IT'S NATIONALS

These are the 5 flyers on Calli's team...all age 11. Calli is on a Senior team this year which means most of the girls are 14-17 but the flyers are all 11. Being younger makes them smaller which makes them eaiser to keep in the air. I was hesitant about her being around older girls initially but not really worried. Calli and I had prayed about her placement on this team and so I felt like she would be protected if this is where God wanted her. I am so thrilled with the older girls. They are roll models for Calli. Most of them are good Christian girls and you should see the love they give Calli. They don't blow her off or try and run from her. Calli even says that she's walked up a couple of times on a conversation and one of them will say, let's not talk about that with Calli around. I am so impressed.

Anyways....Cheer really has two seasons. In the Fall I look at it more like scrimmage season. It's cool to win but really it's just practice for the girls...a chance to get your routine in front of judges to see how they like it...a chance to see if they see all the difficulty or if things should be rearranged to better showcase the talent...etc. Beginning in January the pressure is on! It's Nationals and it's big time! Most of our Nationals competitions are out of town and all of them are 2 day events. Which means you have to be good BOTH days! It really should be called jacket season because all the national competitions give out jackets. And much to Calli's...and most of the girls at WE....dislike, each competitoin gives out the same jacket as the prior year.

Two weekends ago we had our first National competition of the season in Ft Worth. This is one of my favorite competitions because I just like Ft Worth. Everything is so close we park our car on Saturday and pick it back up on Monday....walking everywhere. The Sergeants, Calli's team, came away with a jacket and they did awesome both days. They were in high point (highest score of all level 3 teams) after day 1 but I think dropped to 3rd or 4th. But in their division....Senior Level 3....against 6 other teams, they came in FIRST!

Our trip was a little crazy because Carson's team didn't do so good and Carson's mom turned into psycho cheer mom. But I was smart and just fled the scene. Unfortunately I couldn't flee the 3.5 hour car ride home but lucky for us she had calmed down a little.

Overall we had a great time and the big W for the Sergeants was outstanding!