IF WE WIN TONIGHT

In the event that Boyer Valley beats Freemont-Mills, the 2nd round of playoffs will be Monday night, Nov.1
Watch your facebook, email, & this blog, I will try to tell you where and what time the van leaves as soon as I find out.

If we win on Monday night, the next round will be next Friday Nov. 5- expect a pep rally.

A lot of kids were miffed that we didn't have a pep-rally today. Sorry about that, it's been that way for a few years- blame ITEDs and P/T Conferences.

If I understand the calendar right, if the VB girls keep winning, they could go to Regionals on Tuesday night, Nov 2- if THAT happens- expect a pep rally Tuesday (this is your head's up).

Just FYI- IA HS Cheer Championships are Sat. Nov. 6- you might want to google it to see if it will be on IPTV or ESPN2 or somewhere.

BB Cheer MTG

Anyone interested in coming out for Basketball Cheerleading- we will meet after school  in Mr. Mallory's room TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2. How soon we begin daily practices and when/if there are tryouts depends on turn out.

BB Cheer Meeting

Anyone interested in coming out for Basketball Cheerleading- we will meet after school  in Mr. Mallory's room TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2

How soon we begin daily practices and when/if there are tryouts depends on turn out.

Van Time: 4:45 Wed. 10/27

Please plan on leaving school at 4:45pm this Wed. for the opening round of playoffs. Freemont-Mills is just under 2 hours away. Bring some money because we will stop for supper on the way.

If any of your parents of friends would like to come to the game, here are directions:


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Mascot Needed

Cheerleading's not for everyone

Man Up; Be a Leader, a Cheerleader, that is.

MS Cheerleaders Wanted

Famous Cheerleaders

Do you have what it takes to be a cheerleader?

Did you know- 83% of cheerleaders are leaders other places

Basketball Cheer

Anyone interested in BB Cheerleading or Mascot- please let Coach Mallory know as soon as possible. Expect an announcement about tryouts in the next 2 weeks.

Awesome Book

A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring by John Wooden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Many years ago, when I was teaching at Los Angeles Lutheran High, our friend and former Vice Principal had become a family therapist. The psychologists she worked with had developed what they called a "Life Model." One aspect of the life model was a mentoring continuum, having people older than yourself whom you learn from and friends younger than yourself whom you can try to spiritually parent.

I remember thinking that it was a noble ideal, but wasn't sure how I could put it into action. I didn't have a lot of friends above my age range and wasn't sure that I could fit it into my schedule. As a teacher I was sold on trying to disciple young people, but figured I was better off allowing relationships to develop rather than trying to deliberately fabricate them.

Later on this same concept was proposed by the Promise Keeper's movement. I attended a couple of PK conferences with my Principal, who I suspect was seeking to be my mentor- but for whatever reason, we never seemed to "click." PK recommended having older men mentor you and hold you accountable and younger men whom you could challenge and teach as well.

At this time I had a couple of pastors who were older than me and a prestigious painter who'd retired from LALHS before I started teaching there, but I never seemed to manage to become the close confidant with any of them that I imagined being mentored entailed. Meanwhile I felt like I was managing to shepherd and be available for some students, but it seemed like most of them were young women- it didn't seem like I had the same kind of connections with boys. No doubt being a cheerleading coach and Art teacher had some to do with that.

When we moved back to Iowa and left Lutheran High for a public school, I wanted a way to reach the girls I coached and be able to help develop their character since I'd now be in a secular setting. At first I leaned on Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking and eventually discovered Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success.

It didn't occur to me that I hadn't just found material to help me mentor students and athletes, I had myself, found a mentor.

In this book, Coach Wooden explains that mentors can be real people you have meaningful relationships with, like his father, leaders you look up to and who model a great example for you, like his high school coach and principal, people who care for you and try to guide you, like Wooden's college coach at Purdue. But leaders may even be people you don't actually know personally, whom you study and admire, and whom you either try to emulate or who's thinking and ideas shape your own. In Wooden's case, Abraham Lincoln and Mother Theresa. AND, mentors may be peers and loved ones, not just your elders- people who influence you and who you learn from, like a close friend or even a spouse.

