Tag Archives: Cheer

Who Dat

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I really couldn’t think of a title for this one, so I chose one the would make Marcel, David, and Keaton happy. Congratulations to the Saints on their SuperBowl victory.

Atlanta was fun, the week since hasn’t been nearly as fun. CheerSport, what can you say. It’s undoubtedly the largest, and possibly the greatest cheerleading competition of the year. It ran smooth, as it has every year I have judged. The Dartfish system didn’t do much for me this year, but the potential it has can aid in more accurate judging. The trip back to Lexington was fine. I got to watch 24 and the end of the Kansas/Texas basketball game before things started going downhill. To put it subtly, I just say from Monday night until Wednesday morning I spent more of my awake time puking than I did not puking. Since I spent so much time sleeping and puking there isn’t much to write about.

Wednesday I went to Mississippi, which wasn’t the smartest idea, but I made it. Now it’s time to talk Miguel and Kelly out of some Mississippi State versus Kentucky basketball tickets for Tuesday.

Kentucky Tryouts

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University of Kentucky cheerleading tryouts are this weekend. It’s an opportunity to see the most talented athletes cheerleading has to offer. Today I received a call to see if I would judge them which has me torn. There is so much I need to get done with the gym that it’s hard to pull myself away, but on the other hand it’s Kentucky tryouts. I assume I’ll end up judging them when it comes down to it. I just hope it doesn’t cause issues with anything else.

A Chat with Kimberly

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I had a long chat with Kimberly Archie of the National Cheer Safety Foundation yesterday. For those of you that don’t know her story, I suggest Googling it, but in short she is a mom that is on a crusade to combat cheerleading injuries. She understands participating in anything athletic is going to lead, or at least contribute to, some injuries, but we agree many of the injuries, and most of the catastrophic injuries can be prevented. The problem is we don’t know how to prevent them.

Saying we don’t know how to prevent them may have been a poor choice of words. I should have said we don’t know how to get others involved in helping to prevent them. It’s not the we think people want to injure cheerleaders, but the people involved are not being intelligent about what they have the kids do. As a coach I need to teach kids in a logical, progressive manner. I need to teach them in a manner that readies them, mentally and physically, to perform each skill I ask of them. This isn’t being done by everyone. They also aren’t evaluating their surroundings in relation to what they are asking the kids to do. The skills the Kentucky kids can safely perform on a basketball court are far more advanced than what my Mini 1 team or even my Junior 5 team should attempt.

Safety comes down to a few things. The first of which is common sense and the second is training. We can’t and shouldn’t have to create rules to combat stupidity. If you aren’t smart enough to realize and reduce the potential risks of an activity, you don’t need to be involved with it. The second is training, because once we have people with a natural aversion to (unnecessary) risk, we need to train them to help keep the kids safe.

An Afternoon with Tegan

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Debbie spent Friday afternoon taping educational videos at Showtime. The videos will be used with training material Debbie will be releasing and as part of the USASF’s education program. Tegan Reeves, USASF’s Education and Communication Director, was at Showtime during the taping giving me an opportunity to chat with her. Having been extremely critical of the USASF in the past, it was encouraging to hear Tegan talk about the educational efforts the USASF is pursuing. The tumbling portion should be released before Worlds (late April) and the stunt material should be taped this summer and hopefully releases shortly after.

Yesterday

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Yesterday was a unique day. It made me think of a friend named Scott who told his daughters that no matter what happened they are to finish the routine. About 5 weeks ago that was thrown out of the window when he saw one of his girls laying on the ground in tears. She was landed on by one of our girls after missing a tumbling trick during the routine and was in obvious pain. She stopped and was taken off the mat. That was nothing compared to yesterday.

I thought about this as I saw another of our girls laying on the competition floor yesterday. It was the first time in my cheerleading career that I’ve walked on the floor to tend to an injured athlete during a routine. Thinking about the difficulty I had watching her lay on the mat telling me she couldn’t feel her legs while squeezing my hand and asking what happened makes me feel for her mother. This is a girl that I’ve know for less than a year and it hurt. I can’t imagine what her mom was thinking as she heard her daughter say she couldn’t feel her legs. I think I was okay until I saw the pre-tear look on her mom’s face and knew there was nothing I could say or do to make her feel better. It hurt and it sucked. It’s one of those things you don’t forget, but wish you could.