My job

This weekend I got to take my lovely Varsity cheer team to cheer camp! I have been coaching cheerleading for going on 8 years now (I'm soooo fricken old!) and it is my third year coaching Varsity. My team is one of the top teams in the state when it comes to competitive season (starts in November!). But right now it's only football season which means basically we cheer a few games and do a lot of practicing of skills that we need once competitive rolls around. My team is seriously IN-CREDIBLE! Last year they were state champ runner-ups and got their silver medals...but this year we are going to TAKE THE GOLD. I already know it! They proved that at camp! So here is what camp was like for us this weekend!

World...meet my team!

I have 5 seniors - Abbie, Ashleigh, Jessica, Carrie, Lexie; 4 juniors - Megan, Lexi, Peanut, Michelle; and 3 sophomores - Shelby, Christine, and Allie! They are incredible athletes. We are a Division 3 school, which means we do not have very many kids to pick from. Our division is always the most unpredictable when it comes to state finals. Every year there is a new state champion. In D1 and D2, there have been reigning state champions for many years in a row. When I was a senior in HS I was on the very first team from our school to make it to the state finals. The year after, they won the state championship! I missed it by one stinkin' year. But we've been at the finals every year since, and that is a big accomplishment in our Division! So having 12 strong girls is a really good start for us!

This is one of the stunts we did in our final day routine. My picture taking skills are really horrible, I know and I apologize. For those of you who know cheerleading, you know that this isn't a very difficult stunt. BUT - the night before my team won a contest where they did 217 stunts in a row! (Stunts that look like the 2 side ones, not the middle one!) So they were sore and bruised, and then I was really happy that I didn't put anything very hard in their routine. Oh and by the way...every stunt they did was worth $1 donated the the American Cancer Society! My team raised $217! It was such an incredible night for them! :)

Now THIS was probably the most fun thing that we did at camp! They had a high ropes course at the camp ground, and it was all in the trees and made from wires and tree branches and ropes! My team was incredible on it. Even if they were scared, everyone did most of the elements. I even went up and did most of them! It was such a cool experience being on wires and ropes above the trees!

Here is another shot of some of my girls on the course! The swing element was the hardest one that I did.

I took a lot of pictures that turned out like this and I really liked how they looked! You can't really tell who it is but the silhouette against the sky and trees turned out really cool! But I can tell that that is Megan :)

Other highlights from camp include: vicious thunderstorms on Saturday night that knocked out all of the power and water to the campground, seeing my alumni become amazing staffers, making s'mores with my team, and getting so much praise for how good they look and how much talent they have. And I hope that in March I get to write a blog about how amazing if feels to coach State Champions!

How was your weekend???