Fame Update: American Heartland Council Bluffs

WHAT. A. WEEKEND.

Here I am with an update from our second cheerleading competition in a row out of four in a row in the month of February. My mom told me I needed to be really careful and take care of myself so I didn't get worn down by this MARATHON OF CHEERLEADING COMPETITIONS. Too little too late is what I say, because I didn't even make it past the first one. I got diagnosed with the flu last Thursday, meaning I wasn't going to be able to go to Council Bluffs with Fame on Friday. :'(

There was no way I was going to just sit around at home and wait to see what happened with my kids, so I found a way to Council Bluffs late after I was feeling better. I kind of got lucky, because they had a run in with some bed bugs and about a zillion hotel changes before I got there. I was able to conveniently skip all of that.

Day 1 Fame looked pretty good. They had zero deductions, but they didn't look as solid as they did last week in OKC. We think the mayhem with the hotels from Friday kind of spooked them a little, and according to them "the music was really quiet." We POUNCED on this accusation and told them they were going to need to learn to generate their own energy on the floor because when we get to Dallas they won't be surrounded by the entire gym (like they were in OKC.) They ended day 1 with a 96.1 and in 1st place by about 3 points. We were kind of bummed about the score, but the competition was scoring low in general. So relatively speaking, it was decently accurate. (The Frosties got kind of screwed. Scored SO LOW for NO REASON.)

The judging was kind of crazy at this event. It was really unclear compared to the others we have been to, and a lot of our teams had been scoring uncharacteristically low. We didn't really know what to tell Fame as far as their standings for the Summit bid were concerned. We just told them they needed to practice generating their own energy and preparing for their upcoming trips to NCA. They went out on Day 2 and had a better performance than they did day 1. Still zero deductions. That's 5 zero-deduction performances in a row!

We had really no idea where we were in the running for a Summit Bid going into awards, so we told Fame not to get their hopes up. Much to our surprise, they announced that the Summit Bid was going to the winner of the Large Junior Level 3 Division. THAT'S US! WE'RE GOING TO THE SUMMIT!

The girls were SO EXCITED. They keep asking us all of these questions about the Summit and Disney and getting shirts and extra practices. We just keep telling them to slow their rolls. We have NCA to worry about!.

This coming weekend is Jamfest in Kansas City, and then NCA in Dallas the weekend after that. We're working really hard on perfection and performance value. Watch out Dallas, we're coming for you!

...

Fame Update: ASC Oklahoma City

It was a CRAZY weekend in Oklahoma City. ASC is the competition to which KC Cheer brings all of its teams, so we had 12 teams performing. That makes for two 12-hour days. Not kidding. It was EXHAUSTING.

Fame was in a division with not one, but TWO Woodlands Elite Teams. Woodlands Elite is a very prestigious gym from the Houston area, and we knew they were going to be in for a challenge. We drilled the girls all week long about cleanliness on the floor and good technique. We knew a clean routine was going to be what won the title, because these Texas teams have a LOT of difficulty. 

Fame and Fierce 5 went back to back on both days, so the energy in the practice room was electric. It was awesome to watch them cheer for one another, and the Fierce 5 kids pumped the Fame kids up backstage. They were READY TO TAKE THE FLOOR! 

Fame hit another zero deduction routine on Saturday (2 in a row!) and looked really good. Clearly that pep talk worked from Fierce 5. Can we get one of those every time? Hehe. They ended the day in 1st place by a small margin, because Woodlands Elite Captains had a deduction. Their raw score on day 1 was 96.7, the highest to date. Captains' raw score was higher than Fame's without their deduction, so we knew it was going to be close. 

On Sunday we had another great day in the practice room and another really high-energy performance. Sunday's performance had zero deductions and was the best I have seen from them so far. We were so excited to watch them do so well! Fame ended up winning first place by .1. The girls were ecstatic to prove they were able to hold their own against two huge Texas teams. They ended Sunday with an even higher score, 97.1. This was really exciting news for Zonko and I, because we know they need to be scoring that high for any chance at a Summit Bid or an NCA title. 

We'll see Woodlands Elite Captains again at NCA. We're pretty sure they're going to be in our division. It will be fun to go head to head with them again. I'm a little biased, but I think Fame will come out on top! :) 

WOO WOO WOO THE FAME-ILY IS 5-0!

