Last weekend we went to our first Nationals competition this season and our first out of town competition traveling to Ft. Worth. Nationals is the "jacket" competition. Last year we got so many jackets I felt guilty for all the homeless people that went without. One week before this competition, I received a phone call from one of Calli's coaches. He wanted to know if Calli would double team (be on two teams) for a short while and learn the routine for a level 2 (what she was on last year). One of the girls on the Master Chiefs had broken her arm and can't compete for at least 3 weeks. I had a feeling that Calli would say yes but I had not anticipated the squeals that came when I asked her. "YES, YES, YES" she said as she jumped up and down. Do you think she likes it? So she spent that whole weekend at practices for both teams.
Fast forward to this past weekend. The National competitions are two day competitions. So they compete on the first day and their scores count for 40% of the total score. They do the exact same thing on the second day and those scores count for 60% of the total scores. It's very common that one of those days are a little off for most teams. It's hard to nail the routine both days.The Master Cheifs, the team she is subbing for had a little rough first day landing them in 4th place out of 8 teams after the first day. The second day they did really good with no major deductions. The final outcome? 3rd place....no jacket.
The Lieutenants on the other hand defied the odds and landed two almost flawless routines both days. Their outcome? 1st place out of 4 teams. They beat the second place team in their division by SIX points which is unheard of. They were that good. What was really a major accomplishment is that they place high point in their division. Each team competes against their skill level and their age. So all level 3 teams can do no more than a back tuck and have guidelines on the degree of difficulty in their stunts. Then they divide each level into age groups. So Calli's team is a level 3 and all kids on the team are Youth, between 7 and 13 (or something like that). That's where the 4 teams were...all 4 of those teams were level 3 and a Youth team. When I say they got high point in their division that means they beat all the different age groups within the level 3. So they beat the Jr level 3 kids, the Sr level 3 kids and the Sr. coed level 3 kids. So really they got FIRST out of TWENTY-THREE teams. As their coaches said...that was a huge accomplishment. The crazy part is that the jackets are the exact same as last years. Why would they do that? I told Calli that I was going to sell her old on on Ebay and I got "the look". The $1000 check below is awarded to each high point team. Too bad it doesn't go to the parents.
It was a fun weekend in Ft Worth if I didn't think about the fact that it was a school holiday and I wasn't getting to sleep in. The weather wasn't very nice either but we still ventured down to the Stockyards.
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