Outside Class Activity

For the ones that do not already know, I am a competitive cheerleader for Platinum Cheer Stars. Platinum Cheer Stars (PCS) is located in Dinwiddie Virginia and has been open for six years now.  I cheer on two teams at Platinum Cheer Stars: senior four and senior three. I also coach two teams as well as cheering. The two teams I coach are tinys level one and juniors level one. The girls I coach range from ages three to twelve. Quick background information of competitive cheering it is separated by ages and levels. The levels depend upon the difficulty of tumbling and stunts one can do. In total there are six levels of cheer-leading. The levels I cheer for are three and four. Level three tumbling consist of multiple standing backhand-springs, running round-off-backhand-spring-tucks and front punches. Level four tumbling consist of standing tucks, standing backhand-springs to tuck/ layout and  running round-off-backhand-spring-layout(I am aware most of you have no idea what these tricks are) .I am not even going to try to explain the different level of stunts because it is going to be quite difficult. Each team has a different routine that last two minutes and thirty seconds. The routine consist of tumbling, stunts, jumps and dance.

This last weekend, on February 22, 2014, I competed in Jamfest Nationals in Hampton Va. I had to arrive quite early on Saturday morning because that is when tinys and juniors went. My tiny team went up against a whopping eight teams. They ended up placing second. I was truly happy with this placement. My juniors however had no competition, therefore came out with a first place win. Then that night came my turn to compete. Senior three performed at 7:55 pm. When we went back to warm-ups, this is where every team would stretch and warm-up tumbling and stunts before competing, I was feeling pretty confident. My stunt group it the stunt perfectly and my tumbling was going smoothly. When it was time to take the mat, my nerves set it. I always get a little nerves even though I love being in front of a crowd. On stage two minutes and thirty seconds feels like forever.  Overall the routine went pretty smoothly, expect for some tumble touch downs and stunt bobbles. Due to these mess ups I had no idea how we would place out of seven teams.  We ended up coming in second place. I was happy with this placement because our routine was not perfect, therefore we did not deserve anything better. Then it came time for senior four which competed at 8:40. This time in warm ups my nerves came quite early. I was already wore out due to just getting off the mat, plus my stunts were shaky during warm-ups. Before I knew it I was stepping out onto the mat for the second time. I instantly removed the tired look from my face and smiled confidently. When the routine was over I was quite disappointed in myself and my team. We could have performed a lot better. We had stunt falls and bobbles in stunt groups that never fall. This made me extremely worried because we were going against our rivals Richmond Twisters, and I knew we had to beat them. When awards rolled around I was overcome with nervousness. With surprised however, we ended up in second place out of five teams. I was happy with this placement for two reason: one we beat Richmond twisters and two we did not deserve first due to our not the best performance. At the end of the day I was content and extremely wore out.

Before judging whether or not cheer-leading is a sport one should come to a cheer competition.  Each cheerleader most be extremely athletic to be able to perform these action packed routines.  I am a firm believer that competitive cheer-leading is a sport and should be respected.