Author: Andre

  • Life – October 2023

    The past month continued to be slow. My football team lost it’s first game and followed that with losing another. Fortunately Big Blue Madness came meaning basketball is near and, as assumed during the Calipari era, Kentucky will have a younger than average, super talented, unpredictable team. On a side note I reached the weight…

  • Cheer – October 2023

    This month there wasn’t much cheer news, which is normal since the season has started, but it’s too early for most teams to compete. There have been some school competitions and on the allstar side it’s early enough that one of the major judge conventions is just now wrapping up. Athlete Friends – Listen to…

  • Life – September 2023 – Uneventful

    The last month was really slow and I’m thankful for that. After a 2 month stretch where I was gone as much as I was home having a month straight at home was kind of nice. Since I didn’t do much in the last month there aren’t many photos to share.

  • Cheer – September 2023

    Autumn is here. It’s still too early for competition season, but High School football is underway and this is the first full weekend of College football. For the UCA Colleges that means Nationals is 4.5 month away. As soon as they get settled into school and football it’s time to start working on Nationals and…

  • Life – August 2023 – Food

    The past month was full of fun and food. It started with the Atlanta Hawks tryouts and included trips to Nashville, New Orleans, and Austin with the best part being getting to catch up with Raymond in New Orleans. It has also been a reminder that healing is slow. Bumps and bruises from June haven’t…

  • Cheer – August 2023 – Summer

    For me the past month of cheer was focused on the combined USASF-USA Cheer National Meeting in Nashville. For the 1st time the 2 organizations came together to host the meeting and have sessions that covered almost the entire spectrum of cheer. Outside of the National Meeting cheer has been pretty quiet for me. I’ve…

  • Life – July 2023 – Word Won’t Do It Justice

    The past month is better remembered in pictures than words. Bournemouth left an impression. Ibiza was everything it was supposed to be. Joe & Lauren are now married. Destin was a great way to wrap up traveling and I took one of my favorite photos of the year.

  • Cheer – July 2023 – Update Season

    June is a pretty slow month for cheer so there isn’t much news to comment on. Some of the things to think about this time of year, as preparations are made for the new season, are rules and scoring updates. For the rules my recommendation is to audit the Legality Official course, which the USASF…

  • Life – June 2023

    In the past month I’ve had a birthday, a birthday dinner, finished runner-up in a Memorial Day weekend cornhole tournament, and not much else. I’m still taking pictures of flower and enjoying an occasional glass of bourbon. The next month will be a little more adventurous.

  • Cheer – June 2023 – The New Season

    Today is the start of the 2023-24 USASF season. In my corner of the cheer world the biggest topic of late has been the USASF raising the minimum age of Open team athletes to 18ish along with the competitive disadvantage that gives US teams since the rest of the World has a younger minimum age.…

  • Life – May 2023

    Over the last month I took too many photos of flowers and spent some time in Florida. Other than that it has been pretty uneventful. The name tag wasn’t mine.

  • Cheer Season 2022-23 – Part II

    The 2nd update of the season comes after I’ve attended my first 3 competitions. During this time I’ve seen some outstanding routines, a couple awful performances, and a whole lot in between. Some teams showed the typical early season problems that look like lack of conditioning and nerves while some others looked truly unprepared. Only…

  • End of the Road

    Given we haven’t posted many articles this year this is probably already assumed, but in case it is not I believe Spirit Post has retired. We don’t anticipate taking down anything that has already been posted, I just don’t anticipate any more posts coming. Thank you for your support over the past 15 years.

  • Happy Holidays

    Cirque du Soleil’s “Kurios” kicked off this period. I really enjoy the Cirque shows and see them almost any time they come around. I’ve lost track of how many different shows I’ve seen and am guessing my next one will be the new one at Disney. Thanksgiving came and went without anything unexpected catching fire…

  • Cheer Season 2022-23

    The competitive part of the 2022-23 cheer season is here. I write this knowing many of my school team related colleagues have already competed, some are nearing the end of their competitive season, and others have been crowned State champs. On the All Star side we’re just about to get started despite the first Worlds…

  • Uneventful Month

    The past month has been pretty uneventful with no travel and cheer not starting yet. Food wise I can recommend an over the top shake and Fat Matt’s Rib Shack and may have to stay away from the Beyond Chicken Tenders for a while. Kentucky lost a few football games and basketball season started. This…

  • Reunited

    The past month was all about being reunited. I met up with my cousin in Atlanta, something I definitely should have done sooner. I then went to the Kentucky-Mississippi football game with David and Kendall Hanbery, Brian Elza, and my college roommate Chad Baker. After that I spent a couple days in Memphis, returning to…

  • A Clever Title

    The past month won’t rank as my favorite. I wrote that sentence a couple days ago and it definitely didn’t turn around. Thank goodness for the return of college football. God Save the King!

  • Good Eating

    The past month has been all about eating. It started with brunch and a mimosa bucket with the Joneses and ended at a Mexican restaurant with my roommate. In between was pizza with Robin, Strawberry Shortcake French toast, Peach Cobbler French toast, an Atlanta icon, In-N-Out, one of the largest pizzas I’ve ever had, and…

  • A Long Time Coming

    I haven’t posted in a long time, almost a year. I’m going to attempt to get back into publishing here regularly and will start slow with about a once a month pace. Since my last post I was promoted and moved from the Memphis area to the Atlanta area. In moving I moved in with…

  • Legality Bonus

    I often work as a Legality Official at events, which means most of the time I’m involved in taking points off a team’s score. I’d like to be involved in giving points and have come up with a couple options. First allow me to award a bonus to any performance that has nothing I need…

  • What’s the Goal

    February had some of our industry’s largest events. Congratulations to everyone that found success at them. Here’s some of the news from the month. Jerry Harris of ‘Cheer’ Pleads Guilty in Federal Child Pornography Case via CNN. Attorney for U.S. Olympic Gymnasts Warns of ‘Epidemic of Sexual Abuse’ in Cheerleading via Dallas Observer. NFL Cheer…

  • Warning or Deduction

    When should there be a deduction for breaking a rule versus a warning? I’ve had this conversation with a couple friends lately and am wondering how more people would answer this and more importantly want to know the reason why? I have 2 notes with this question. There is no debate about the skill breaking…

  • The Higher They Fall

    Our 1st of the month articles include links to news from the prior month. Last month’s news included: UCA & UDA College Nationals took place at Walt Disney World. Cheer’s Jada Wooten Says She Was Excluded From Cast Appearances via Vulture. I have an idea for stunt and pyramid deductions at events. There are 3…

  • If You Don’t Know

    During my years of being involved in cheerleading I’ve learned athletes mess up for 3 main reasons: They don’t know what to do (The guy who didn’t know throwing a basket also meant catching it) They don’t know how to do it (The lifelong all star kid using a sign for the first time) They…