The crowd screams, the lights shine, the music starts, and I preform my heart out. This was my life three years ago. I was a competitive all-star cheerleader for a gym called Premier Cheer. I cheered competitively for about eleven years and even won a national championship in 2011. 2013 was my last year cheering because every cheerleader has an expiration date; I aged out of the sport and my body ached too much to keep going. Now, three years after my last competition, I entered my first competition as a coach. The crowd still screams, the lights still shine, the music still starts, but now there are ten little eyes staring into mine waiting to guide them trough the next 85 seconds. From May of 2013 to May of 2016 I worked in the office
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As a cheerleader, I could fight to keep my stunt in the air and stick my tumbling pass. Now, as a coach, I have to watch from the perimeter of the blue mat and pray my team remembers their counts, jump high, and stay together, all while staying safe and injury free. It is the hardest thing to press play and know you can not go onto the blue mat and help them, or press pause and let them start over when they make a mistake, as much as you wish you could. Also, winning as an athlete and winning as a coach is two completely different feeling. As an athlete, winning a competition was a feeling of accomplishment and triumph. Knowing all of the literal blood, sweat, tears, broken wrists, sprained ankles, and mental blocks finally paid off when your team is announced as the winners and those National Championship jackets are placed on your back. As a coach of a show team, “winning” feels ten time greater than winning as an athlete. Because show teams do not compete, they get a trophy that is pretty much a participation award. Even though the Cubs will never “win” a competition, they are true winners to me. They work so hard, ever harder then than the older teams at times, and have the biggest hearts that winning to them doesn’t even really matter. For them, cheerleading is all about having fun and making new friends. For me, coaching is all about seeing them grow as young athletes and as young
As a cheerleader, I could fight to keep my stunt in the air and stick my tumbling pass. Now, as a coach, I have to watch from the perimeter of the blue mat and pray my team remembers their counts, jump high, and stay together, all while staying safe and injury free. It is the hardest thing to press play and know you can not go onto the blue mat and help them, or press pause and let them start over when they make a mistake, as much as you wish you could. Also, winning as an athlete and winning as a coach is two completely different feeling. As an athlete, winning a competition was a feeling of accomplishment and triumph. Knowing all of the literal blood, sweat, tears, broken wrists, sprained ankles, and mental blocks finally paid off when your team is announced as the winners and those National Championship jackets are placed on your back. As a coach of a show team, “winning” feels ten time greater than winning as an athlete. Because show teams do not compete, they get a trophy that is pretty much a participation award. Even though the Cubs will never “win” a competition, they are true winners to me. They work so hard, ever harder then than the older teams at times, and have the biggest hearts that winning to them doesn’t even really matter. For them, cheerleading is all about having fun and making new friends. For me, coaching is all about seeing them grow as young athletes and as young