Personal Narrative: My Experience In Connecticut Cheerleading

In New Fairfield, Connecticut cheer was everything. Almost every girl in town did Falcon cheer. There were times when missing practice was equivalent to death. During my last year of cheer with the Falcons I was a Jr. Midget, the last team before high school. This particular year there were two Jr. Midget teams, black and red, both of which had the same cheer coaches. I was on the black team, which was considered the lowest ranking team of the two. We were seen as the bottom or the throw aways that could not make the cut. However, we showed them wrong by making our way to the top no matter what anybody said, but getting there and winning was not easy. There were a lot of fighting, long practices, and no belief in our capabilities by the coaches, …show more content…
The only way for us to win is to practice and get better with each practice. Our practices were long and grueling, just to get as much as we could into our two minute and thirty second routine. We were not allowed to miss practice so when people got sick they were still required to attend practice. They were wrapped in a blanket shivering in the scarcely heated gym where the team practiced. Injuries were also a big risk in cheer from knees to the back we all had pains. I was not the worst injured, but I was still up there in the top five. The tendinitis in both my ankles was the worst. I had to wear two huge braces on both my ankles or I couldn’t cheer. My weariness also extended to my head because the previous January I had received a minor concussion while practicing with my winter all star team when they had dropped me from a stunt I had been flying …show more content…
None of us went to the parks that day, but still had fun at the Music Hotel, where we were staying. Not even darkness could keep us down so we journeyed over to Downtown Disney for dinner and a little shopping.
It was a lot of fun, but sadly it had to end the next day. Time for some practice. Our practice time was somewhat in the middle of the day around 2pm, but we still practiced our routine with no stunting on the hotel courtyard beforehand. The hotel was filled with other cheer teams from around the country so no one really minded. We were dressed identicaly in our wind pants and matching jacket with our hair on top of our heads being curled in rollers so they would be perfect tomorrow. The practice did not go well and our coaches knew that. Everyone except the parents thought we were not going to