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!