The second half of this book was written by seven people for whom Wooden was a mentor. They each write about how he influenced their character, philosophy and lives. Sure there are famous athletes he coached, like Careem Abdul Jabaar, but there are also other coaches he worked with and a teacher who had never really met Wooden- but who had read everything by the Wizard of Westwood until he was asked to contribute to this book.

Last week I attended a conference for college and high school teachers where the key note speaker challenged us to do something positive that would help us build community. He asked us to contact at least 3 people who had contributed positively to our lives and let them know how much we appreciated it.

At first I was stumped. My old Psych Professor had passed away. My old newspaper publisher had passed away. I didn't have an address for my old Education Prof. who was starting a school in Vietnam of something like that. What could I do?

I looked behind me instead of looking ahead of me. I wrote some of my former students who had meant a lot to me. Then, coincidentally, I stumbled across another Ed. Prof. on a professional networking site. Then I found the email address of the first Ed. Prof. Then a google search turned up the new church where one of those old pastors was now serving.

They all replied to my emails by telling me that I'd made their day. One of the students wrote back to tell me how much I had meant to them.

What I realized by reading this book is that mentoring is both simpler/easier/less forced than I had assumed, and at the same time even more profound and important than I realized. It is definitely something we should all be doing, for ourselves, and for others.



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Tryouts/Plans for Basketball Season

VARSITY-

• Please let me know if you're up for cheering for basketball as soon as you can.
• Tryouts for basketball cheer will be some time before Thanksgiving. A tentative date is still pending. 
• As usual, if we have just 4-6 who are set to go, we'll waive the tryouts. If we have 10-20, especially if there's a lot of inexperience, we'll have some kind of a tryout, which you'll all do fine on.
• NOT cheering for BB: Ashley & Sam due to jobs.
• PLANNING to Cheer for BB: Tiffany, Renea, Kayla, and Quincy
• LIKE COSTUMES? Christian had planned on NOT mascotting for basketball, so we also need a new Cujo- if any of you or your friends are interested, please let me know soon.

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MIDDLE SCHOOL-

• IF YOU'D LIKE A HOODIE- they're $35, please let me know as soon as you can. They should be here in a couple of weeks. Make sure you tell me what size you want. Sorry, names on the back are only available for Varsity.
• If you're NOT planning on cheering during basketball season, please return your skirts as soon as possible. Thank you to those who already have.
• If you ARE planning on cheering during basketball, please let me know soon and please plan on attending practices beginning this Wednesday, Oct. 20. - we were planning on working on stunting this practice, however -if there is either a low turn out or a majority  of brand new people, we may need to work on something else.

Playoff Game Wed. 10/27

Just to let you all know ahead of time.

we are expected to cheer for the first round of football playoffs

Wednesday night, October 27 in Freemont-Mills (South of Council Bluffs)

It is possible that this may change, but we are highly favored over Walnut this Fri so we will most likely play on the 27th and Freemont-Mills is highly favored against their opponent too, so it is most likely that we will play them on their home field, not ours.

Please mark your calendars and plan ahead.

Hoodie Design

$35.00 each Varsity Cheer only can get 3inch tall names on the back.

Names I have so far (Let me know ASAP if you want it different):

• Kate
• Camero
• BKizzle
• Sam-I-Am
• Kay Kay
• Quincy
• Brenda
• Ashley
• Cujo
• Coach

Chant List

Back in 2005, I asked the Varsity Cheer Squad to perform our entire list of chants, including the school fight song. The idea was to make the video available for candidates trying out and for both MS and HS Cheerleaders so that they could practice at home. If you haven't received a DVD, you should be able to use this video. Ideally, you can pause it and replay it when you need to, or fast-forward through chants you already know well.
 

Fall Middle School Cheer Slide Show

Fall Middle School Cheer Slide Show

Fall Slide Show

Going Solo

We thought we were going to have several MS cheerleaders for the away game against Charter Oak-Ute, but, according to Marissa (who's Mom was the ride for Emily & Larissa too), she had to go to her brother's 12th birthday party. And so it goes. Be that as it may, Catherine's Mom still drove her to the game. I thanked her for coming but let her know that I wouldn't MAKE her cheer alone. She decided to wrangle up a couple of 6th grade girls who happened to be at the game and the three of them did a terrific job! I was really proud of them. The got the crowd to cheer with them, they did push-ups when we scored, they even did a few cartwheels. Loud and PROUD! Way to show your spirit, Cat.