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Lisa Welsh
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By Lisa D. Welsh
www.CHEERMaD.com
Gorgeous Senior Level 2, The Headliners of ProAthletics 2010-2011, CHEERSPORT Champs
“Please refrain from approaching an athlete if they are with their team” was a comment Tweeted from one of last weekend’s competitions. The MAJORS, CHEERLEBRITIES and other Nationals Competitions feature the most accomplished Level 5 athletes. We see them on magazine covers and defying gravity at our own gyms. Level 4 and 5 athletes are absolutely breathtaking to watch.
Headliners' pre-comp circle
But this Certifiably CHEERMaD blog is for the CHEERMaDs of athletes on Level 2 teams. Those of us who know what it’s like to have a persistent, determined and hardworking child who won’t get the chance to go to Worlds but whose entire world is Allstars.
http://cheermad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/becky-5-star.jpgBecky was one such Allstar. When she quit softball because it conflicted with her Allstar schedule, her father said I should discourage her, that gymnasts were short for a reason; “Their center of gravity is close to the ground.” And he was a right, with a 6’4” father, 5’6” mom, the tallest girl in the 5th grade, Becky was already taller than the petite tumblers.
All the private tumbling sessions we paid couldn’t help her get her back-handspring. Year after year, while girls younger than Becky made higher level teams, her frustration was understandable. It didn’t feel fair, but she learned to accept it.
It's clear from the expression of Ella Johnson's face that she loves Mini Level 2.
Still, she loved cheering. During a very dark phase in her life, the only time I saw her smile was when she was on the mat. It was a place where she could forget her troubles, literally. The gym was a magical refuge where everything else going on in her life was left at the door.
Not only was she against body-type for tumbling, the taller than average adolescent was not conducive to flying either. She wasn’t the point person, wasn’t in the middle of the routine and certainly not the front.
But week after week, she was on time and ready for practice. She was dependable and reliable, the kind of base that would cushion her flyer’s fall with her own body before she’d let her flyer touch a mat.
Would she get frustrated? You bet. Whether real or perceived, she felt like Senior Level 4 and 5 athletes thought Level 2s were beneath them, like there was some invisible hierarchy.
ProAthletics' Jr. Level 2, 2012-2013
Outside of the gym, many Senior level 2 athletes who weren’t “stars” were the best at their high schools where a round-off-back-handspring was an advanced move. In Becky’s case, she was repeatedly recruited by her high school cheerleading squad until she relented. She wasn’t accustomed to that kind of attention and certainly not the standing ovation she received when she threw her RBH at the Thanksgiving pep rally.
Her Allstar team was together for two years and at times was its worst enemy. Sidelined by doubts and lack of confidence, the team would beat themselves. The first year at a new gym; the teammates were a mixture of cliques from different high schools and former Allstar gyms, they almost won, weekend after weekend. And even when they gave their best performance of the season, it wasn’t good enough for first place.
Two years later, our gym doesn't have a Sr. Level 2 but I see similarities in this year's Jr. Level 2 team, and universally all Level 2 teams.
It was discouraging to be on Senior Level 2 but almost the entire team returned the next year and while they sensed nothing much was expected of them, they were driven by the need to “show them all.” It helped that their coaches believed in them, even on days when they didn’t believe in themselves.
Until they started to win.
At competitions when the higher Senior level teams did not. And something started to shift in the gym. They were the Bad News Bears of Allstars and soon other CHEERMaDs were rooting for them, not just their own.
About halfway through the season, the Senior Level 5 team started arriving extra early and stand at the end of the stage to cheer them on. One such Allstar was overheard to say, “I’d show up five hours early to watch Becky work that dance.”
http://cheermad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/167359_495702282656_634417656_6348339_309223_n.jpg
Headliners’ “Super Senior Seven” and 2010-2011 CheerSport National Champions. Coaches Jason Graham (left) and Kelly Proctor (right) helped them “believe.”
And work it they did. All the way to earning their CheerSport jackets and a reputation of being the team to contend with. Confidence knows no level and thankfully for the sport of Allstars, the Level 1s, 2s and 3s know how to persevere.
Tiny Tots "The Hot Shots" won their third straight competition last weekend with (standing from left) assistant coach Jackie, Coach Becky and tumble coach Paul
Becky never did get a softball scholarship as her father always hoped, but two years after leaving Sr. Level 2, she is head coach of a Tiny Tots Level 1 team which is undefeated this season.
Becky's "Hot Shots" live up to their name
She shares her love for the sport with those little ones who work so hard. With the right preparation and decisions they make in the next five years, hey might reach Level 5 someday. But some may persevere and still never go beyond Level 2. I hope they learn, it’s not the level of difficulty but the level of joy they have that counts on the score sheets of life.
