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Sunday, October 12th, 2008
JamFest Cheer Competition
If you have never been to a cheerleading competition, imagination a darkened room with a large stage on one end, music blaring continuously and so loudly that it's impossible to have a conversation, and girls as young as four painted up with glitter and lipstick. If you HAVE been to such an event, I need not say more.
I really think cheerleading is a special kind of hell especially for parents of gymnasts. It is our punishment for quiting a sport that had dignity.
Oh my.... I really don't have words to describe the long hours we endured yesterday. We were told to be there at 11am. Once we arrived, we learned that Jillian's teams would perform at 4:15 and 4:50 and we had to stay until after awards which would end around 7pm.
Rah!
Here is a the beautiful blue sky we saw walking up to the convention center. By the time we emerged from cheer hell it was dark.
I tried to take a photo that showed the size of the arena and how many people were there, but this is the best I got.
There was alot of waiting around obviously. I shot this cool photo in front of a large work of collage art.
It got a little exciting when we saw Jillian all dressed up with her glitz and glitter. Cami wasn't sure about her.
When Jillian's team finally went on, they did well. Both her teams won second place. Jillian is on the left front in this first picture.
We were definitely in the parent minority. Many parents there were dressed in at least matching colors to their child's team, if not a matching cheer uniform in their size. Parents wore wigs and hats with flashing lights in teams colors. One devoted dad had cow bells under each arm so everytime he moved he made noise. Many parents had those horrible compressed air siren noise makers.
I have no idea what the rules are, how teams are made, or how the scoring is done. It was a very long day in a very loud place. Please stay tuned for the continuation of my story in my next blog, "Anatomy of a Meltdown" coming soon.
JamFest Cheer Competition
If you have never been to a cheerleading competition, imagination a darkened room with a large stage on one end, music blaring continuously and so loudly that it's impossible to have a conversation, and girls as young as four painted up with glitter and lipstick. If you HAVE been to such an event, I need not say more.
I really think cheerleading is a special kind of hell especially for parents of gymnasts. It is our punishment for quiting a sport that had dignity.
Oh my.... I really don't have words to describe the long hours we endured yesterday. We were told to be there at 11am. Once we arrived, we learned that Jillian's teams would perform at 4:15 and 4:50 and we had to stay until after awards which would end around 7pm.
Rah!
Here is a the beautiful blue sky we saw walking up to the convention center. By the time we emerged from cheer hell it was dark.
I tried to take a photo that showed the size of the arena and how many people were there, but this is the best I got.
There was alot of waiting around obviously. I shot this cool photo in front of a large work of collage art.
It got a little exciting when we saw Jillian all dressed up with her glitz and glitter. Cami wasn't sure about her.
When Jillian's team finally went on, they did well. Both her teams won second place. Jillian is on the left front in this first picture.
We were definitely in the parent minority. Many parents there were dressed in at least matching colors to their child's team, if not a matching cheer uniform in their size. Parents wore wigs and hats with flashing lights in teams colors. One devoted dad had cow bells under each arm so everytime he moved he made noise. Many parents had those horrible compressed air siren noise makers.
I have no idea what the rules are, how teams are made, or how the scoring is done. It was a very long day in a very loud place. Please stay tuned for the continuation of my story in my next blog, "Anatomy of a Meltdown" coming soon.
Great insight into a unique area. Thanks.
the annual school bonfire and the year of the rubber chicken...memories..