Cheer Mom Jessica- A Year of New Beginnings

 October 9, 2020

      Hello Cheer4Today Readers, It's Cheer Mom Jessica. Last season I started by telling you how "C"  made the elite team of her dreams and how I was hit with the reality of all the responsibility and costs that went along with it.  As I planned for my 2nd blog entry about our experiences flying cross country and competing at some amazing events... The Corona Virus set in and all of her other competitions were canceled. For the most part, we had no problems getting our hotel and competition fees back, but we did struggle to get our prepaid airline tickets back. To get a good price, we had to plan early and we had no idea what was going to happen with the country shutting down. it was really a tough time. Allowing my daughter to compete on a team like that costs a lot of money and I make an average salary so I really could have used a full refund on my airline tickets. ugh... Did any of you experience that? Did you get your money back or did you have to just deal with the loss like us? 

     Enough of last season, it is now a new season and after really thinking about it and weighing the options we agreed to let "C" come back and cheer this season. It didn't take long for her to get her skills dusted off and she is even working on a "specialty pass".  She's super eager to contribute to her team. Some of the kids on her team have been part of this team for many years, but  this is only her 2nd year on the team and last year really wasn't a full year. She is also a flyer this cheer season and she is a bit nervous. Last season at one of our first competitions, we heard 2 parents talking as they watch another team compete. I guess they were "rivals" and they were almost wishing that the flyer would fall. Do I think they wanted the girl to get hurt... no, but they wanted the team to lose points so their child's team would win.  My daughter heard that and asked me if they realized that she could get hurt. I think sometimes people get so into the competition that they forget that every cheerleader is somebody's child and we should support one another. You shouldn't want another team to fail, rather you should want your team to be even better. I think this is in the back of my daughter's mind as she has been working on her elite stunts. I keep reminding her to just do her best. This will be a new experience for her. 

       Although none of us really know how this season is going to play out, we have to do our best with whatever we are dealt. Whether we end up traveling like nothing happened, end up doing mostly virtual competitions, or something somewhere in the middle; we just have know that in the end, it will all be ok. 

Keep Cheering,

Blogger Jessica

Blogger Nayeli 9/11/2020

Hello! It’s Nay coming back for another cheer blog. 

In early August, "Big League Chew" had choreography for two days, which one of those days was actually my Birthday! Both days were a bit exhausting, but at least I had fun during and after choreography. I’m a little sad that "Twix" hasn’t had their choreography yet, I hope it comes soon!

Now let’s move to the middle of August. I went on a day trip  to Chicago for a GK casting call. Getting my photo taken was so much fun! I felt like a Vogue Model! (LOL!) Getting to chat with the photographer made a normal casting call photo shoot become a mini runway session. I was fantastic!

Now I will fast forward to the end of August and early September. I started school, and I was super excited to have an epic first day! I also recently got my fall cheer schedule, and I am ready for a new and totally different season! I will be at cheer for half a week.  I know I am ready for this challenge!

Hasta la pasta and see ya next time! 

Gotta go! <3 ~~~

Nayeli

Blogger Trinity 8-24-2020

 

MY TEAM TRAINING~

Hello Guys... It's me Trinity again!

Today I will be talking about my team’s training routine. To start off we do the basics warming up, then stretches, and then finally we warm up our tumbling. On some nights our team focuses on one specific subject. An example of this would be doing jumps, tumbling, stunting, and then the routine. In previous weeks, we have been focusing on stunts, jumps, and dance. We have the first half of our routine so now all is left is the dance. So dance is what we will be focusing on for the next couple of weeks.

Let me talk you into more about our training. For our jumps we do 1 set of 8 toe-touches, 8 hurdles {each leg}, and last but not least 8 pike jumps to gain our stamina.

Next would be tumbling. First, we do the basics e.g. handstands, cartwheels, and more. Then, we move into stuff like standing tumbling and running tumbling. 

You guessed it... next is stunting. Normally every night we will start with LOL’s which stands for Lot’s Of Legs. That is just another way to say we are warming up our base's legs for when we stunt. It also means we are warming up the flyer's legs and body positions as well. 

When all of that is done,  we do a big nice refreshing stretch and say a BIG thank you to our wonderful coaches! 