Fame Update: NCA St. Louis

Fame traveled to St. Louis this weekend to compete in the NCA Midwest Classic in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a competition with a Summit bid available, with one Summit bid going to each level. They would have to score higher than any level 3 team to win the bid.

They went out day one and hit a near perfect routine with only a small tumbling deduction (accidents happen!) They were in first place by a long shot in the Large Junior 3 division, but they were sort of down there for the bid.

On Sunday they went out and hit their first deduction free routine! I was so excited for them! In the end it wasn't enough for the bid, but they still won National Champions by a long shot. Had they not had the deduction on day 1, they might have been able to clinch the bid. Everything happens for a reason though, so who knows.

It was awesome to show the girls they were capable of a zero-deduction routine. They were so excited that they had made us proud!

Fame Update: Bring It On

During the Holiday season, we give the kids like 10 days off. They don't have to practice and get to enjoy the time with their families (and I have time to hightail it to Hawaii!).

We DID, however, have a chance to do some team bonding over the break. Music Theater Kansas City is an organization that involves high school kids in Musical Theater. My best friend Annie Brown was very involved with it in high school, as were a few of my Rock Chalk Revue friends. Annie called me in July and told me that they were planning on doing Bring it On: The Musical and asked if I knew of any cheerleaders that would be interested in helping out (duh. I do). So I gave her Kristi Whitney's phone number, and the next thing I knew KC Cheer was signed up to be part of the production.

 


Bring it On, for those who don't know, is about rival cheerleading teams competing against each other. In the musical, KC Cheer kids played the parts of the cheerleading teams. Any time there was stunting or tumbling in the show, it was being done by our kids.

Fame went to a team dinner on the Plaza and then to the Saturday night showing. It was SPECTACULAR! The cheerleading was so good, and the actual actors in the show were MARVELOUS. They were so talented. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire production, and am glad some of our kids got to be involved. I would have DIED to be able to do this back when I was cheering!

Fame Update: Patriotic Championships

Another weekend, another Fame victory in the books.

This time we found ourselves at the Patriotic championships in Kansas City. Not to be confused with the circus, because that was being held in the building next door. It was like, the tiniest competition I've been to in a while. There was only one panel of judges so they had a team go every 6 minutes. What could've easily been a 7 hour day became a 13 hour day. It was annoying.

There was, however, a summit bid up for grabs. For those keeping score at home, the Summit is the all levels championship at the end of the season in Orlando. It's basically level 3 Worlds. You have to be invited and usually at KC Cheer you have to have a paid bid to go to the summit, but this year they're going to let us go regardless of what sort of bid we get.

Fame was going to have to be the highest scoring team of the entire day to win the summit bid. It was a goal that was kind of ambitious, but not totally out of reach. The Fame Monsters stayed focused and energetic and put an awesome routine on the floor. You could tell they really wanted it! 

We ended up with 1st place and level 3 grand champions. That means that not only did we beat all of the junior level 3 teams, we beat every single level 3 team from the whole day. That ROCKS. 

The summit bid ended up going to a junior level 1 team. Which, duh. Of course you're going to have high execution scores when all you have to execute is a cartwheel!!!!

No matter. This was an awesome weekend for Fame. They learned a lot about how to stay focused in the practice room and on the floor. 2 for 2!

New Team, Same Dream

You guys. In case you didn't already know, I coach cheerleading in my free time. It started out as a way to pass the time last year while I was looking for a job. I ended up loving it so much that I'm back for another season at KC Cheer, the gym I cheered at all through elementary, middle and high school. I even did a bonus "super senior year" because the age bracket allowed me one more year as a freshman in college. I'm so excited to be involved again with the sport that I love so much and that taught me so much about myself growing up. It's thanks to KC Cheer that I know how to work as a member of a team and to put others before myself. 

Anyways, we just got our team assignments and I'm coaching Fame -- KC Cheer's Large Junior Level 3 team. The USASF, the governing body of all-star cheerleading, has a "level" system that goes 1-5, so these girls are the middle of the road as far as skills are concerned. They are ages 8-12 and they are all so freakin' adorable. Not to mention pretty good. They all already have the highest skills you can have for a level 3 team, and the season is barely a month old. They're all at a point in their lives where they don't care about anything except cheerleading. No boys or drama to distract them. They all just truly genuinely LOVE cheerleading and want to get better. I am so beyond excited to work with these girls. You have no idea.

