Personal Narrative: Trying Out For Cheering

When we got there my parents were in the lobby my mom crying in my dad's lap. We hurried to the x-ray room. When we got there they put me to sleep for I would not struggle. When I woke up I had my parents in the room and a cast on my leg. My mom came up to me and said, “Your leg, it’s broken”

My first cheerleading tryout had been so much more nerve wracking than I would ever think. Around 4 years ago, my friend told me how her cheer team were having tryouts and I should join. Right away I said yes, but I wasn't exactly serious about being a cheerleader. With tryouts just around the corner my friend, Jo, helped teach me some of the basics. I straight away thought i was pro and ready for

Its led me too realize I am strong and braver than I had ever thought possible. While trying to decide on these options I seemed my parents for a little advice and what they thought I should do. They had some great things to tell me and it helped with my decision. I feel like a very strong individual for deciding on fighting the pain that was brought to me by continuing to play through with the injury. Every day after school I had to strap a thousand dollar brace on before going to the field. After hearing the velcro stick together I knew that I had made the right decision. Not only did it make me feel like a man but it showed me that I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way of what I

If everything was easy, then everyone could it and it wouldn’t be an accomplishment. Last year I joined an all-star cheerleading team, and that’s when I found out that this wasn’t going to easy that I have put myself out of my comfort zone. I was 17 years old and I was very shy, but I knew that you couldn’t do anything if you’re shy. Cheer was the best choice I had ever done by the second week of practice I was talking to everyone on the team they became my second family my coaches became so important to me they believed in every single one of us they pushed us to do our best and to never give up.

When I was 9 years old, I started this thing called competitive or all-star cheerleading. My goal at the time was to make it on a level 5 team and compete at the World Championship. Within my first 5 seasons I had a lot of trouble with my tumbling, which prevented me from moving past level 4. Before my sixth season I switched cheer gyms. My parents believed in my goals so much that they drove me an hour and half to and from practice two to three times a week. Within my first year at Tribe which was my new gym, my tumbling issues never got resolved. That left me on a level 3 team where I never believed I was good enough. The next year I was again put on a level 3 team. Now in my eighth season I was put on a level 3 team yet again. I wanted to quit, but my coach showed me that tumbling did not define me and allowed me to fall in love with the sport all over again.

Again, tryouts came for the next greuling school year. The only difference from last year, I was prepared. I knew the cheers, I knew the feeling of standing in front of crowd so ecstatic from a winning game and I knew the feeling of a crowd sitting at a loss for words in the face of defeat. I knew my goal and I was absolutely determined to reach it. I could only be described as a lioness on the prowl and the Varsity squad was my prey. Just as anxious as the year before, though this time with a hint of confidence, I made my tryout a culmination of completely everything I had learned from my wildly experienced past. That night, I reached my ultimate goal and earned the prized name of Varsity cheerleader. The next day I practically walked around with an enormous V on my forehead, honored by the position. With all this positivity, I knew there was something to come. That same summer, I hadn’t received a lucky chance to become even a contender in the

We went back to the dance and I sat on the bleachers, I patiently waited for the concert to end. Afterwards we went to the emergency room to see if I had done something to my ankle. They did an x-ray and the results were that I had fractured my fibula and broken my growth plate. They put a boot on me and gave me some crutches. The next day we went to the bone and joint clinic in Columbia. They did another x-ray and we waited for the results. The doctor, with the results, came in the room to tell us. He said they might just have to pop the bones back into place. They also said they could tell me more if they did a CT scan so they did one of them and said they would call us the next day and give us the better results.

Throughout my life, I have always been told that motivation is what gets you going, but your heart is what keeps you going. It has only been three years since I have discovered my passion for cheerleading; however, it has formed me into the young adult I am today. Due to the numerous hours of hard work, willpower and persistence over these years, I have acquired the concept that my mind, body and soul can withstand almost anything. The idea that cheerleading is not a sport, tends to be an extremely moot topic in today’s society. To me, however, it doesn’t matter what other people think, if it’s something you love and enjoy then that all that counts. I appreciate all of the challenges that cheerleading presents to me. I have gained an extreme

Cheer Athletics in Plano is one of the most prestigious competition gyms in the country. There are other Cheer Athletics’ branches in other places like Frisco and Austin, but not one is as successful as Plano. It is the absolute best place to go for a serious cheerleader. The best and most experienced coaches work there and they are hungry to win. They expect every ounce of energy and athleticism to be left on the floor when we are finished performing. I have never had any problems with an authority figure until I started at Cheer Athletics.

My freshman year of high school I broke the Scaphoid and growth plate in my right wrist while playing in a basketball game. I didn’t know that it was broken for two weeks and I played in three of four basketball games with my broken dominant hand. I found that is was probably broken the Monday before Christmas. On Christmas Eve I was told that I would be put in a cast for the entire Christmas break and on January 3rd we would find out if it was really broke. Sure enough we came back and told that I would have to be in a cast for six to eight weeks. I was pretty devastated and upset that I would be out for the rest of the season, it had barely begun. I was staying pretty optimistic about it because it would give me a chance to work on my weak hand, it was my left, and make it stronger. I still went to practice and worked as hard as I could hoping that the coach’s

I made sure to act very confident at tryouts so it would not be a repeat of the year before. The high school tryouts felt completely different. I was more confident, louder, and overall a better cheerleader. All the hard work I put in really paid off. The day after tryouts, I remember I was in the parking lot of the eye doctor’s office when the teams had been posted. I was so nervous I would be let down again, so I made my mom check first. Typically freshman year girls cheer for the freshman team, but my mom did not see my name there. Panicking, I took her phone and double checked scrolling to see the other teams. Sure enough, my name was not on the freshman team. My name was under junior varsity! I surpassed my goal I made a team that only a few girls my age

I wish I had the opportunity to read an article like this before I started this sport. If I knew all of this research on strengthening your muscles, work on you core, and becoming flexible, I wouldn’t of had to go through my own injury this cheer season. I got a back injury during my junior year of cheerleading and it doesn’t just affect you in the present time. It affects how you feel and also how well your team will perform. In the long run, if it is serious enough it could limit you from doing other activities. From my own experience I would get prepared early, so you don’t ever have to worry about getting injured during the cheer

In my accident, I ended up pulling various muscles in my neck, back, and right shoulder. This caused me to go through about five months of physical therapy. As sophomore year rolled around, I had just completed therapy, and I was almost cleared to do cheer activities. As my therapy was coming to an end, I realized

During my elementary years, my second home was at the cheerleading gym. Each week, I would spend over sixteen hours in Shrewsbury, PA practicing with my cheer team for competitions. I was a member of Titanium Athletics, an allstar cheer team that trained to compete against other teams all over the country. Cheer was essentially my entire life for five years, and I had no idea how much my family and I would be impacted when I quit.

I can vividly remember the summer before fifth grade. My good friends begged me to participate in a school sport where the mere thought of it pushed me past my comfort zone. They wanted me to join cheerleading. The thought of being “loud and peppy” in front of a large group of people seemed absurd. At the time, I was a quiet and shy girl who felt totally intimidated with what cheerleading entailed. Little did I know that cheerleading would drastically change me into the person that I am today.