I hope you enjoyed my blog today,

Trinity

Cheer4Today- Stunt Stand - 8/21/2020

 Cheer4Today- Stunt Stand - 8/21/2020

Cheer4Today -Air Track 8/14/2020

 

Welcome Blogger Trinity- 7-26-2020

      Hi my name is Trinity and I live in Brisbane, Queensland. I am 11 years old and I cheer and dance at FAD Logan West.  I am in 5 routines this year, I'm on a Level 4 AG Senior Cheer Team, and a Senior level 4 Assisted partner stunt!  My favorite thing ever to do is stunt! I have been cheerleading for around 6 years. Five of those years I have been in All Star Cheer. My position on my cheer team is being the flyer. My favorite part about cheerleading is that I get to stunt and be around all my team mates and see my coaches.

     My team has around 13 cheerleaders on it. My coaches are awesome and you might even know them. Their names are Bek and Gareth and I love having them as coaches.

     Now It is important when you are a flyer to have good bases. I want to tell you about my bases. First of all, I have Kathleen who is the back spot. She is really good at what she does! Then I have Ami. She cracks me up! She is a really good base especially with her twisting grips! Then I have my favorite base Kayla. Now, I'm sure you’re probably wondering why Kayla is my favorite... well here is why. I have known her for quite a while because of all our specialty routines together, the heaps of time together, and she is a TANK( aka, my engine)! She does a lot of hard work. All of my bases do too!


   I hope you enjoyed reading about me cheerleading in Queensland. I cant wait to blog next month!

Sincerely,
Trinity Bauer

Welcome Blogger Nayeli - 7-23-2020

      Hello, my name is Nayeli. I’m so happy to share with you my very first blog.  I cheer at Top Notch Allstars as a J2 & J3 cross over athlete and I am going into the seventh grade. All star Cheer has been a part of my life for just about half of my life.  Aside from cheerleading I also model and rep for GK Allstar, Crazypants US, Rock Your Hair , Be you Brands Apparel, and Cheerfit. I also like to draw, craft, sew, make TikTok videos, Cosplay, and play games with friends. 

     This year has been such a tornado of a year! Having our season cancelled due to COVID was totally disappointing and scary and there was a time where I didn’t think there would be a 20-21 season either!  

   Now fast forward to July, where I’ve been very occupied with cheer. During the first two weeks of July, I had my first team practices for TN Twix (J3) and TN Big League Chew (J2) They used to be Warheads Y2, but the Y2 was merged into the already exiting J2 small making is a J2 large.

   This year I also start a new venture as a Jr High Sideline and Competitive School Cheerleader with our local Jr High.  I can't wait!

Well that’s enough about me for now , we will have more time in the future to

get to know what the life of a cheerleader is like for me!

Hasta la Pasta, 

see you later and make good choices! 

<3

Nayeli

Blogger Allie - 7-22-2020

Hey Guys and Dolls !!!

    It’s been a long time since I’ve wrote anything! A lot has changed in the world as well as in my cheer life.  After I last blogged, my cheer team and I went to the Quest cheer competition in Florida. After we competed, within 24 hrs, our world as we knew it had changed forever! So the Quest was supposed to be a 2 day competition but ended up becoming a 1 day competition due to the Corona Virus.  Considering all that was going on in the US during this time, we did very well and we had very respectable placing in the world's first competition for Rec and Performance rec. My Senior 3 team placed 12th and my Junior 4 team placed 2nd at the Quest. We were very proud of ourselves, but as we flew home a few days later, we learned the virus was scarier than we first thought. Actually two weeks after coming home from the competition, I ended up getting the virus! Compared to others,  it was mild, but my sense or taste and smell are still not back yet. To Everyone who is reading this; please stay safe , wash your hands, and wear your masks. ❤️

Now here we are as a new season approaches and I’m so excited to be back cheering for CDX Elite! CDX Elite was my first home for many years and I’m so happy to be back at my home! This is where all my coaches know me and my quirks. CDX Elite started out as Cheer Dream Warriors which was a true non profit rec cheer team that’s supports children with all forms of scoliosis. Now they are a D2 gym, but still rooted deeply in The Cheer Dream Scoliosis Foundation. As for me, I still don’t know what team I’ll land on, but team training and team building is still going on until end of the month. I’m just happy to be back home 🏡.

Stay well and stay safe
Allie ❤️

50 Cheer Gyms... 50 States - Titan Cheer Alliance ( 27 of 50)

The twenty-seventh gym I would like to introduce you to is Titan Cheer Alliance out of Leonardo, New Jersey.

Owners/Cheer Director: 
Titan cheer alliance is owned by four women. They are Thea Gilardi, Joyce Corcoran Marie Henn and Jodi Ventimiglia- The Cheerleading Director. They all play equally important roles and have put their entire lives into TCA. They are a non profit 100% volunteer organization.

Colors: 
orange, grey, blue, and black.

