Itentedness

Itentedness means keeping your eye on the prize and raising the bar. It means staying motivated by staying focused. We should always set realistic goals, concentrate on achieving them and resisting all temptations to give up and stay determined and persistent.

I told Varsity once we got the step-up into a half-extension "prep," and the cradle-catch that NEXT we need to work on getting it up with an elevator and get it all the way up into a full-extension. NOW that we have our chants and sidelines down, we should develop some floor-cheers and we should borrow, make-up, and re-coreograph new chants.

Now that JrHi cheer has most of the chants down, we deed to add conditioning time and begin learning the fundamentals of stunting.

Can we do these things? Like "Bob the Builder" would say, "Yes we CAN!"

Author & Coach Brian Brio says that there are 2 kinds of questions that hurt and 2 kinds that help:

When you catch your self asking these, STOP-
Hopelessness-inducing questions- "WILL this work?
Hopelessness-assured questions- "Will this EVER work?"

Try asking THESE instead-
Possibility-inducing questions- "HOW will we make this work?"
and Exciting Possibility-inducing questions- "How will I contribute so that we MAKE this work for the squad and our school?"

I really want to reccomend Beyond Success and the updated Beyond Success; 15 secrets of a winning life both by Brian D. Brio. He's a former high school swim coach and motivational speaker & writer. He uses Coach Wooden's 15 pyramid blocks better than I have and it's a pretty easy/quick read, even for teenagers. Think of it as along the lines of Chicken Soup for the Soul only with the success pyramid.

Initiative

"With courage and initiative, leaders change things."

~Rev. Jesse Jackson

Every cheerleader needs to work on the ability to make decisions on their own and act on them. Never be afraid of failure, but learn from it. No matter what, there are going to be times when you're gonna make mistakes or when something you try isn't going to work the way you hoped. No one is perfect. If you let fear paralyze you, you'll never achieve anything.

I've never had captains because I don't want popularity contests, and I don't want political battles. EVERY cheerleader is a leader. ANY cheerleader can begin any chant and the rest of the squad should jump on board. Besides just how they perform at a game, initiative means that cheerleaders bring their ideas and controbutions to practices. It means they become the "movers and the shakers" at school because they start projects and programs, through student council or other clubs, or just sparking trends, beginning or maintaining traditions and setting an example.

Alertness

" Alertness and courage are life's shield."

~Phillipino Proverb

"As you strive to reach your personal best,
alertness will make the task much easier.
Be observing constantly,
quick to spot a weakness and correct it or use it,
as the case may warrant."

~Coach John Wooden

This means constantly observing what's going on around you. It means keeping an open mind. It means always being eager to learn and improve. It means to "look alive," and "stay-awake."

Obviously this is important during a game so that you don't look rediculous. You have to know what's going on in the game in order to call appropriate chants, stop chants when it's the right time to stop, key-into what gets the fans to respond, the needs of your squadmates, etc. These are skills that get built with experience.

Obviously it's important while stunting to stay focused, to keep your eye on the flier and make sure that she never hits the ground.

But perhaps most importantly, it's important when it comes to self-awareness. Were you AWARE that your grades were slipping? Were you AWARE that adults were watching when you were smooching your beau? Were you AWARE that preschoolers were around when you were kussing?

Self Control

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquuers his enemies;
for the hardest victory is the victory over self."

~Aristotle

"While we may not be able to control all that happens to us,
we CAN control what happens inside us.

~Benjamin Franklin

"He who conquers his anger has conquered an enemy."

~German Proverb

How can you have any kind of work ethic, or any cooperation without self control? Besides that, without self-control, you cannot remain loyal and you're liable to lose friends. Having self control, means being responsible and it's part of maturity. I tell students that to be responseable is being response-able, that means being able to control your RESPONSE to anything that happens and anything that anyone else says or does.

Cooperation

"Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much."

~Hellen Keller

"We must be willing to learn the lesson that cooperation may imply compromise,
but if it brings a world advance it is a gain for each individual..."

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Listen if you want to be heard. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. It should go without saying that a cheer squad is going to go nowhere if they can't cooperate. Cooperate with their coach and with each other during practice, cooperate with each other during a game or during a stunt. If a train has 8 cars and all 8 want to go in different directions, it won't go anywhere.

