We had 7 weeks from when we started until our first competition - with William joining, the team was reclassified as Co-Ed - a first for NorthStar. The rush was on - order uniform, find a specific kind of shoe that was back ordered, but most of all learn how to stunt and learn a 3 minute routine in such a short time.
12/5/10 the BIG day, our first ever competition "Cheer America Holiday Spectacular" For anyone who has never attended a competitive cheer/dance competition let me just say WOW. It is a long day but time does go by fairly quickly. I was surprised as I ran into a few co-workers/neighbors that I had no idea their child competed. For us it was nice to meet other boys and talk with their parents to see how they handle some of the issues that come with male cheerleading. We learned the older the boys get more high fives, because they get to hang out with girls! More and more what we heard is that competitive cheer is a recognized sport and when you see some of the advanced tumbling/stunting, I completely agree. The big difference this is a true team sport, everyone has a responsibility to make sure that the team succeeds.
Our team looked fantastic - we had a fairly large bobble on our biggest stunt which is the pyramid, but our girl never fell and held on. We all sat patiently as the teams set up for the announcement of winners and what do you know 1st place!!! After, I found that yes a bobble is a loss of points, but when a team executes all other components nearly flawlessly there is minimal impact.
There is a difference when you look at small gym verses big gym, however, the fact that William is only 7, we have many years ahead of us, for now we are very happy with being part of what feels more like a family.
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