It Was Brung!!

On Saturday, Chizz and I spent the morning at a cheerleading competition. Now it's not what you're thinking. Unless you're thinking that our appearance at the cheerleading event was the culmination of a long night of red wine at a Christmas party when going to a cheerleading competition sounded like a GREAT idea. If so, then it is EXACTLY what you're thinking.

But seriously, some of our very good friends have a daughter who is an excellent cheerleader and happened to mention to Chizz that they would be in our neck of the woods in January for said competition and Chizz said "Sure, we would LOVE to go" (remember the red wine!). Now, Jeanne, being the good friend she is and of course remembering the red wine, gave us, not 1, not 2 but 3 chances to gracefully exit. But Chizz and I not ever accused of being graceful and knowing that our kids would not be awake until after we came home from the event and actually, not so secretly, kind of intrigued by a cheerleading competition, decided to go anyway.

I was amazed at what a huge deal this is. We showed up at the very large high school where the competition was being held and every parking space was taken up. Chizz and I have gone to many different kids sporting events over the years and we found cheerleading is very similar to our experience with swim team. Parents spend all day waiting for their kids to do about one minute of some activity and then it is over. There were the obligatory food tents and tables, the different vendors selling "cheer wear", t-shirts, ribbons, uniforms, etc. Some of the teams were huge, you just saw masses of color, red, blue, gold, walking by. The girls all had almost the exact same hairstyle, pulled off the face, very tight and topped by an elaborate ribbon of the team colors. I saw no bangs, no short cuts, all the girls seemed to have long hair. We heard that some of the teams still do the elaborate curly ponytails and buns, like you see in the movies, but I don't think I saw more than 1 team that had that look. Most of the cheerleaders were wearing sweats before their routines, carrying backpacks or athletic bags with the accoutrement necessary for the days events.

We arrived pretty early so we got the chance to watch a few teams before K's team competed. It was really interesting, in a sociological way. For the most part the teams competed one right after another. There were quite a few teams, I think we saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 groups. Sometimes there were little gaps between the groups, were music was played. I spent a good deal of time watching the cheerleaders that were waiting. In between routines, they chit-chatted, touched up their makeup, texted, practiced looking bored and all of the other things teenagers do when they are bored or want to give the appearance of being bored. But the minute a competitor stepped on the mat, these girls were in rapt attention. Did this group execute a move as well as they do? Was their throw higher? Absorbing every movement the other groups made, evaluating, critiquing, mocking (after all they are teenage girls). K's group did very well. I didn't see one mistake, although they were quick to criticize themselves. K is the "flyer" of the group; she is basically, lifted, thrown and balanced places that humans don't normally go. Some of these routines are fairly complex and they don't always go to plan. We saw several injuries happen right on the floor when a girl landed the "wrong" way. A couple of competitors limped right off the floor. I read somewhere that cheerleading is the number 1 sport for injuries in high school. Seeing some of the difficult moves these kids do, it is a wonder that more of them aren't hurt. This is not all about the poms-poms and looking pretty. These girls (and boys) are very athletic. There is an element of grace about it as well, the routines often include some dancing. I noticed that when a squad does include a boy, he is usually crouching in the back during the dance part. It is like he is not expected to move in the same manner as the girls. I guess he is just there for his muscle!

So we left shortly after the awards ceremony, where there was lots of squealing and jumping up and down. And that was just Chizz. C'mon . . . . You knew I was going to do that! K's group got a ribbon and won a chance to go to Nationals in Florida. But they had already qualified before so it wasn't a huge surprise. I can't even imagine what a big deal that is, hundreds of teams, hundreds of parents wearing their "Cheer Mom" or "Cheer Dad" t-shirts, the anxiety level must be huge. I just hope that Jeanne doesn't ply Chizz with gallons of red wine at the Superbowl party or we will be Orlando bound! (I wonder if they have "Cheer Good Friends" tshirts?)