Loyalty

"Be loyal to people in their absence. Then watch how others begin having more faith and confidence in you, because they know you won't be talking about them behind their backs."

~Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Effective People
I reccoment 7 Habits of Effective Teens

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

~Vince Lombardi

Coach Wooden expects members of a team to be loyal to themselves, but all so to everyone depending on you in order to keep your self respect. When you're a member of a squad, you can't flake out or walk off. Your teammates need you at games and at practices. You can't let them down.

Friendship

"For the Friendship of two,
the patience of one is needed"

~ Indian proverb

Just like love, friendship is not merely something that happens casually. Friendship takes work, you need to deliberately be a friend, and you can offer friendship to those you wouldn't normally or naturally be pals with.

Coach John Wooden says that friendship has three components:

1) Mutual Esteem- that means that both people value each other. Cheerleaders have to recognize that every squad member is important and needed. No matter how different from you or how annoying someone is, there is ALWAYS something valuable about each and every human being.

2) Respect- That means. a high or special regard, thoughtful and sympathetic regard. In other words, thinking about others before yourself. You know, "the Golden Rule," treat others as you want to be treated. Every human being is entitled to dignity and respect.

As a cheerleader, it's important to offer respect for your squad mates. Even if they're younger than you or less experienced, or less gifted, or irritating as heck!

3) Devotion- Webster's dictionary puts it this way: "the fact or state of being ardently dedicated and loyal." You have to choose to stick-with-it when it comes to trying to become friends with your squad mates.

Enthusiasm

"Act Happy
feel happy
BE happy
without a reason in the world"

~Dan Millian

ENTHUSIASM, love, school spirit, fire, energy, passion- whatever you call it all the work in the world won't be worth the time without it. If you have it, it brushes off on those you come in contact with. And THAT'S what cheerleaders are for- spreading that spirit!

ENTHUSIASM EQUALS LOVE

And how does one have enthusiasm in life? Actually, it is as simple as this: Cultivate the ability to love living. Love people, love the sky under which you live, love beauty, love God. The person who loves becomes enthusiastic, filled with the sparkle and the joy of life. And then he goes on to fill it full of meaning. If you're not enthusiastic, begin today to cultivate the love of living. Like Fred, for example…

So don't depreciate life by enumerating all the thing that are wrong with it. L Things are wrong, and something has to be done about them. But focus mentally upon all that is right about life; J life is mighty good, a lot better than not having it, I should think. A lifetime on this wonderful earth doesn't last very long, either. It is here today and gone tomorrow. So love it while you can, and be full of enthusiasm-

~ Norman Vincent Peale
“Enthusiasm Makes the Difference”

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was a powerful motivational speaker and writer who taught about being POSITIVE, optimistic, and enthusiastic- all vital qualities for any cheerleader.

He also wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, but I suggest you buy, read, and live by The Power or Positive Thinking tor Teens, it's shorter and written in easier to understand language. Even Angie would enjoy reading it!

PYRAMID

"Hard work, dedication and desire don't guarantee you a thing, but without them you don't stand a chance."

~Pat Riley, NBA Coach (Bulls, Lakers)

"Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price."

~Vince Lombardi

Success depends more on how hard you work for it then on your talent. Think of it as a math equation:

e/a= s

Effort divided by ability equals Success. You can have all the talent & skill in the world, but if you aren't willing to work hard, you will go nowhere.

Cheerleaders need to focus and push themselves (& each other) in practice. We should WANT to work out and train and review and improve. If we don't work, we won't get anything done.

The Pyramid of Success

I'd like to take this Christmas break as an opportunity to blog about something I think is very important. I don't just want you to learn chants and stunts and prepare you for games. I want to teach you about character and hopefully try to prepare you for life. If you read these posts and really take them to heart, we will have a better squad and you will take something away from cheerleading that will be much more powerfull than being able to yell loud.

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

~John Wooden

Come back and watch the blog daily and you'll see a short post with a couple of motivational quotes about each of the 15 bricks in Coach Wooden's Pyramid.
Merry Christmas & Happy New year.

Click here to visit Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success
Click here to visit Coach Wooden's homepage

Team Picture

Angie, you're such a problem child!

Celebrating another basket

We love our new uniforms

More cool shots

Above, Angie & Cassie leap-up in the pattented "Angie-Jump"
Below, Rena shows off her signature Hurkie.

