Out in the Crowd

Game day

Friday night

Crisp autumn air

You've practiced

You’re ready

Commitment

Fans everywhere 

A sea of red and white

Smells of grilled hamburgers

Fresh popcorn  

Electricity 

Excitement

Nerves

Lights

The Announcer

The Team

National Anthem

Kick-off

Defense

Passion

Touchdowns

Quarter breaks

Timeouts

Halftimes

Stunts

Tumbling

Pyramids

Cheers

Dances

The Band

Winning touch down

Intensity

The final score

Celebration

Pride

Powerful

These are all things that we experience on any given Friday.  

Yet, somewhere in the mix of all these things is a little girl.  A little girl watching your every move.  She is dressed in her uniform, hair up, poms in hand.  She looks onto the field in awe and dreams that one day she will be just like you.  She practices her cheers.  Jumps around in the living room and tumbles in the back yard… 

You are her idol. 

You are her dream.

That is a lot of responsibility.  

High expectations to live up to. 

Are you ready?  

Can you handle the pressure?  

Don’t let that little girl down...

Zen by Completion

This post is really more about my coaching journey. I want to reflect on what it has meant to me to go through the A to Z Challenge.  Over the past 30 days, I have learned a lot about my coaching and myself.  I have learned what is important to me and how I want to treat my athletes.  I have been coaching a long time and have never been able to put into words my coaching philosophy. 

Coaching to me is more than just a job.  It is my passion and my life’s work.  I have spent more time in my life coaching other people’s children that anything else.  There have been some rough years and some rough times, but in the end, it is always worth it.  When we focus on touching the lives of our students and making memories that can last for a lifetime, we have done our job. 

At the end of the day, it is not about how many trophies you brought home or how many games are won.  It is about the friendships you have made and the smiles on the cheerleader’s faces.  In the last month I have listened to former students talk about what it meant to cheer for me and be on my team.  I have seen pictures of cheerleader’s rooms with papers and what I thought were silly awards hanging on the walls.  I gained some friends and lost some friends.  I watched two incredible former cheerleaders tryout for college teams and make it.  I helped two girls from my team get onto the high school team where they are moving.  I helped reassure a fellow coach that she is not alone in her endeavors as a coach and always has help if she needs it.  I continued to grow my camp staff and reach out to coaches and friends to help them make their programs better.

These things cannot be taken away from me.  They have helped me grow as a person and a coach and for that I am grateful!  If you have been following my posts over the last month, I thank you too.  I have received good and bad feedback from what I was doing. Everything was helpful.  Thank you to the founders of the A to Z blogging challenge!  This journey has been wonderful!  It has reinforced my love of writing and given me the opportunity to share my knowledge to those who want it.

Thank you,

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CW3