sure we could have given a doll new hair with how much was pulled out of my head. My shoulders have more shoe hickeys than they have all year, but as much as it sucks now, it will be worth it in a few months.

Pat asked me what I thought of holding the pyramid. If its for the benefit of the team and where the team wants to go then don't hesitate to put me in. Therefore...I'm in.

I kept telling Kelvin when we were done with each rep, "I need a harder workout plan for sure now." There is no way I will be able to hold this without working my ass off outside of practice.

They don't compete against us or anything, they are just so damn good and I need some inspiration if I am ever going to be able to make it through this routine.

When Life Hands you Lemons

We started practice with a speed bump. A talented coed flier decided to leave the team. Thank the lord we have an amazing back up flier, Bri. Bri was my flier on all-girl last year and she is by far one of the most talent fliers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. We took this set back as a challenge in my eyes. We worked hard at practice to learn the new changes and progress forward.

This practice was not going to be a running practice as previously planned, instead we were going to work on the elements of our routine with the new changes. We reped tumbling but nothing really changed there.

First pyramid took up the mass majority of our practice time. Last Thursday we noticed that each side of the pyramid was turning opposite ways; So Carter went and asked Pat which way he wanted us to turn. He returned to my displeasure saying that my side of the pyramid was turning the wrong way. I know this doesn't sound like a huge deal, but after doing rep after rep of turning one way and having to switch gets frustrating. So we had to rep like crazy just to get my side of the pyramid consistent again.

Back to tonight's practice...Molly, my pic (partner in crime) for holding pyramids, decided to ask Pat one more time which side was turning right. You could never guess what he said right? After watching each side do it their way, he decided that we were turning the correct way the entire time. So we had to rep again to relearn our technique. Thank the lord it did not take as long.

 

After this whole dilemma we had to run our side of the pyramid full out. After a while it starts to suck really bad being on the bottom of the pyramid. Mind you I don't have a back spot this entire time. Its just me and Church...and Jessy or Bri now, I'm not too sure. But anyways its funny because no matter how tired you are you need to just keep going. Think about it, if I fall or drop my primary flier, Church, then Jessy will fall. So I need to be on point at all times. Good thing I conditioned myself all summer. I remember the first day learning the pyramid and thinking "there is no way on Gods green earth that I will be able to hold this." That was also the point when Church was doing tap dances on my shoulders and giving me shoe hickeys every rep. For future reference a shoe hickey is a hickey from a shoe... or as my good friend Katie Sakala likes to describe it "if a bear mauled your shoulder like it was made of fresh meat after you spent 10 hours in the Mexican sun with no sunscreen."

Finally we moved onto the cheer pyramid. Which pretty much means break time for me. Well not really I had to work on our rewind stunt, but those are going well. We didn't spend much time on this pyramid today. Carter and Adam's side had a hit though!

Team stunt, to my surprise Bri was put as my flier! I was so ecstatic! We did not spend a long time here either, but each group is improving at a good pace. Even with the new flier switch we made it through the sequence.

Baskets were last. As expected I have to throw the all-girl basket. I really don't mind because Jaclyn is my flier and shes a fantastic basket girl. We did our normal warm up, and by the end we were able to throw our full out elite basket. The first ones were good and by the last one you could see an improvement.

Overall I think everyone had a good practice. We each were frustrated at times but as a team we pulled each other together and had a productive practice. It could have been disastrous being as a person quit we could have all just said screw it and quit too. But that's not the kind of team this is. Everyone who is on the mat is there for a reason, we want to go down and do the best we can do. Whether it be first place or last place. We are going to have more speed bumps along the way but these are the moments we are going to cherish when were down in Florida. We're going to remember the good times sure, but its these times where we had to overcome situations placed in front of us that we have no control over that we will be thankful for. This is when the real journey begins.

PS. Thank you Katie Sakala for the lovely picture!

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Today is my birthday and of course we had practice. Pat walked into practice and warned us he was in a bad mood. I'm glad he did because you know I would have been acting ridiculous. Team stunt went super good for my group today. We hit it full out multiple times. First pyramid was a little shaky. On Thursdays practice we had to relearn how to do our walk in because we were turning the wrong way the whole time. We didn't get to do gymnastics today either which I was bummed about. Cheer pyramid was not that good either. Now that I think about it today was just a rough day for pyramids. At the end of practice Pat said that this was our first "rough" practice, personally I didn't think it was that bad. Then again it was probably because it was my birthday and nothing could make me mad. But he was talking about how he doesn't know how our team chemistry is going to be. When we have rough practices we are supposed to bring each other up and I think we did a good job of it today.

For your enjoyment,

Not a Total Train Wreck

Today was our first day of running our routine and it was not a "total train wreck" like Pat thought it would be. We ran with full out tumbling, first part of the elite, middle layers of our first pyramid, basket timers, and the first part of our team stunt. It went really well! I personally hit all my tumbling, and my group for team stunt hit each time. It wasn't always pretty but a hits a hit...for now. The elite sequence is progressing very nicely also. I was surprised at how easy it was to get through the routine. Then again I only had to do a small portion of what I will be doing. Tomorrow is tryouts for all-girl and Coed and I'm kind of bummed that we wont be a part of it. I love seeing the potential new people for our team. But at the same time I'm living out my dream right now. For those of you who haven't seen a cheerleading routine, here is last years winners of the small coed division Hofstra University.

After 20 hours of practice, we finally finished our routine. All the elements are together all we have to do is hit them...all together. Already we are 6 weeks ahead of the team that went last year. If we do everything to the best of our ability we will do REALLY well. We learned one of Pats "competition lessons for hitting a routine" the first one of this journey is Composure. If you keep your composure while doing all the elements of the cheer your success rate will increase.

"I'm a machine"

This journey has already been more than a blessing for me. I have been working since last October to make this team. This is my dream. To compete at UCA (Universal Cheer Association) Nationals. We officially broke into our three teams Saturday September 9. Our first practice was a bit shaky, many of us have never had a nationals experience, we don't know how we should act. We are learning quickly of what Coach Pat's expectations are. Monday & Tuesday I went to open workouts, which are going to another teams practice, as I was killing my legs running my two miles worth of intervals around the track Pat stops me. "Repeat after me" he said, "I am a machine." so naturally I repeated after him throughout the rest of practice he would walk up to me "What are you?" he would ask, and I was to repeat "I am a machine." I still have no idea what this phrase is supposed to do for me, but as Pat keeps telling us we must trust in him and the journey. For now i'll just keep repeating it. This weekend has been choreography weekend. Yesterday we learned the entire first music part of our routine. Then we started working on the first pyramid. It looks cool considering I can only see whats going on above me. I have the honor of being on the bottom of the pyramid alongside Molly. This morning's practice we spent the entire first hour marking our formations, going back and forth making sure each time we all had big smiles on our faces looking up at where the judges will be. Then for the next few hours we worked on our cheer. Me, Molly, and Amanda are the flaggets this year. We already named our flags, Amanda's is Charlie, mine is Marvin, and Molly's is Ulysses. We have some pretty cool elements in our cheer and if we get them its going to look amazing. The last portion of practice we worked on our first pyramid. My side went great we did the entire thing, besides getting up to middle layers the way we will, continuous count. We finished practice with a full out mark and working on our team stunt. So far this nationals experience is going fantastic!