Viva's First Cheer Competition

Last Saturday Opa and I took Viva to her first cheer competition. It was in Soldotna which is almost three hours away. Winter roads are usually treacherous, but due to unusually warm winter temperatures last weekend the roads were mostly dry and traveling was easy. We left home at 8AM and returned at 7PM. 

Viva needed to join her team by 11:30AM and that's when we turned her over to her coach. She was dressed in her cheer outfit, but still needed to have her hair bow added and makeup put on. The older girls on the team do the makeup for the younger girls.

Viva sat with her team for the next two and half hours and watched while individual competitors did their routines. Opa sat by a couple of people from work who had daughters on the team. I snuck out and visited a fabric store in nearby Kenai which has an absolutely awesome selection of batiks. (I volunteered opa and I to take Viva to the competition in Soldotna so that I could visit this store!)

I got back to the gym during the break between individual and team routines. It was perfect timing because Viva's team was the third to perform after the break. Her team is a Level 1 youth team (11 years & younger). Before Viva's team we saw a Level 1 tiny team (5 years & younger--very cute, but no skills to of) and a Level 1 mini team (8 years & younger--also cute; they had a tiny girl who could do cartwheels who stole the show). Viva's team has only been practicing once a week for two months (less Christmas break), so I was impressed by their performance even though it wasn't perfect. 

There is a big difference in performance for every level that you go up. Higher level teams do more difficult tumbling moves and the team members movements are more in sync with each other. The stunts that they do with their flyers (the girl who stands on her teammates hands) get more and more difficult. High level teams meet for more hours of practice every week. Now you know as much about cheerleading competitions as I do! 

You might be asking yourself: Why is Viva on a cheer team? Viva loves tumbling and the cheer gym has the most awesome spring mats for the girls to tumble on. The mats actually have springs under them. So cool! So bouncy! At the gym the students can more safely and easily learn to do acrobatic stunts. Viva loves this. She also loves hanging out with the other girls. We have never seen her so involved with a group of girls as she has been at the gym. 

Viva's team took first place and she was granted the honor of bringing the trophy home with her. (Another little girl was left in tears, but was promised that at the next competition in two weeks if they received a trophy she could be in charge of it.) Viva has to take the trophy to her next cheer meeting and leave it on the trophy table. 

I don't want to tarnish the glitter of a first place trophy, but I feel I should inform readers of this blog post that only two cheer clubs (or whatever you call a gym that trains cheerleaders) attended this competition. It's difficult for athletes in an isolated, low population state to gain the experience they need to compete at a national level--which this team does--so sometimes it's necessary to hold competitions with only a few (or even two!) teams in attendance. Although there was only two teams in Soldotna there were close to two hundred girls (and a few boys) participating Saturday.

Check out Viva's team's cheer routine. She is the smallest one on the team. She is at the front in the center at the start of the routine and then she moves around, so you'll have to keep your eye on her.