Olympia Cheerleading | Lessons from my daughter

This weekend, we, once again, did something new.

Friday, I packed our suitcases and we were on the road as soon as Jon was done work.

On Saturday, Emily’s cheer team was performing at the NB Provincial cheer competition.

We drove for almost 3 hours to make it to our home away from home for the weekend.

Look at my cheerleader! She looks like a typical teenager!

Make-up time in the stands!

All dolled-up

Emily and her team did amazing.

They were the last team to go and by that time, I would say that the 800 or so cheerleaders competing plus their parents and families were back in the Civic Centre.

It was, after all, almost award time.

The place was packed and it scared me.

All day, I watched as cheerleaders and family from the gym of the competing team sat on the floor in front of the mat and cheered for their friends. You can see the people sitting on the floor in the picture below. That space is specifically saved for team mates and after each performance, everybody gets up and moved away while another group moves in.

It’s all really civilized.

As we approached 5:15pm, I grew nervous.

Will the other cheerleaders from our gym sit on the floor for our little team?

Will the crowd cheer for our girls?

I wanted to believe that they would but it scared me to think that maybe it wouldn’t happen.

I worry about things like that all the time.

Yesterday, I sat on the cement floor, took a deep breath, opened my eyes and witnessed a sea of purple cheerleaders filling the space around us!

And by a sea of purple, I mean, there had to be at least a hundred of them.

The space reserved for coaches on the floor could have been emptied because our coaches are on the mat with their team but the other coaches from our club sat there.

It was overwhelming to see all this support for our little team.

The music started and I couldn’t take my eyes off of Emily so I really didn’t know how the other did until I saw a video of their performance last night.

The girls did amazing but what made me tear up (again) was the crowd.

The crowd was cheering and clapping.

The girls were beaming!

At the end of their performance, they were all so proud of themselves, they were hugging each other and than something else happened… On the video you clearly see a sea of purple cheerleaders jump on the mat and celebrate with our girls.

This, I never allowed myself to imagine happening to Emily. My socially awkward girl was celebrating and accepting congratulations from other cheerleaders.

Emily and the other girls on the Pillars have developed friendships and we (the parents) are getting to know each other and becoming friends too but yesterday, it was so much bigger than the Pillars, yesterday, Emily was part of the Olympia Allstar Cheerleading Family

This doesn’t just happens!

It starts at the top with great ownership, this reflects on great coaches and it is passed to all the athletes. They all see The Pillars as one of their teams. A team that doesn’t tumble and fly exactly like the other teams but they tumble, make pyramids and dance like nobody else!

They are The Pillars!

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I’ve told you about Emily’s desire to cheer twice already.

Fall 2013 : To be a cheerleader

Summer 2015 : Cheer Bows

This past summer, she found her place at Cheer Olympia and when fall arrived, a new team was formed!

The Pillars

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Our team, has 5 athletes, 3 coaches and 1 awesome filler 🙂

Our athletes are awesome and my fear on Sunday morning was that the other athletes and their families might not see how awesome our girls are!

The music played at a lower volume as to not overwhelm our girls.

The crowd was a little quieter to help them as well.

But that didn’t stop the other cheer teams from clapping and cheering for our team. Soon enough, the crowd joined in too!

Next time, I say we crank the volume on their music 🙂

After their first go at it, our girls sat back down and cheered for the other teams.

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Each team was performing twice!

Here are a couple of things you would not know by looking at them.

After their first number, one of our athlete had what her mom calls a “small seizure”. I don’t know how familiar you are with seizures but in my mind (someone who doesn’t know seizures), there is no such thing as small seizures. It’s a seizure or a big seizure. Well, would you believe that our girl was back on the mat for their second appearance? And she rocked it!
One of the other mom sitting next to me who was also emotional was telling me, “would you believe it took 2 years of physio therapy for her to walk?”. She was talking about her daughter.
This is also true of Emily, doctors and therapists agreed she would never walk.

If you were to ask me what diagnosis the other girls on the team have, I truly can’t tell you as I have never asked their parents and I will not asked them as to me, they are Emily’s team! None of them are their diagnosis and all of them are hard workers!

Those girls are amazing!

After the showcase, most of us went for a late lunch. One team! Which I suspect will soon be one big family!

It took at least 6 years of trying dance classes, cheer groups and looking at everything out there…. Emily never gave up on her dream to be a cheerleader.

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So today, Emily is a cheerleader, with the bow, the hair, the make-up, the uniform, the team jacket and a team where she is accepted, respected and celebrated!

A team where each member is accepted, respected and celebrated!

Emily is a cheerleader.

Thank you Olympia cheerleading

Thank you Colleen, Lorraine, Celine, Megan and Chloe!