win, win, win, WIN, win!

So Calli's Sergeants team finished out their national season UNDEFEATED!

There was a win in Ft Worth  in January

  A win in Houston in February

A win in San Antonio in February

This competition also awarded us with the program award...meaning we had a great gym program, good sportsmanship, good coaching, etc. The big check in front is $10,000. Every one of our 12 teams got first place at this competition.

A WIN in Dallas in February

and a win in San Antonio in March

Let's go back to that Dallas WIN!!! Since Calli started cheering in the 3rd grade all you hear about is Dallas. Even her rinky dink gym in Willis categorized Dallas as the BIG DOG! In my opinion they place too much emphasis on Dallas so when they get there, the pressure becomes too much and mental takes over physical and something goes wrong. But it is what it is.

Woodlands Elite has a REALLY good program and we seem to always come out on top in most of our competitions with most of our teams. Nationals season is really more like a Regional season to me. In the Fall when it's just Regionals we usually only face teams from the Houston area. During Nationals we usually face teams from around the State...occassionally a gym from Louisiana will be thrown in there but for the most part they are teams from Austin, Dallas, Larado (who knew Larado would have a good gym?!?) etc. BUT at DALLAS, they come from all over. This year I happened to be in Dallas for work for the 4 days prior to Calli coming up with her friend. As I sat in my hotel room on Friday, I pulled up the schedule online and realized we may not have a fun weekend. There were 9 other teams in Calli's division. 6 were from out of state...Colorado, 2 teams from New Jersey, California, Louisiana and Maryland. I'm thinking 'you don't come that far unless you are good....or just stupid...or loaded I guess'. In Dallas you have to hit both days to even have a chance.

So after day one here was the scores for our division....

Sergeants were the ONLY Woodlands Elite team in FIRST PLACE after day 1. And as you can see, we weren't ahead by much (.32). Honestly our difficulty level (weighed score) being .47 above 2nd place helped us. You'll also notice that we had one deduction...they had none. But because our difficulty was higher, we were able to stick that first place spot.

And then day two came. I was hoping the girls wouldn't let the nerves get to them. I wouldn't say it was flawless in execution but it was enough to call themselves NCA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

They do this really cool ceremony in another hall where they girls show off their jackets on a stage as they are announced and the papparazzi  parents take all kinds of pictures.

Sergeants and Majors (the team Calli originally started the season with before they moved her to be a flier) both took FIRST and that's it. It was close for many of the other Woodlands Elite teams but in Dallas we truly meet our match.

It was very exciting but a very LONG weekend! Awards were at 7 and at 9 o'clock we were still taking pictures. As silly as Calli looks here, I would have given anything to look just like her if only it meant I could sleep.

The girls were on a high for a week. And that high only subsided a little because we were preparing for our next and final competition in San Antonio. We all felt like we really didn't need to go. I mean they just won the SUPERBOWL and now they were sending them back to Little League...that's what it felt like.

But oh well...we really needed one more jacket!