Dec
2022

Not the place they wanted to be in!

We didn’t get the place I thought we deserved. I am so disappointed!

He said

This weekend was one we were both looking forward to and nervous about for some time. When you add in how last week’s Cheer Competition went, it only added to the nerves. This weekend we were back to Oshawa for Cheer for the Cure – the first comp of last year’s season so one we’re familiar with. With the date being changed to Sunday and their check-in time was 11:05am we opted for driving down as soon as I was done work yesterday and staying in a hotel, over having to get up, out the door and be on the road for 7:30am today. With a hotel only 12 minutes from the venue it made for a much less stress start to the day.

Before I share how the competition went, I want to highlight that now we are officially into December my Movember campaign has officially ended. The moustache was very quickly erased Wednesday at midnight. By the time I woke up Thursday morning, I was delighted to see that I had raised $1,313 this year, which had brought my 14 year campaign total over the the $10k mark ($10,538!!!). When I hit $9k last year I thought it would cool to hit $10k by my 15th year, but deep down even cooler if I could get it sooner. Well, friends, family and acquaintances really stepped up this year and I blew right by that goal!

So, about the competition… After last week’s performance, and only having one, single practice to try and correct, the girls were really hoping to could do a lot better. The practice this week seemed to help build their confidence and they seemed ready to go. We got plenty of time to see their competition and while there were some great performances, there were also some that left room. So when they hit the stage, we knew all they needed to do was bring the performance that they are capable of. And the good news in they did! It was night and day better than what they did last week, and something we felt could put them close to the podium, if not on.

When the awards ceremony came and it was their division, when they were called first (meaning they finished last) the look of shock on the girls’ faces matched the feelings in our stomachs. We didn’t understand, it looked so much better—other teams had multiple drops. Nevertheless we picked up ourselves and headed home. That’s where the discussion began between parents and teammates. What Emelia thinks happened is they may have either been disqualified or had a significant deduction based on one of their stunts and how it gets executed which takes it from a Level 2 (their level) to a Level 3 Stunt. We’ll know for certain on Tuesday when they get the judges comments but for now we have a really disappointed team.

As much as that was two very disappointing weekends back to back for the girls, I would much rather have them experience this at the start of the season, so they can find a way to overcome the adversity and elevate both their performances, and even results as they head towards Provincials and Nationals. This is when great teams come together! And I am hoping for them, that is the case!

She said

This week leading into Emelia’s teams second comp has been so busy. Work has been busy and so has life in general. We are thankful that Emelia is finally on the mend so she could focus her energy to being ready for the second competition of the season. They had virtually no time to make any adjustments only having one practice before they were off to another competition. Saturday after John got off work we made our way to Whitby to get into our hotel and try our best to get some sleep for the next day. None of us slept really well but Emelia was nervous and excited to get back on the cheer floor for the Cheer for the Cure competition.

All-in-all from first viewing there was massive improvements from last week. Yes there was some wobbles and one stunt that didn’t stick but compared to last week there were major improvements. The girls came off the floor not exactly excited but felt better about how they did. We had watched most of the other teams the girls competed against and other than one team the rest had some wobbles, timing issues and some drops. The girls and the parents came out thinking that they might squeeze on the podium or at least top 4 in their large division. Much to everyone’s shock the girls placed 8th! Everyone was blindsided. The girls were crushed for sure!

Lots of chatting happened after between the girls together and the parents. Everyone was confused. Then someone mentioned it has to be a disqualification or significant deduction that would have landed them in that position. Emelia started going through frame by frame and found one big stunt that might be the issue. There are very strict rules for cheer, you MUST never do a stunt or tumbling above your level. There is one stunt that the team found out only a few weeks ago that was not being executed properly making it a Level 3 stunt. So they started attempting correcitons to this. But Emelia saw in the video that one or more groups did this stunt at level 3. That is a BIG no-no.

Now we don’t know if this is the issue but something just does not seem right and we have some very crushed athletes. Hoping we know more at their next practice on Tuesday and that the coaches can help these kids turn things around. They have a few weeks until they compete again so there is time to get there. No matter what we are beyond proud of these kids, they have trained so hard!

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