Picking the Pom Pon's Back Up

Picking the Pom Pon's Back up...well not actually. But, close enough for me. Having been a cheerleader since the 3rd grade until my senior year of college, and coaching since 12th grade through college, this past year without any of it has felt like something has been missing.
Shortly after moving to Abilene, I knew that I wanted to get involved coaching some cheerleading team, but realized that I needed to first worry about getting adjusted to a new job, a new lifestyle, and an entirely new place before being able to devote time to a cheerleading squad. But, now that my one year anniversary in Abilene is approaching, I found the perfect fit.
I just started coaching Pop Warner cheerleading in Abilene.

However, since my schedule working in the wonderful world of news can be sometimes unpredictable, I knew that I didn't want to ever leave a team of mine stranded. So instead, I spoke with the Cheerleading Organizer and we decided I'd be the cheerleader choreographer...where I wouldn't just work with one group of girls but instead the entire league. That way, each team would still have their own individual coach but I'd be able to help everyone out by offering some new material and an overall different cheerleading experience.
I started helping out the "Jets", the littlest girls in the bunch (the youngest being 4). There are only about 9 of them, but they are too cute. You can't help but smile when you hear their high pitch voices. Their attention span doesn't last too young and I can already see that the coaches struggle with teaching them new cheers, jumps, and stunts in an hours worth of time. I've worked with girls as young them before, so it was nothing I wasn't prepared for.

I taught them a few cheers, an organized way to jump together, and a stunt to a cheer. Then at the end of practice, we played a game that happens to be a great positive reinforcement mechanism. It's a silly game that resembles Simon Says, that kids everywhere just seem to love. Since the game was such a hit with the girls...we told them that if they wanted to play it every day at practice, they'd first have to pay attention to all of the things that we learn and review in practice.

So far so good. It's always a rewarding experience seeing how much fun they have learning new things and how hard they work to remember them. It really makes me miss when I was on the sidelines...especially being that young. Because when you get to High School and College cheerleading, the sport of cheerleading takes on a whole new meaning; with it's competitiveness and level of difficulty; ultimately adding another element of danger. Hence, why I tore my ACL my Junior year in college while stunting, winding me up in the operating room for surgery and preventing me from cheering my Senior year of college.

Since I can no longer be on the sidelines or on the competition mat, it makes me really happy to see so many other girls enjoy it just like I did. So, I look forward to continuing to coach the Jets as well as the other cheer squads in the league.