So last year in this thread I posted about how a group of the little girls from the gym I cheered at my whole life (Maine Stars, its in Maine and very small) made the switch to ECE because they wanted the chance to compete in the elite level 5 circuit. Well flash forward 1 year and they're going into their 2nd year with 1 2015 World Champion (c5) and a bunch of them 2015 Summit Champs (J5)! Last year each kid was placed respectively on J3, J5 and alternate for Y5, Y5 and J5, J5, J5 and M5, J5 and M5 (ended up with back injury and didn't get to compete at all bc she wasn't cleared until right around Summit), M5 and alternate for J5, and C5. This season in the same order they made Y5 and either C4 or S4, Y5 and J5, C5 and J5, J5, J5 and M5, C5 and J5, J5 and M5, and C5! The one that was on Y5 and J5 last year and her sister (the one who was injured) both made C5 and J5 for the upcoming season and I couldn't be prouder of them and their mom is one of the sweetest women I have ever met and I practically cried tears of joy when I found out that they made C5! I am also incredibly proud of my absolute favorite little one who moved up from J3 to Y5 this season, she is the closest thing I've ever had to a little sister and I'd do anything for that kid! She works SO hard and has come so far in her 4 (now starting her 5th season) that she's been cheering! 3 summers ago is when she got her backhandspring and how she's throwing one to full, specialty through to full and she also has never based a day in her life but was told she'd have to base on Y5 and her mom told me she's been doing so good learning how to base at level 5!
Also, one of my other old teammates from Maine that is a few years older than me and who has been coaching for a few years at Maine Stars tried out for ECE i5 last year (she only had senior 4 skills when she graduated high school and has continued to work on her tumbling over the past few years and is currently working on keeping her double full consistently) and got 6th at Worlds this year made and the same team again! Another girl I cheered with who began coaching at Maine Stars last season tried out for i5 this year and made the team as well! I'm so excited to see my old teammates back on the mat doing what they love!
And my old gym Maine Stars had a great season even with all of the talent they lost between the kids that switched and some who graduated! The gym has like maybe 50 kids total and lost 3 double fulls (only two had doubles when they moved to ECE and one graduated) and 8 fulls (5 to ECE and three graduated) which left like 2 or 3 fulls total in the whole gym and, they announced on their Facebook page last night that they are up to 10 kids consistently throwing fulls and a few more that are super close but not there yet! I'm insanely proud of how they persevered through a tough loss of many talented long time veteran athletes even though it meant taking the restricted 5 team they had finally been able to form for two years (my senior year and the following year) back down to senior 4! Most of this past year's S4 team had only ever competed at level 2 or 3 prior and were moved up because of so many new vacancies on the team! I'm not sure if they'll go back to R5 or not this season (their tryouts are this coming week and I think a couple of the newer fulls might not be 10 and old enough for R5) but I love seeing the progress they're making!