The Bad News Bears of Cheer

Saturday

Jul292017

Sometimes the truth doesn't sound very kind, but there's just no way around it -- the competition cheer team that Alexis is on is ... not good. Each girl is fantastic and wonderful and talented but when you put them together, well, there is no "together." I've never seen a practice where they've managed to nail their routine.

Which was EXACTLY the point.

Alexis spends a lot of time around kids who have a similar life experience to hers. They live in the same or similar neighborhoods and have access to the same advantages as they go about their days. It's not that they haven't encountered challenges, of course everyone does at some point, but they're very different challenges than someone who is only able to do cheer because of organizations that offer super low-cost access. To put it into perspective, while some competitive cheer gyms cost hundreds of dollars per month for practices, we pay $12 per week. As an extra bonus, if you don't go to a practice, you don't pay for the practice.

Quite frankly, Alexis needs some time around kids with diverse backgrounds. She also REALLY needs some time around failing. That kid is a perfectionist to her core. She doesn't know how to do things "just for fun." Either you do it exactly perfect or you don't do it. That's how her brain is wired.

But when you're part of a cheer squad where people pay $12 per week and they're not getting hours of private lessons or time at expensive tumbling clinics, you're going to run into imperfect. I know how very much that makes the kid uncomfortable, so I threw her right into the middle of it. She needed a lesson in understanding other world views and she needed a lesson in "JUST FREAKIN HAVE FUN, KID." So what if you screw up a stunt? As long as nobody is injured, you can just have fun trying.

It worked, by the way. It took Alexis a few months, but she figured out how to enjoy messy fun. One of the highlights of the season was a practice a few weeks ago where someone stepped on her foot as she was about to do a backhandspring. The result was a pile of Alexis spread all over the floor and she was laughing so hard she had tears running down her face.

For once in her life, Alexis was able to laugh at her own beautiful disaster.

So! Nationals! We're in Vegas right now for the national competition for the cheer organization. It's an "every squad above level X gets to go" kind of thing, so it's not like they qualified for nationals. They dropped half their stunts at the state competition level, in fact. They have very seriously been a mess all season.

We're talking Badness Bears level of mess. Seriously. Again, each individual is talented. Together they have been a mess, though.

Do you want to go ahead and guess who stunned us all by, for the first time EVER, having a flawless performance? 0 deductions, baby. Those girls. The ones who have been a mess all season. They somehow hit that mat and for the first time ever nailed their routine.

COMPLETELY NAILED IT.

And that was enough. They could have stopped at a zero deduction performance and I would still be sitting here in complete awe. They weren't done, though. Somehow, the team that couldn't managed to have the highest score in their division.

First place. National champions.

And it wasn't one of those token first places that comes with having 1724958234 categories so everyone can win. They legit beat teams that have been performing well all year.

So I'm not quite sure how that whole "let's just go have fun and enjoy the experience and not care about being perfect" thing worked out because they Bad News Beared their way to the top.

Good job, girls.