I coach at Platinum Athletics and we were hit with a horrible news this weekend.
Alexia is an athlete on my Senior 2 team. She just lost her dad yesterday (Sunday) morning. Her dad (Greg) had a long history of heart difficulties. He has had numerous surgeries and was put in the hospital about 10 days prior to his passing for shortness of breath.
Platinum Atheltics had a cheerleading competition in Chicago, Illinois last weekend. Right before we left, Greg had a stroke. He was put on feeding tubes and was unable to do any thing on his own at all. Alexia still wanted to go to Chicago to compete. She did and her team brought home a FIRST PLACE finish in Chicago. She did a great job performing!
Late on Saturday night (just a few days ago) he went into cardiac arrest. There was a "No Resistate" order on him, so they let him go. I got a phone call arond 4:00am Sunday morning that Alexia's dad had passed away. I know my heart dropped into my stomach hearing the news. Alexia was a Daddie's Girl and Greg was a great, caring man, and a great Platinum Supporter. What was the breaking point was reading Alexia's facebook status around 4am. I immediately broke into tears.
We had a competition (locally, here in Saint Louis) Sunday morning. I texted one of my upper level kids to fill in for Alexia for the competition, only to find out that Alexia let us know that she was going to the competition and she was going to compete. I didnt know if she would be emotionally stable enough to do that, but I wanted to do everything I could to keep her happy and comfortable! So I let her compete.
Alexia cried most of the day. I saw she was around friends, so I didnt want to say much to her, especially when I saw her tears dry up a few times. We went through warmups really well. No tears in the warmup room - but her face said it all.
Finally it was time to compete. They took the floor. I watched Alexia the whole time. For two minutes and thirty seconds - she performed the hell out of that routine. She smiled the whole time, gave a few shimmy's and winks and gave the routine her all. I didnt know what to do. They hit a near flawless routine and ended up winning first place, Grand Champions of the whole session, also the Best Stunting Award and the Best Choreography Award!
I was in shock. I couldnt beleive how emotionally strong she was. She was 100 time stronger then I ever could have been. She was an inspiration to ALL of our teams that day to give performances of a life time. She showed the TRUE MEANING of being a cheerleader and showed the TRUE MEANING of having passion for a sport!
Today - we found out that the family has no insurance to cover the funeral and they need help with funeral expenses! If you can help donate to this amazing family - Please send donations to
Platinum Athletics
Attn: Jamie Walsh
2521 Adie Road
Maryland Heights, MO 63043
Thank you everyone for reading, and thank you for any type of support you could help give - whether that be financially, verbally, with prayer or anything else.
Alexia is an athlete on my Senior 2 team. She just lost her dad yesterday (Sunday) morning. Her dad (Greg) had a long history of heart difficulties. He has had numerous surgeries and was put in the hospital about 10 days prior to his passing for shortness of breath.
Platinum Atheltics had a cheerleading competition in Chicago, Illinois last weekend. Right before we left, Greg had a stroke. He was put on feeding tubes and was unable to do any thing on his own at all. Alexia still wanted to go to Chicago to compete. She did and her team brought home a FIRST PLACE finish in Chicago. She did a great job performing!
Late on Saturday night (just a few days ago) he went into cardiac arrest. There was a "No Resistate" order on him, so they let him go. I got a phone call arond 4:00am Sunday morning that Alexia's dad had passed away. I know my heart dropped into my stomach hearing the news. Alexia was a Daddie's Girl and Greg was a great, caring man, and a great Platinum Supporter. What was the breaking point was reading Alexia's facebook status around 4am. I immediately broke into tears.
We had a competition (locally, here in Saint Louis) Sunday morning. I texted one of my upper level kids to fill in for Alexia for the competition, only to find out that Alexia let us know that she was going to the competition and she was going to compete. I didnt know if she would be emotionally stable enough to do that, but I wanted to do everything I could to keep her happy and comfortable! So I let her compete.
Alexia cried most of the day. I saw she was around friends, so I didnt want to say much to her, especially when I saw her tears dry up a few times. We went through warmups really well. No tears in the warmup room - but her face said it all.
Finally it was time to compete. They took the floor. I watched Alexia the whole time. For two minutes and thirty seconds - she performed the hell out of that routine. She smiled the whole time, gave a few shimmy's and winks and gave the routine her all. I didnt know what to do. They hit a near flawless routine and ended up winning first place, Grand Champions of the whole session, also the Best Stunting Award and the Best Choreography Award!
I was in shock. I couldnt beleive how emotionally strong she was. She was 100 time stronger then I ever could have been. She was an inspiration to ALL of our teams that day to give performances of a life time. She showed the TRUE MEANING of being a cheerleader and showed the TRUE MEANING of having passion for a sport!
Today - we found out that the family has no insurance to cover the funeral and they need help with funeral expenses! If you can help donate to this amazing family - Please send donations to
Platinum Athletics
Attn: Jamie Walsh
2521 Adie Road
Maryland Heights, MO 63043
Thank you everyone for reading, and thank you for any type of support you could help give - whether that be financially, verbally, with prayer or anything else.