I'm tellin' ya, I had an lucky night with the camera- there are tons of shots from the Charter Oak game. Hope ya like picctures.

Jumpin'

Above, Kayla does a Hurkie. Below, she does a reindeer (aka. double -hook)

The underclassmen- Soph Kayla and Froshes Vicki & Kristen wanted to pose together

Black and White and a different angle and presto! Kristen has that Gothic GLAM!

Junior High Winter Cheer

Back row: Eighth Graders Christine, Kenzie, Sasha and Megan
Front: Kelsey, Taryn (as the Bulldog), and Caitlin.
We've been working on chants and sidelines, when we get back from Chrsitmas vacation we'll start more work on conditioning, building stunts and hopefully floor cheers. We are the future!

Kenzie and Christine LOVE Sasha SO much, they're willing to embarass themselves.

The Angie Jump

Angie doing her patented junp

Half Extension Preps

Last Friday night at the game against Woodbine, we not only put both Angie and Vicki up in Preps, but we also go them down by using the cradle!

They're HERE!

Angie models our new uniforms- that FINALLY came! Now, if those darn shoes would just get here.

HEEEEERE'S Kaylie!!!

Our new mascot made her premiere Tuesday night against Logan-Magnollia. She's the 5th mascot and the shortet. Dana Anderson thought "Cujo" must suffer from osteoporosis since he keeps shrinking (her Brother Dave was at least 6'2" when he played Cujo and the guy before him was 6'4"). We're struggling with whether or not to change Cujo's name, now that he is a she. I was never really keen on Cujo anyway- what do you think?

Spike? Duke? Buffy? SOme kids have suggested "Cujjette."

CLICK HERE TO SEND US YOUR SUGGESTION

A mute fan

Poor Heidi. She wants to come out for cheer next season, but right now, her jaw is wired shut after oral surgery. But she still has spirit!

Varsity Rocks the Doghouse!

Here we are chanting at the Manning game last week. You can tell that we really get psyched!

Jr Hi Survivors

Here we are at the Girls' Woodbine Game last night. L-R: Christine, Sasha, Taryn, Kelsey, and Caitlin. Missing (at Doctor's appointments) were Megan and Kenzie. Everybody else is ineligible because they can't get their sorry butts of the D/F list! These girls are a HARD CORE CHEER family.! Christina's boyfriend went out for mascot but didn't quite make it, his older sister cheered on varsity- Taryn's big sister IS our new mascot and Kelsey's cousin Randi cheered for like forever till she graduated last year

New Mascot Chosen

Friday, December 9th we held a tryout and Kaylie Fouts was chosen!
Congratulations Kaylie on becoming Boyer Valley's 5th mascot ever.

CLICK HERE to see a PDF of the evaluation sheet that judges used to score our candidates.

CLICK HERE to see a PDF of the Excel worksheet that I used to average all of their scores together.

Each candidate had to get three teacher reccomendation forms, scoring the student in several categories. These scores are averaged into one score. CLICK HERE to see a PDF of the Teacher Evaluation form

Then I take their culmuative GPA and divide it by a possible 4.0, creating a 0-100 percentage.

Finally all of the judges' scores are averaged into a third score.

Those 3 scores averaged together are the candidates total score. This is pretty much the same process that's followed for cheerleaders too. So you see that I try to make it as objective as possible, so it's hard for me when candidates or their parents criticize me for playing favorites (CLICK HERE for an example).

I'm feeling bad for not having posted anything here for a few days. I guess it's been going pretty smoothly. No, it's not a total fairy tale, I mean let's face it, there are personalities to manage, motivationg to do, interests to balance, yadda yadda yadda.

Jr Hi Skirts & bloomers ("spankies") came today so they can cheer at their third game in actual uniforms.

Varsity body-liners came today which I take as a good sign that the skirts, shells & shoes will arrive soon too.

We've gotten both Angie and Vicki up in half-extentions ("preps") last week and we've been practicing catching Angie in a cradle. That should impress people. We have THREE home games this week. For the life of me, I'll never understand basketball coaches & A.D.s- playing each team ONCE is enough in football, why do we have to play everybody twice?