What cheer competitions have you really enjoyed competing in the most?   
Their favorite comp to attend, hands down is always reach the beach in Ocean City, Maryland.

What championship or placement are you most proud of at your gym?  
"This is tough. Our original Lady Legends, after taking a hard second place in Disney came back to compete at Globals and completely killed their routine and won! At the time I know I had several girls leaving me for their incredibly talented high school program so that win was not just emotional but such a beautiful moment for us all. I also have to say that watching my Senior 3 team battle it out with another incredible Senior 3 team at Cheerstarz this past season and watch them kill their Freddy Mercury themed routine securing them a Bid to their Quest was also amazing!"

What is something you would like our readers to know about your gym? 
Our level 4 team “Legends” is derived from the original Lady Legends- a name we gave our kids after years of competing in the "AYF World" as the Keansburg Titans. In order to know us you have to know that our kids, starting in 2013 battled every adversity you could imagine as a low income program with awful uniforms and zero practice space or equipment. We taught our kids that you don’t need fancy equipment, just a great work
ethic. We went on to win just about every local, state and regional comp they had to offer. In 2016 we won the national title after several attempts and some crazy rule violations and disappointments. Then, we made the jump To Pop Warner and despite a fantastic experience, but we felt our kids deserved more. In 2019 we started our performance rec journey. At the time opening up township boundaries and giving the community an opportunity to train like an Allstar program without the Allstar price tag. Through extraordinary fundraising we managed to secure our own training facility that now has a full spring floor fully equipped with tumble tracks and mats.

Quote from the team...
"Our mission has been about falling back in love with the sport. We tend to get very wrapped up in the Bid chasing and forget why we do what we do! We believe in discipline we believe in hard work and we believe in family. When you cheer at TCA you have an entire army to back you."

The website for this cheer gym is:
https://titancheeralliance.com

Pictures:

50 Cheer Gyms... 50 States - Cheer Central Suns ( 26 of 50)

The twenty-sixth gym I would like to introduce you to the Cheer Central Suns out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Owners/Cheer Director: 
Owner - Wendy Ayers 
New Mexico Gym Director - Kelly Grice

Coaches: 
Current Coaching Staff:
Victoria Wildes, Chelsea Landry,Cosmic Narvaiz, Amanda Mendez, Angus Myers (Tumbling) 
Wes Woods , and Loren Troutman 

Colors: 
Blue and Yellow

Years Opened:
The New Mexico location has been open 4 years and we are starting our 5th season in this location. Cheer Central has been opened for 19 years. We will beginning our 20th season this year! 

What cheer competitions have you really enjoyed competing in the most?   
We love NCA (Dallas)! We travel to NCA every year to compete against the best of the best and expose ourselves to the most competitive divisions possible! 

We have also enjoyed traveling to other regions in the country and competing at competitions like ATC in Seattle, Washington and The American Northwest in Portland, Oregon! It’s so fun to travel and compete against fantastic programs from all over the country not just in our region! 

What championship or placement are you most proud of at your gym?  
We are most proud of the 6th place finish from our Small Youth 2 GLOW from The 2018 Summit! This little team advanced from a large wildcard division on day 1, placed 3rd in semi-finals on day 2, earning them a spot to compete in finals and came out with an overall 6TH PLACE FINISH after a tough 3 days of competition against a total of 66 teams! We are so proud of all of the accomplishments and placements of all our teams through the last 4 years and we do not define an individual team’s success or our gym’s success on competition placements, but this moment is one of our greatest accomplishments as CCS NM! Not only for our gym but for our state - Cheer Central Suns New Mexico is the first gym in our state to place top 10 at The Summit and in our 4 years we’ve accomplished that twice! We keep raising our competitive bar every year and can’t wait to see what season 5 holds for our teams!

What is something you would like our readers to know about your gym? 
At Cheer Central we are a family! Our mission is for SUNS FAMILY values and competitive excellence to develop kids into great athletes, and most importantly, incredible young adults! We have the best coaches in the state who push our athletes to be their best while also loving them and teaching them to be great people! While our coaching and training has led us to many accomplishments, titles and wins that is not what we focus on or define our gym by! We teach our athletes valuable life lessons and focus on being a good person first and through the lessons and hard work we also train them to be incredible athletes who accomplish amazing things! And we couldn’t highlight our gym without also spotlighting our families! At Cheer Central we have the most dedicated, loyal and supportive families! We love our Suns Families and couldn’t continue to be the largest and most competitive D1 program in the state without them! 

Note: Cheer Central Suns has several wonderful gym locations. They are Cheer Central Suns: North, Central, South, and New Mexico.