That got me to thinking. It's 2014-2015 and I have the Junior Level 3 team. 10 years ago for the 2004-2005 season I was ON the Junior Level 3 team. That's a picture of me from that season. Isn't that unreal? It doesn't seem like that was 10 years ago. If you would've asked me then where I thought I'd be in 10 years I NEVER would have thought I would be coaching the team that I was currently on. Granted, I probably would've answered "I don't care I'm never growing up!" but that's a different story. 

I hope my girls this year are like my teammates and I were 10 years ago. Some of my best friends to this day are girls who were on that Junior Level 3 team with me. The coach of that team is still one of my mentors and close friends. I went to visit him in Houston. Do you think 10 years from now my girls will be excited to have dinner with me like I was with my coach? It's crazy to think that I was them 10 years ago and now I am this. I am so excited to try to give them a year as memorable as I had when I was a member of this team.  

So stay tuned for updates on how Fame does this year. I'm hell-bent on winning NCA Nationals with them in Dallas. They have so much potential. I can't wait to love this Junior Level 3 as a coach as much as I loved my Junior Level 3 as an athlete. I'm just a lucky lucky girl. 

Enjoyed/Enraged - Pop Culture 4.28

Okay this one is pretty quick because it's been a crazy week. But....

ENJOYED

The Cheerleading Worlds Happened

You guys, I'm not even going to spend that much time explaining it because you will never understand how cool this is. It's a weekend of amazing cheerleading and it's in Disney World. You do the math.

EXCEPT I WILL SAY THAT KC CHEER FIERCE 5 WON FOURTH PLACE!!! THAT IS SO AMAZING! It's the highest any KC Cheer team has ever finished, and there were 91 teams in their division. I am the proudest proud proud alum.

Emma Stone Totally Killed It In her Jimmy Fallon Lip Sync Battle

Emma Stone was on Jimmy Fallon this week and they did a lip sync battle. It. Was. Hilarious. She killed him. This has also led to many a spirited discussion on what we would sing if we were to ever find ourselves amidst a Jimmy Fallon lip sync battle. That post is coming soon y'all, because we had some funny responses.

The Tony Nominations were on Tuesday

I couldn't properly stalk them on the internet because I was in Disney World and had more important things to worry about (HELLO CINDERELLA'S CASTLE), so I don't really know a whole lot about them. All I know is that it means the Tony's are coming up and they will be on TV and I can DVR them and re-watch the performances over and over like I did with the Cinderella performance last year. Idina Menzel and Sutton Foster are both nominated for Best Actress in a musical and they are both TO DIE FOR.  As are the others nominated in that category. I've heard that Jessie Mueller is BRILLIANT in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Also Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is nominated for like 5000 things so now I am interested in that. Too bad we didn't see that coming, because we could've gotten ahead of it like we did for Aladdin. We bought Aladdin tickets for our upcoming trip in August and now it's nominated for Best Musical, so the ticket prices are way more expensive than they were when we bought them. HOWS THAT FOR BEING ECONOMICALLY SAVVY!?!?!?!

Watch this video of Audra McDonald as Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill." She's nominated as well. This is amazing. She sounds EXACTLY LIKE HER. Also if she wins she'll make history as the first woman to win six Tony awards. That's amazing, you guys.

Enraged

HEYYYY WE WANT SOME ORANGE RAYS! Is not the real words to the song. 

This was a huge dissapointment. The Stingray AllStars Orange is like, my favorite cheerleading team. They have won worlds 8 TIMES. EIGHT PEOPLE. And their dance music this year was like "HEYYYYY WE WANT SOME ORANGE RAYS!!" and I loved it. I found out this week that that is actually based on a real song, and the words to the real song are inappropriate and I refuse to ever sing any words besides the Orange Rays words.

Beyonce & Jay-Z Are going on tour!