My computer caught a virus and died yesterday, so I had to use one in the graphics lab. The girls want me to take more pictures and submit them to the paper. It would be a lot easier with my own computer working.

Dec 3- MVAO Rams

Top: "Air-Kirk" Angie shows what an awesome jumper she is! I tell ya, she loves to do it and she's mighty good at it. I'm glad we got her.

Above: Angie, Rena, & Vicki gave it their best tonight even though half the squad was in Des Moines at the State Drill Championships. It took a lot of courage and school spirit to stick it out with only half a squad, but they pulled it off and did a great job, even though several of our boys in the crowd were heckling them half the time.

At last check I think we had almost 10 people show an interest in becoming mascot- of course several have escaped from various asylums- but that might just be a good thing!

Hunting Dogs

Football Cheerleaders - Larissa Park, Nichole Kline and Nikki Stewart, please return you cheerleading uniforms, poms, warm-ups and bags as soon as possible.

Mascot Needed - Physically demanding, must be healthy & in decent shape- not prone to dehydrate or faint easily, Need to have your own ride from school late at night after games, Can’t be on D/F list (ineligible), Should be funny, energetic, creative, & good with little kids. Please see Mr. Mallory ASAP or talk to a current cheerleader. If several people inquire, there may be tryouts before Christmas.

So here's the saga of the mascot search: Brett (our previous mascot) prefers football, basketball games are too hot & too crowded for him. So he's ready to take a season off.

I DESPERATELY tried to get one girl to do it, bus she's on Drill and didn't want to be sweaty and gross for Drill performances, and her mom hates me and doesn't want her to have anything to do with Cheer anymore- CLICK HERE FOR BACKSTORY.

Another former cheerleader desparately wants to be mascot and I like her and part of me wants to just hand it to her, but she is SO dramatic and moody and needy. I love her to death, I really do, but things are running so smooth for a change and I'm spread so thin between family, school and Church right now, it's hard to give a greenlight to being Dr. Phil for someone again. Besides, she's the other one who's mother hates me and "once bitten, twice shy," as far as having to tangle with her again. CLICK HERE FOR that BACKSTORY.

Another candidate who keeps showing interest is a Senior boy with Downs Syndrome. His resource room teacher and I both have concerns. It's a seriously taxing job. Hot and hard to see. And you are constantly being chased by little kids who want to pull your ears, teeth & tail. Then there are the late nights. Last night (a Tuesday) I got home around 11pm. His elderly grandparents would have to pick him up from school after games.

Two other kids told me they'l like to do it, but one guy lives in Harlan so he's concerned about the cost of gas- and not missing his Narcotics Anonymous meetings. (Awesome kid, seriously, I like him a lot). And the other one doesn't have good enough grades.

So at this point I'm hoping I get a few more candidates this week so that we have to have a tryout next week, although the season is already underway. I tried encouraging somebody at the game last night and I've asked the girls to recruit as hard as they can this week. Oh, how I wish Brett would stick with it or that Kenny Kahl Jr. had a younger clone.

It sounds cory and petty since people are staring and losing their homes to floods and earthquakes and dying in wars, but if you think about it, please say a prayer for me and ask God to deliver us a new mascot or at least grant me the wisdom and strength to figure out what to do in this siduation. Thank you faithful readers!

New squad's first game

This bottom picture is deceiving. There actually was a pretty good crowd- on the other side of the bleachers and for the Varsity game, but on THIS side, for the JV game... we pretty much cheered for Mrs. Pippit and her little friend.

As I started to say last post- WOW. What a talented bunch. They were even making up new chants on the fly, which I've only seen much more experienced squads do. They're fairly well in sync, they're fairly loud. Best of all for a first game, (especially since they've really only learned half our "list") they chanted really frequently. And they got the crowd on it's feet and making noise- and THAT, after all, is what cheerleading is all about, Charlie Brown. And they all got along and cooperated with each other- that's the icing.

When we got onto the bus players were applauding us and telling us how proud they were of us.

Now I have to be careful because I don't want to take anything away from these girls, but I'm always pretty cynical and skeptical. It could be that some of these were underclassmen since it was a JV/V boys game, until now we've only been at Varsity only games. It could be because (not to disparage any past cheerleaders in any way, but) these are some pretty cute girls, maybe the boys just like having more "hotties" on squad. It could be that these are more "popular" girls, and that would be a bummer to me. I'm one who believes that there is no "cheerleader type," anyone can be a cheerleader, I loath the cliques and social cast systems that seem to dominate high school life.