The website for this cheer gym is:
https://www.ccsuns.com/

Social Media:
Instagram: @ccsuns and @cheercentralsunsnm

Twitter: @theccsuns and @ccs_nm 

Pictures:

Blogger Jackson -Senior Year 2020

            Hi everyone! My name is Jackson Amirshahi. I am a senior from Grafton High School in Yorktown, Virginia. I started cheering in 8th grade, and cheered competitively the last 4 years on my high school team. In those years, I was able to win 4 consecutive Region titles, and 3 consecutive state titles! I ended my high school competitive cheer career with a Runner-Up finish at this last years 2019 state competition. During those years, I cheered at Fame Allstars on their Senior Half-Year team Victorious! I started all-star my sophomore year, and have continued since then! My first year on Victorious, we hit 0 at every competition and won U.S. Finals in 2018! Since then I’ve been able to fill in on their 2019 team, and more recently their 2020 team, as sort of the designated alternate teammate. Both teams have been super valuable to my growth as a cheerleader, and have prepared me to tryout for the VCU Cheer team hopefully in September when I attend college!

   

         Senior year for me, has been one for the books. I had loved everything about my team this past season, and had no regrets. Or as we say “I had left no doubt,” and kept with it the whole season. I was thankful that I had a great senior cheer season alongside someone of my best friends! I especially loved the bond with my best friend who cheered the previous year, because she went from being my teammate, to one of my biggest supporters. For the most part, our school year at Grafton had been great! Our season was phenomenal and we gave it our all! Unfortunately in February, we experienced an electrical fire, that left our school displaced and without a home. Because of this, we had to attend another high school in our county, and look towards going to get ANOTHER high school in our county to allot for the missed seat hours that were taken from all 3 schools due to fire at ours. Unfortunately, this left the rising competitive squad without a home. Thankfully, a rival team in our county opened their doors to our schools team, and allowed them to have an open gym together! But that wasn’t the end. You would think it is nice to adjust to new changes that all of sudden occur, but we were all then faced with the Corona Virus. Unfortunately, that leaves everyone out of school, all sports on hold, and senior seasons ended. For my Allstar team I had JUST GOT A SPOT ON, we had to postpone our practices, and of course follow Varsity’s guidelines in postponing the comps we had been preparing for. The weekend before we were out of school, I had just competed with my Allstar team, and we had secured a bid to U.S. Finals in May. We were all extolled and came to practice Monday ready to work hard and make upgrades. Unfortunately that hard work was put on pause.
   

     

        Sometimes you feel like an issue is only effecting you, when in some cases it is effecting the entire world around you. For me, not being able to go to school, and cheer is the hardest challenge I’ve faced. I have always loved school since my first day in kindergarten, and hearing from our Virginia Governor that school is not happening in person for the remainder of the year, hit me with a wave of sadness. With that meant that the team I was just getting to bond with, was not able to practice or compete until further notice. It is hard changing your schedule once again after you have just adjusted to a new one only a little over a month. It’s been a challenge for me, and so many of my senior friends. And I cannot even imagine what is like for seniors in high school, and college that don’t have the opportunity to play their sport in their final season. I was blessed that my High school cheer season was over, but it still hurt knowing my Allstar season was over, but not on our own terms. I know across our state Cave Spring High School’s boys varsity basketball team was crowned co-state champions with another school, but I understand the hurt they felt, knowing their season ended without them having a final game. It’s hard to fathom that my last time at school was a Thursday, and I thought I would be seeing my friends the following Tuesday, because of our modified schedule due to the fire. But it was really my last time in person as a Grafton student. I pray that this is over soon, and that we can all get back to the sports we love. I miss practicing with my team, and this break now has made me miss my high school competitive team more than ever, as they should be out working hard to comeback for a state title like we all know they can; but we are all limited now. It hurts, but I know everyone in this sport we love, and all other
sports cane bounce back, and we can soon show off that obstacles can’t defeat us, and we can all overcome whatever is in our way.

-Jackson

Cheer Mom Jessica- How is this outbreak affecting you?

Hello Guys!

       So I'm sitting here at home instead of traveling to see my friend's daughter compete this weekend and it really got me to thinking about what is going on in this world. The health of myself, my family, and everyone is and has to be my number one priority.  I think that a few weeks away from large crowds and gatherings will move this pandemic in the right direction. My hope  is that this illness will fade away and we can soon get back to our normal lives as busy cheer moms and cheer dads.
    Speaking of cheer, lets move into some more positive topics like cheer. How has this affected you and your family and the sports they play? feel free to reply below. I know that Varsity Brand has taken an unprecedented step in canceling or postponing all events  for the next 2 weeks. I know that it is inconvenient, but I do think it was a good step to help this country get rid of this illness. I also know there are alot of teams that are still pushing to get their bids for worlds and the Summit D1 & D2 and there were many bid events scheduled for the next 2 weekends. I am confident from what I'm reading and hearing that Varsity will do everything in their power to give those teams an opportunity to earn bids in the following weeks to make up for these postponed comps.  Although this is uncharted waters for us all, I dont think this is the end of the cheer and other competitive sports for the year, its just going to be a small hiccup in the road.

