Even though I was really sick all weekend I had the best time with my teams. And we even came home with Gold and Silver!
He said
Heading into the weekend, Danielle pointed out that Emelia’s progressing sore throat and aches were par for the course as last year at this time, just ahead of the OCF Ontario Championships, she and a good chunk of her team were all coming down with some version of a nasty bug. When you add in that we’ve been to three Cheer Competitions in the last four weeks, something was bound to give. And, this weekend was when it decided to take its cut out of Emelia. But, she soldiered through not wanting to let herself or her team down. And, in the end it was all for good because both teams did very well. And we’re now with a five week break from Cheer Comps!
OCF competitions were brand new to the calendar last year as CheerStrike had not attended them in some time because… let’s just say they weren’t run the same way that the Canadian Cheer events have been. Well, they’ve made a lot of adjustments including having the Cheer Evolution events people who run the others, run the OCF events too. Last year by all accounts of the families who have been doing Cheer a long time, the OCF event was vastly improved, so it was added to our calendar again this year. And for Emelia it meant double the workload as both Sov and Valour were entered in their respective devisions.
The schedule allowed us a later arrival time on Saturday which meant we only needed hotel for one night and it gave us time to get down to the hotel, get settled in our room, and then Emelia option to get ready their as opposed to here at the house, and spending two hours in the car fully Cheer ready. Saturday, Sov went first and then later, Valour too. Both teams had differing performances — Sov hit zero and Valour continued with the season’s challenges and had some deductions. But, they were in good position if they brought a great performances on Sunday to go out on a high note, and bring home some hardware, before their 5-week break before Nationals back in The Falls at the start of April.
As the weekend wore on Emelia’s cold symptoms progressed and she started to feel worse and worse. By the time the performances were done Saturday, all she wanted to do was get back to our hotel room, get some food and go to bed. And that we did! After a horrendous sleep and worsening symptoms, we awoke to the news that one of her Sov teammates was out as she had spent the entire night vomiting. Emelia, the trooper she is was committed and with some DayQuil and lots of water, she willed her way through both performances. Sov continued with a solid effort and Valour to our surprise and through their one coach Alina’s tears put down their best performance all season and hit zero!
Valour was in tough against a rock solid Kingston Elites team and ended up finishing with Silver, and earlier in the day Sov was awarded Gold finishing first and with coveted Ontario Provincial Champions t-shirts. It was a very good weekend to see both teams work through adversity and challenge and come home with some medals to boot. It sets them up with some great momentum and plenty of time to hone and tighten up their performances before the Canadian Nationals at the start of April.
She said
Well once again we were away for another cheer competition. As much as we love seeing Emelia performing in a sport she loves but honestly 3 competitions in 4 weekends is a LOT. Not only are these events sensory overloads it is a germ super spreader event. We knew it was bound to happen but as the week moved along post last competition Emelia started getting sick and by the weekend she was really sick. With an overload of medications she was able to somehow push through and put out four of her best runs of the season.
Saturday we had a bit of a later start so Emelia could get ready in the hotel and then meet up with her teammates. Sov was the first of the teams to hit the floor. And they killed it, putting out another incredible hit zero run! The girls and coaches were on cloud nine and this set the weekend off on a great start. A few hours later it was Valour’s turn to go. This team has had so many ups and downs. It is an incredibly strong and close team but they have yet to really show what they can do on a competition floor. The girls had a much better run this competition vs their last competition but they still didn’t come close to a hit zero and ended up with 7 points in deductions. The still came off the floor smiling from ear to ear cheering each other on. It was a long day and everyone was ready to get back to the hotel, get some supper and crash for the night. We got Emelia medicated for the night and we all went to bed.
Today was an early start which is not normal for Sov. We had to all be up pretty early, got some breakfast and headed to the venue. Emelia was feeling so much worse and all the meds in the world were not changing that. She went in with her team and somehow hit all her stunts, jumps and tumbling. I honestly have no idea how she did it but she did. She came off the floor exhausted and in tears from being so sick. We got her some air, a bit of food and then we went out to get some lunch and a break from the venue. We headed back to the competition a bit later so Emelia could see her friends on Legacy’s run and get ready for her last run of the day with Valour. We topped up her meds and hoped for the best. Well I don’t know how they did it but Valour put hands down their best run by far all season and got off the floor with a hit zero. The girls were sooooo happy and they left the coaches with tears of happiness.
All in all in spite of the illness it was an incredible weekend, Emelia came home with a gold and silver medal and a weekend of memories. Thank GOD we have a solid break from competitions for a month before we head to the last competition of the season at Nationals. Emelia is likely missing school tomorrow to hopefully recover from this weekend and to get better. We are so proud of her, how she put it all out there even when all she wanted to do was sleep and crash in her bed. Way to go boo!