Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas Cheerleaders and Cheer-Parents! (In the event that we don't see you in school tomorrow, due to the weather)Kaitlyn Bonsall works on her Drawing Final in Coach's class.

If this were a movie...

I don't have a good enough lens to get a great zoom shot from across the gym- they always end up looking grainy or blurry, but I always wish I could get a straight shot and I like the reflection on the floor. So, I monkeyed around in Photoshop and these are what I came up with. I think they could look like album covers or movie posters.

More Woodbine

I was trying to capture the kinds of moments during cheer that never get caught, and trying to get a fun, tight composition. I don't know, I'm not as talented as some photographers, so I instead I spruced it up in Photoshop. Purple power.
Rootin' tootin' cow girls!
Welcome aboard Freshman, Makayla- pretty good job for a first game, you're pretty outgoing- just what a cheer squad needs. Great leadership, Kens- with two rookies and Sasha gone you really did a great job of teaching and leading.

Wodbine

I got into an experimental photography mode this game. These first two shots are of the two veterans, Kensie & Kaitlyn, both of whom could probably be models if they wanted to. Very photogenic. Above in Sepia, below in black and white.

This game was literally a "nail biter." We lost it 53-52 rather than 53-49 because of a last second 3 point shot, but it was close the entire game. Ironically Kensie isn't biting her nails in this picture, because she does it more than everybody else.
This one has kind of a retro feel, like it's a 40 year old Polaroid and the colors have faded.
Traditional style- showing them having tons of fun (which they did, especially during the girl's game, which we won by at least 30)

Big Debut

ENOUGH of this stupid picture taking, Mr. Mallory!

I thought they did a great job for their first game, especially with Kensie sick as a dog and Kelsey never having done this before. Hopefully when Cammey comes back from her family vacation, she'll be able to join us. Christine recently told me that her boss wants her to cheer again, so who knows, maybe she'll be able to join us once in a while too.

MS Cheer 2008-09

Tiffany, Renea, Holly, Kayli, Katie, Lara, and Lexi take a break between games.
Renea & Tiffany take to the air, showing off their super-human powers of levitation!

Getting the crowd going at half time.

No kidding, I've said it before and varsity veteran, Christine backs me up on this- no offense intended to former junior high cheerleaders, but this is gotta be the best middle school cheer squad I've seen in years, maybe ever! Loads of thanks to both Christine and Kassi for all the times you've helped with 7th hour practice. Especially this past couple of weeks with my family issues, your work with these girls has been immeasurable and invaluable. I SO hope that every one of the girls in this bunch gets bit by the cheer bug and come to love it enough that they all want to cheer in high school too, because they're fantastic. You make Boyer Valley proud, ladies!

An apology to Basketball fans, players, and coaches

It's been a rough start, but I swear, we're gonna be okay

I am really sorry that we missed the Dec. 1 Home JV game against Woodbine. In past years we've only performed at home Varsity G/B, not 9 or J/V so I was surprised by it. At the time Sasha and Kelsey were both sick, MecKensie was at the hospital in Sioux City for her Aunt, and as you may know, my brother-in-law was found dead that morning so I don't know that we could've cheered anyway.

For the Friday, Dec. 5 Varsity home game 4 of the 5 girls were gone with the Drill team and I had to be at my brother-in-law's viewing, and I couldn't see having MecKensie cheer alone.

Just so you don't feel like you need to talk to me about it tomorrow, they won't be there again tonight (Tues Dec. 9). I haven't had a chance to tell the cheerleaders yet that we need to be at all home games, even if they're JV. We still haven't had a full practice yet, I have a MS game this afternoon, we just yesterday confirmed that Cammey Hast will be able to be on squad and we haven't gotten a uniform for her yet. And to be honest with you, I'm still feeling pretty shredded, both emotionally and physically.

This is who I have this season:
Sasha Meggers
MecKensie Jensen
Kaitlyn Bonsall
Kelsey Muff
Cammey Hast

As I said, Cammey didn't know if she had permission from her parents until yesterday. Kaitlyn, Kelsey and Cammey had told me that they could only come out for cheer if they only cheered at home games. I discussed it with Sasha and MecKensie and thought that (only for this year) maybe we should just cheer at home games, as opposed to only having 2 away cheerleaders. Chaise Fraiser had planned on cheering, but last week she told me that her parents weren't going to allow her to.

I've been hearing it from students and I feel badly, but I'm telling you- I bend over backwards trying to recruit. I'd love to have 20 candidates and hold tryouts to select the best 6 or 8. There's just too many girls that are too committed to playing Volleyball and Basketball.