But you know what it COULD have been... I could just have been that they did a damn good job. I know I'm proud of and impressed by them.

I was saving this "old school" graphic for if/when I ever made entries about my days at LA Lutheran, but it seemed to go with this photo. Our new (sleek, ultra-contemporary, black uniforms will take a few weeks to get shipped. And unfortunately at least 2 football cheerleaders still haven't returned their uniforms (I hope that's only a matter of oversite or neglect and not spite or theft)- So, things being as they are... the girls decided to go "old school" and half wore the current uniforms and half wore something from the late nienties. It reminded me of Thanksgiving, when the football teams wear uniforms from the '70s. But they LIKED it. It was even THEIR idea, not mind. No complaits whatsoever. Wow.

Did I mention how wierd/cool it is to have such a positive group of people who rarely whine or complain and almost always cooperate? On top of that they did AWESOME last night. You wouldn't have know that it was their first game. More on that in the next post- with a couple more pictures!

Why, Why, Why?

the funny thing bout these is that they actually make sense...

Why, Why, Why?

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet? Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard? Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white? Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, "It's all right?"
Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, "That hurt, you stupid idiot?"

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

Extra Games

Greetings from Sioux Falls and Happy Thanksgiving,

Just wanted to give you the heads up that our season may be starting even sooner than we thought.
Since I've been at BV we've only cheered at games that are both B/G Varsity, but Wed AM Mr. Straight told me that he missed us at Tuesday's game. I reminded him that we'd barely had 4 practices, but he thinks it would be good school spirit if we were at the handfull of B JV/V and G JV/V games too. (thank goodness he didn't say F/JV games too- I think I need a bogger stipend!)

Anyway...point being, our first game's Tues Nov 29, not Sat Dec 3. Mon we'll have to sort out the old uniform thing- but let's try to do it quickly because we'll have a LOT of work to do in practice.

"Spankies" are another issue. Wear what you have if you have black or purple or what ever from Drill etc. If however, you don't have ANY or you have a prior committment or your parents just won't let you- I won't penalize you toward your letter since I had not planned on us having this game. Spankies should come soon though, they ship separately from the rest of the uniforms.

FYI I got the P.O. and the call-in order for shoes done Wed. too, but they dind't give me an estimated time of arrival, sorry.

If you have your notebooks and you have any free time at all this weekend, try to do a little review. Hope your stoked, I am. You're 6 things I'm thankfull for this Thanksgiving.
If any of you have their emails- can you pass word on to Vicki & Kristen?I still don't have Vivki, Kayla, & Kristen's emails entered into my address book yet- but I already spoke to Kayla Wednesday.

Have a great weekend!
Coach

What a difference!

Wow. I never knew that coaching cheer could be this fun or this easy. I'm scared. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop. Maybe it won't, maybe this is the way it's supposed to be. Maybe God has granted me this season's new squad because He feels like I paid my dues last season.

The mom of one candidate who didn't make it back on now hates me and her daughter is never allowed to go out for cheer again. Nor is she allowed to become mascot ( I BEGGED her to, but she's on Drill squad and thought that she'd be gross and sweaty when it was time to perform with Drill, and I suppose she's right.) It makes me sad when a student's attitude and response is more mature than their parents. I really love that kid and was rooting for her to make it back on, but she really needs to work on her grades anyway.

Another mom chewed me out on the phone the other day for nearly 40 minutes. Her daughter and decided not to come back out (maybe she sized up the competition and saw the writing on the wall) she asked if she could help with JrHi cheer on the days she doesn't have Weight Lifting- who knows, maybe she could improve and tryout again next season. She's only a Freshman so she'll have 6 more opportunities- besides many of this season's cheerleaders plan on playing volleyball rather than cheering next Fall. On top of that, she had surgery to have her wisdom teeth out just before tryouts and had some bad reactions to her pain-killers, so she was really in no condition to tryout even if she had wanted to.