By Lisa D. Welsh
www.CHEERMaD.com
Gorgeous Senior Level 2, The Headliners of ProAthletics 2010-2011, CHEERSPORT Champs
“Please refrain from approaching an athlete if they are with their team” was a comment Tweeted from one of last weekend’s competitions. The MAJORS, CHEERLEBRITIES and other Nationals Competitions feature the most accomplished Level 5 athletes. We see them on magazine covers and defying gravity at our own gyms. Level 4 and 5 athletes are absolutely breathtaking to watch.
Headliners' pre-comp circle
But this Certifiably CHEERMaD blog is for the CHEERMaDs of athletes on Level 2 teams. Those of us who know what it’s like to have a persistent, determined and hardworking child who won’t get the chance to go to Worlds but whose entire world is Allstars.
http://cheermad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/becky-5-star.jpgBecky was one such Allstar. When she quit softball because it conflicted with her Allstar schedule, her father said I should discourage her, that gymnasts were short for a reason; “Their center of gravity is close to the ground.” And he was a right, with a 6’4” father, 5’6” mom, the tallest girl in the 5th grade, Becky was already taller than the petite tumblers.
All the private tumbling sessions we paid couldn’t help her get her back-handspring. Year after year, while girls younger than Becky made higher level teams, her frustration was understandable. It didn’t feel fair, but she learned to accept it.
It's clear from the expression of Ella Johnson's face that she loves Mini Level 2.
Still, she loved cheering. During a very dark phase in her life, the only time I saw her smile was when she was on the mat. It was a place where she could forget her troubles, literally. The gym was a magical refuge where everything else going on in her life was left at the door.
Not only was she against body-type for tumbling, the taller than average adolescent was not conducive to flying either. She wasn’t the point person, wasn’t in the middle of the routine and certainly not the front.
But week after week, she was on time and ready for practice. She was dependable and reliable, the kind of base that would cushion her flyer’s fall with her own body before she’d let her flyer touch a mat.
Would she get frustrated? You bet. Whether real or perceived, she felt like Senior Level 4 and 5 athletes thought Level 2s were beneath them, like there was some invisible hierarchy.
ProAthletics' Jr. Level 2, 2012-2013
Outside of the gym, many Senior level 2 athletes who weren’t “stars” were the best at their high schools where a round-off-back-handspring was an advanced move. In Becky’s case, she was repeatedly recruited by her high school cheerleading squad until she relented. She wasn’t accustomed to that kind of attention and certainly not the standing ovation she received when she threw her RBH at the Thanksgiving pep rally.
Her Allstar team was together for two years and at times was its worst enemy. Sidelined by doubts and lack of confidence, the team would beat themselves. The first year at a new gym; the teammates were a mixture of cliques from different high schools and former Allstar gyms, they almost won, weekend after weekend. And even when they gave their best performance of the season, it wasn’t good enough for first place.
Two years later, our gym doesn't have a Sr. Level 2 but I see similarities in this year's Jr. Level 2 team, and universally all Level 2 teams.
It was discouraging to be on Senior Level 2 but almost the entire team returned the next year and while they sensed nothing much was expected of them, they were driven by the need to “show them all.” It helped that their coaches believed in them, even on days when they didn’t believe in themselves.
Until they started to win.
At competitions when the higher Senior level teams did not. And something started to shift in the gym. They were the Bad News Bears of Allstars and soon other CHEERMaDs were rooting for them, not just their own.
About halfway through the season, the Senior Level 5 team started arriving extra early and stand at the end of the stage to cheer them on. One such Allstar was overheard to say, “I’d show up five hours early to watch Becky work that dance.”
http://cheermad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/167359_495702282656_634417656_6348339_309223_n.jpg
Headliners’ “Super Senior Seven” and 2010-2011 CheerSport National Champions. Coaches Jason Graham (left) and Kelly Proctor (right) helped them “believe.”
And work it they did. All the way to earning their CheerSport jackets and a reputation of being the team to contend with. Confidence knows no level and thankfully for the sport of Allstars, the Level 1s, 2s and 3s know how to persevere.
Tiny Tots "The Hot Shots" won their third straight competition last weekend with (standing from left) assistant coach Jackie, Coach Becky and tumble coach Paul
Becky never did get a softball scholarship as her father always hoped, but two years after leaving Sr. Level 2, she is head coach of a Tiny Tots Level 1 team which is undefeated this season.
Becky's "Hot Shots" live up to their name
She shares her love for the sport with those little ones who work so hard. With the right preparation and decisions they make in the next five years, hey might reach Level 5 someday. But some may persevere and still never go beyond Level 2. I hope they learn, it’s not the level of difficulty but the level of joy they have that counts on the score sheets of life.