-Cheer Mom Jessica

NCA DALLAS-Blogger Travis 3/6/2020

3/6/2020

     I love my gym! One  example of why I love my gym is from what I saw this past weekend. This past weekend I went to NCA Dallas to support "Black Smack" our medium senior coed level 3 team and it really amazed me on how many people came from our gym to support Black Smack. This competition wasn't even very close to the location of our gym, but people were there to support them. Our gym is so close. We all know each other, we all hangout with each other, and we all get along. It's just amazing! 

 -Travis

Hey Guys and Dolls- Blogger Allie

Hey Guys and Dolls !!

It’s been an extra long month with three and a half hour long practices 5x times a week! 

But, it totally paid off because my Senior 3 team has finally got an At Large Bid for the Quest !!! That means all 4 of our teams are going to Disney !!!

This Bid means alot to us because it has been a very hard season for Sr3. Even though it's been tough, we completely shine on !!! What can I say but the performance rec senior 3 division, everyone is soooo talented ❤️ it’s incredible to watch the other teams this season, but the count down is on now. We have 18 more days until all these talented teams go down to Disney and show off what we have worked for all season long. The Quest !!!!

Welcome to our newest blogger Travis from Memphis Cheer!

Welcome to our newest blogger Travis  from Memphis Cheer!

Hello my name is Travis. I am on Memphis Cheer Blue Diamonds. It is a level 5 senior coed team out of Tennessee. I have been cheering for 6 years. During my 6 years I have been to The Summit and The D2 Summit.  I will be blogging this season about my experiences in cheer.

-Travis

   

Blogger Alexis- 2-5-2020

Hello my fellow cheerleading fanatics!

Again my name is Alexis Barkley and I cheer for Cheer Trixx Athletics near Blairsville Pennsylvania. I am writing today to give you an update on how much our gym has been slaying.

 In my last blog post I wrote how we were going to be traveling to Cleveland Ohio to compete at the CCC Double Down competition. Since then we have went on to compete at Americheer in Pittsburgh and Shout! in Slippery Rock. Below is a list all of our achievements from these three competitions. Our next couple adventures are CCC Red Hot at Slippery Rock, followed by American Masters in Buffalo New York, directly followed by Battle at the Capitol in Washington DC, and then a little break before we head off to THE ONE!

In my last blog I explained mainly who I am and who I cheer for. Today I want to take time to focus on what has happened since then. Our athletes have endured your typical cheer obstacles such as sickness, injuries, people quitting, and attitudes. The one thing that makes our gym so special is we do not let those obstacles get in our way. We have grown closer as a program and are learning more and more everyday the importance of coming to the gym and blocking out the outside world out.

Since my last post my team (in particular) has received an IN BID and a full paid bid to The Big Apple. We are aiming to  earn as many bids as we can and make this year one to remember. We have also planned many team bonding and gym bonding activities such as a mini New Years Party. Soon, we plan to have a Daddy/Daughter Dance and much more  before this season quickly approaches the end. 

Our Season:

Double Down 

Junior 2- Second Place

Junior 4 / Senior Open 4- First Place

Junior 2- Highest Routine Composition Score

Americheer

Junior 2, Junior 4, Senior Open 4-First Place

Senior 4 Open- Grand Champion and International Bid Winner

Entire Cheer Trixx Gym- Show Your Spirit Award

Shout!

Tiny- Excellence Rating

Mini- First Place

Junior 2- First Place

Junior 4- Hit Zero Performance

Senior 4 Open- First Place

Jackpot- Hit Zero Performance

- Specialty Awards -

Junior 2- Level 2 Champions (highest score of all level 2 teams)

Junior 2- Highest Score of the Entire Competition (Grand Champion)

Junior 2- Paid Bid to The Big Apple

Junior 4- Best Tumbling

Junior 4- Partial Paid Bid to The Big Apple

Senior 4 Open- Best Stunts

Senior 4 Open- Level 4 Champions (highest score of all level 4 teams)

Senior 4 Open- Paid Bid to The Big Apple

Jackpot- Star of the Show