Now her mom is angry with me for not rescheduling tryouts. She's still a mess this week. Our first game is Dec 3, I wish I could have had tryouts a month earlier- we're going to be pushing it to be ready as it is. Her mom is blaming a poor quiz grade on her not being in cheer anymore. I think that missing a week of school and beeing doped up on vicodin might have hurt a little. She's scared to death that her kid is going to be up to no good every Friday night and she banked on her getting back on squad when she registered for a class every Friday. Sorry lady (and I was genuinly sorry) but I can't make the entire world revolve around your fears and needs. Today this girl was in tears in my room because her mom was so angry at her for not being a cheerleader anymore. (the Jr Hi squad was gone to middle school activity.) All I could do was try to reassure her that everybody goes through this kind of thing when they separate from their parents' orbit durring adolescence.

But back to THIS season's squad. Holy Cow! They learn so fast. They have so much energy and enthusiasm. They're so sharp. They're so coachable and cooperative. They get along with each other and there's no DRAMA! No crying, no kussing, no tantrums. They want to workout durring conditioning. They don't cut corners, they don't whine.

Wow. Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus!

Amen.

Now...

Our mascot is still uncommitted. There are at least 5 or 6 people who have talked to me about wanting to do it (including the 2nd girl who's mom hates me, but not the first one who already turned me down). So, I guess I need to take home my mascot manual and try to brainstorm a tryout process and then set a date.

Congratulations to the 2005-06 Basketball Cheer squad- Juniors Cassie Androy and

Angie Kirk, Sophomores Kayla Donscheski and Rena Hayden, And Freshmen Kristen Head and Vicki Jones. The competition was fierce. The REAL work starts tomorrow; Practices This Tues-Fri 3:20-5pm

Basketball tryouts

What a treat! 10 candidates showed up, only 2 performed below a 60% average. What a nice problem to have. So this season the difficult decision is choosing the 6th member- 3 candidates all performed about equally well. One Junior, one Sophomore and one Freshman. I'd be posting the new squad right now if it didn't come down to those three.

One is known for absenteeism, one for being surly and uncooperative, and one for being flaky and having poor grades. That makes all 3 sound pretty bad- like why would I pick any of them- but all three have great potential and performed really well at tryouts. I'm thinking that I want one on, one I want to convince to become mascot, and one I'll leave off. What's pushing me that way is not the "rolls her eyes a lot" comments I got from so many teachers, but the rumors that she's likely to get caught at a party and receive an MIP.

We have a meeting with the Varsity rep to get fitted for uniforms Tuesday.

I really hope the other one takes meup on the mascot issue. I've asked her before and she hedged. I can't completely blame her, that is a hot, smelly job.

Stay tuned... I'll try to post the new roster ASAP. Will it be Monday or sooner?

suspence! suspence!

to be continued...

You know you're a cheerleader when...

from ihigh.com:

You know you're a cheerleader when...

Nov 07, 2005 -

You realize most pyramids aren't built in Egypt.

You know buckets, candlesticks, and blades are not made from metal.

You think liberty has nothing to do with freedom.

You can build without a hammer and nails.

Your skirt is shorter than your t-shirt.

You're the only person who counts "5, 6, 7, 8" before "1, 2, 3, 4..."

Your parents consider buying stock in sponge rollers.

All your friends are at dinner while you are at practice.

"Practice makes perfect" isn't just a saying, its a way of life.

You have several different cheer shoes.

You know a scorpion isn't just a bug.

You can do a toe-touch without actually touching your toes.

When you know flying isn't just for the birds.

Your screen name has the word "CHEER" in it!

You realize that cheering is a sport involving skill, talent, and hardwork!

You have seen Bring it on more than 10 times... and know every word and every motion to all the cheers.

Cheerleading Informer

Cheerleading Informer
Finally another blog that's actually ABOUT cheerleading!

Going out with honor

Whew! It's over. Football season is finally over.
Another win, a big one- 48-13 against West Harrison.

As hard as it was, fighting, complaining, missing practices, family crises, illnesses, cussing, not knowing chants, not chanting, being A.W.O.L. from "windows" during games...

I'm actually really proud of this group of girls. Seriously. They performed better in our first game (Away v. Manning Sept.2) than I expected they would.

The Monday after an abysmal performance at home v. CAM, Anita Oct 14, I read them the riot act, and then, Kayla Lawson (Heather's older sister) did to. Let me tell you, that Tuesday they were a different squad. The next game, away against Treynor Oct 21 they were AMAZING.