I've been doing this for 15 years and it's important to me. I care about this sport, I care about school spirit at BV, and I care about these girls like they're my own kids. Please be patient with me. I'm confident that we'll finally manage to dig in and do a great job. I really think that these glitches have been an anomaly.

Thank you for your understanding,

Way to go Drillies!

I had several requests to post these pictures on Facebook, but my home computer seems to be down with a virus again and of course Facebook is blocked at school (rightfully so, in my opinion). So here they are. If you're on Drill, or a Drill parent, feel free to click on the picture to see it full sized, and then "right-click" on it in order to save a copy on your own computer.


Congratulations to the Boyer Valley Drill Squad won first place in the "pom" category, second place in "hip hop" and third in the "show"

So let's see here... Rachael and Natalie were awesome cheerleaders in junior high and I wish they'd come back, but like VB & BB too much... Cammey and Kelsey are gonna cheer this basketball season... so is Kaitlyn, who cheered last year... Sasha, of course, my rock, has been cheering since 7th grade... and Kristen cheered a couple of years ago... Victoria's sister was an incredible cheerleader years ago, but of course, she's a total VB/BB jock... and Megan has thought about coming out a few times but ends up sticking with VB or BB. And all the rest of you are more than welcome to give cheer a try one of these days, you know! BV is very proud of all of you. Great job again this year!

4-year SENIORS!!!

Cheer Schedule

Here is our schedule with all the singe-gender and Freshman/JV games taken out. When in doubt, check the school's website for the complete schedule.

Expect practices to run at least 3:30-4:30, (possibly 5, especially when we stunt- which we can & will do with 4 people!). After Dec. 4, plan on practicing every Monday and Thursday unless you receive other notice from me, but we will see how we're doing and as always we'll be flexible depending on Drill Squad, jobs, families, medical issues etc.

Please choose a home game to bring hospitality treats for. Pep Rallies are on Fridays of home games, although maybe we should have a couple for Saturday home games because we have so few this year. I know that Mrs. Klein will have StuCo do something for Gnimocemoh this year. With 3 of the 4 of you on Drill, I'm sure you can keep us informed about when JoEtt wants to have Drill perform at a pep rally.

Dec. 5 Whiting G/B V Home 6:00pm- PEP RALLY
Dec. 9 Odebolt-Arthur G/B V Away 6:00pm
Dec. 12 West Harrison G/B V Away 6:00pm
Dec. 13 AHST G/B V Home 6:15pm
Dec. 16 Woodbine G/B V Home 6:30pm
Dec. 19 Ar-We-Va G/B V Home 6:30pm - PEP RALLY
Jan. 9 Lo-Ma G/B V Away 6:00pm
Jan. 12 Southern Cal G/B V Away 6:00pm
Jan. 13 COU G/B V Home 6:00pm
Jan. 16 Woodbine G/B V Away 6:00pm
Jan. 17 Lawton-Bronson G/B V Away 6:00pm
Jan. 20 West Monona G/B V Away 6:00pm
Jan. 22 Ar-We-Va G/B V Away 6:00pm
Jan. 23 IKM-Manning G/B V Home 6:00pm- PEP RALLY

Jan. 26 Western Valley Conference G Tourn. TBA 6:00pm
Jan. 27 Western Valley Conference G Tourn. TBA 6:00pm
Jan. 29 Western Valley Conference G Tourn. TBA 6:00pm
Jan. 31 Western Valley Conference G Tourn. TBA 6:00pm

Feb. 2 Western Valley Conference B Tourn. TBA 6:00pm
Feb. 3 Western Valley Conference B Tourn. TBA 6:00pm
Feb. 6 Western Valley Conference B Tourn. TBA 6:00pm
Feb. 7 Western Valley Conference B Tourn. TBA 6:00pm
________________________________________________
Boyer Valley Community Schools
Challenging all students to meet their full potential
http://www.boyer-valley.k12.ia.us

My Secret Identity

I may not be writing a weekly column for the Mapleton PRESS anymore, but I have tried to clean-up and organize six years of columns and made them easier to find on my main blog. Why not peruse through the humor, history and humus. It's full of "Sex, Politics, and Religion- not necessarily in that order." Or at least, liberal politics, the my misadventures parenting three little girls, and the joys of living in small town Iowa and good old fashioned Midwestern, down to earth common sense Lutheranism.

At least take a look at a couple of columns and give it a chance.

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