Thats right people. It's happening. The 21st Century Bonnie & Clyde. The King and Queen. THEY'RE GOING ON TOUR. Normally this would be a LOVE because I HAVE THE STRONGEST LOVE FOR QUEEN BEY but I'm putting it in the hate column because a. It's not coming to Kansas City, and b. I can't go see it. Zee spent like three days on the phone trying to get tickets (it was near impossible. EVERYONE WANTS TO SEE THEM DUH) and she DID OMG! She got four tickets to the Dallas show and she was thoughtful enough to set one aside for me! But alas, it is the same weekend as my cousin's wedding. I'm not too bummed, because weddings rock and my fam rocks, and I DID get to see Beyoncé fly through the air in a sparkly jumpsuit in Dallas last summer. It was everything, you guys. I love Beyoncé. So whatever. Zee, you're just going to have to give me a detailed description. DO YOU THINK THEY'LL SING DEJA VU BECAUSE I SING THE BEYONCÉ PARTS OF THAT IN MY CAR AND PRETEND IM DOING A DUET WITH JAY-Z.

Pop Culture: Love & Loathe of the week

LOVED IT

1. Shakespeare's 450th birthday!

As Klew put it, "good thing he's already dead, because 450 shots would kill him." And if you think Shakespeare is irrelevant to you, brush up.

My Shakespeare class at KU was one of my favorites, particularly the fact shared by my wise professor, "if we had a time machine to go back to the Globe and see Shakespeare originally, we would die immediately because we've been made WEAK by antiseptics." Hooray! So, let's all go watch Leo and Claire in Romeo+Juliet and cry about it.

2. Jimmy Fallon came back with new episodes

This is really all I have to contribute this week that's not cheerleading or Disney related. I have cheerleading on the BRAIN. I haven't been able to WATCH any new episodes because I've been working every night until 9 and then coming home and basically passing out from exhaustion (god I'm such a wimp), but glad to see there are new episodes on my DVR to watch once all of the madness is over. I love you Jimmy. I wish you had a 23 year old clone that I could marry.

3. Cali Smoed Dropped a stunt in MARCH

(Like I said, all cheerleading all the time this week). California All-Stars Smoed is the team that nobody will stfu about in the Small Senior Coed Worlds predictions. They're the "team to beat" in Fierce 5's division. So naturally since

1. Fierce Five or die for the rest of my life
2. I've not thought about anything except cheerleading all week,

 I have been stalking all of the small coed teams on the internet. I watched nine different videos of Smoed, and they had a major stunt fall at a competition in MARCH. MARCH PEOPLE. By March you should be probably hitting all stunts all the time.  It's not the fact that they dropped the stunt that makes me happy. Like, I'm not experiencing joy from their sorrow. Cali Smoed is an AMAZING team. Don't let this post make you think anything less. It's just comforting to know that nobody is unbeatable. Nobody is perfect. Everyone has made mistakes this season. Door's wide open for anyone in the Small Senior Coed division, and I can't WAIT to watch it all go down this weekend!!!

4. We did this Buzzfeed Quiz

Which Ivy League School Should You Attend?

The subtitle is "What, like it's hard?" -Elle Woods. I love that. You go Elle Woods, you're always relevant. I got Columbia. Hoven got Dartmouth. We are pleased with our results. Bravo BuzzFeed.

5. BuzzFeed also posted this

The Definitive Ranking of the 102 Best Animated Disney Songs

(Again, all cheerleading and Disney-related things on my mind this week) BRAVO THANK YOU SOMEBODY FOR MAKING THIS LIST. I don't totally agree with your ranking, but I was very pleased to see you didn't rank "Let it Go" as number one. THAT MOVIE IS NOT THE SECOND COMING PEOPLE. THERE ARE OTHER DISNEY MOVIES THAT ARE JUST AS GOOD/BETTER. I loved that they established criteria and that "When You Wish Upon A Star" is number one. That is the Disney song to define all Disney songs, if you ask me. +Kerry Benn and I spent the better part of an evening creating our own rankings. The summary of our findings were 1. You have Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach on this list but NOT TARZAN? C'mon people. 2. We both don't like The Jungle Book as much as whoever made this list, and 3. We both like Hercules a lot more than whoever made this list. You can see my top 10 favorite Disney songs of all time here.

LOATHED IT

Like I said, I really have not had the time nor the energy to consume a ton of pop culture this week. Also I'm in a delightfully great mood because I'm going to Disney World to watch Cheerleading for four days. So no loathing happening over here this week. Hoven agrees, and is too busy laughing at the thought of Shakespeare ripping shots at the wheel to add anything else. (I put wheel instead of the hawk because I know Hoven wasn't voted "most likely to still be at the hawk five years after graduation" like I was. It's an acquired love, really.)