Tonight they were almost as good (it might hurt their feelings to hear me say "almost") but tonight they ALSO got Andrea up in a half-extension! AND they invited the Junior High squad to perform a chant with them- witch both squads did great on!

With som much buzz and so many candidates, the chemistry will no doubt be different for basketball- and I won't lie, I'm looking forward to it- be that as it may...

No one would have ever thought that Larissa would ever stand in front of the whole school/town and cheer. She's the quietest girl you'll ever meet. People assume she's shy and dark and sulky and sad and likes it that way. But she's one of the bravest, calmest kids I know.

Nikki drives people crazy because she's always talking and moving, but that's exactly what makes her an awesome cheerleader- she's always full of energy and excitement.

Nichole was the most clunky, uncoordinated kid in junior high, but she worked and trained herself and showed enormous determination to improve and she did it.

Andrea told me that coming out for cheerleading was a life-altering decision that she made. I hope she still feels like that's true. No one would have ever thought that she would come out for cheer, they assume that she's brooding and sardonic and critical of perky people. And that's some of what drove her. She wanted to prove her critics wrong. While I still think she's too hard on herself, she made it. By this last game, she knew most of the chants and kept up. And managed to not kill Nikki...and was the flyer in a half-extension.

I appreciate Heather so much. Not just because of her awesome flips and tumbling, but because she was our glue. Our stabilizing element. She's the one who ran after people who stormed off and wanted to quit. She's the one person of the twelve who never went negative, who never felt sorry for herself and never complained. Even when she lost her Grandpa. She's steady and she leads both by directing people and by example. And even though she's a natural born flyer, she didn't hog the glory but became an outstanding base too.

And Rena. Wow. What a difference from last year. I see it, former cheerleaders see it, other teachers and administrators see it. She was harassed and tormented by classmates last year. This year she's EmCeeing pep-rallies and calling most of the chants and making most of the decisions at games. She encouraged junior high girls to take cheerleading seriously yesterday because of how much it can teach you. She still may have more to learn and more ways to grow, but I'm really proud of her.

After Student Council announced the Football, Band, and Cross Country Seniors and their parents, the girls surprised me- Heather came over the P.A. and they thanked me for my work this season. Then the squad presented me with a batch of cupcakes.

Aw shucks!

Now, a week off of Varsity, then Tryouts.

Last home football game

Basketball Tryouts

Varsity Cheer Tryouts- Tryout Practices will be Mon & Tues Nov 7^th & 8^th. Tryouts will be Thursday, November 10^th. Candidates need to get teacher-recommendation and parental-release forms from Coach Mallory in the Art room as soon as possible.

BV Cheer T-Shirts are available for $12, see Mr. Mallory if you're interested.

Football Cheerleaders- Please return your uniforms, pons, bags, warm-ups, & megaphones ASAP on or after Tuesday, Nov.1st

Area Alumni- If any of you would be interested in judging tryouts, I'd love to have your help. Tryouts are 11/10 from 3:20-5, we had 21 candidates attend our informational meeting last week!

Teachers- Candidates will be bringing teacher reccomendation forms to you soon. Please complete them honestly- even bluntly and return them either directly to me or place them in my mailbox. Also, if any of you would like to help judge tryout that would be great too! Thanks

Football Season Cheer Squad Pictures
Tues, Nov.1 at 1:15

Tryouts

Warren Easton in Exile

Warren Easton in Exile
How cool is this, a New Orleans high school, that's closed due to Katrina, still has a website! Now that's school spirit!

Sports Quotes - Sports Quotations, Sports Sayings

Sports Quotes - Sports Quotations, Sports Sayings:

"If you can't accept losing, you can't win."
- Vince Lombardi

"Sports Do Not Build Character...They Reveal It"
- John Wooden

Homecoming isn't until the 14th, but I thought we should get a jump on the run through. I couldn't find a cougar that looked like it was running away, so I used Hannah Barbara's "Snaggle-Puss." Kids today probably won't have any clue who he was. Cest la Vie!

Top: Finally, in full force at the Woodbine game.

Middle: Visiting with our opponents and neighbors.

Bottom: Larissa and Andrea are Jedi Kinghts attacking with their light sabers...sorta.