January was a Blur of Cheer and Dance

I promised to tell you why Morgan wasn't home for Christmas, and I will not make you wait any longer!!  Morgan went to the bowl game in San Francisco with the BYU marching band.  She has a great time, although BYU lost the game.

The tuba section

My very favorite picture of her whole trip, maybe her whole band experience!!

School started up soon enough.  January is serious cheer competition season.  I just know that if I live through January, I'll be ok.   January means practice 4 days a week, at least 2 basketball games a week, and competitions every weekend.  The first of the competitions is a state cheer and dance competition in Daytona.  It is a really fun competition to go to and it is the beginning of the big competitions for cheer.  It is also the big state competition for the dance teams.  Cheerleading went on Friday.

The entire Fleming Island Cheer Program - Varsity and JV on Daytona Beach

We always kick of the weekend with a photo shoot on the beach which lasts about 2 hours, as we get pictures of each team, each grade level, funny pictures, friends, coaches, etc.etc.etc.  

Varsity and JV pyramid - 46 cheerleaders!!

Next we compete.  We struggled a bit at this competition and we weren't very happy with our performance;  however, our opening stunt looked really great!!

Both Varsity and JV won their divisions, though, so we were happy.

The very next day, we had to be back in Jacksonville for the FHSAA Regional Meet.  This competition is part of the Florida High School Athletic Association, so it is very important.  We have never won at this competition, either, and we were going up against some serious talent in Choctawhatchee (Choctaw-hatchee).  This school has some great programs.  Their band is one of the best we would see every year at state band.  Well, we recovered from our poor performance on Friday and hit a great routine on Saturday, winning the Regional meet and beating Choctawhatchee. While Travis and I were up in Jacksonville at the Regional meet, the girls were in Daytona dancing in their prelims.  Once my competition was over, we raced down to Daytona (get it?) and were able to see them dance on Sunday.  This year, the dance theme was Ninjas and our cousin Hayley designed a t-shirt for the team!!  Everyone just loved it!

Pre-dance picture - Hayley's shirt looks GREAT!

Maddie is all set to dance

Rozzie's senior dance performance

This next move in the dance required everyone to be in a circle and bend at the knees and lower themselves onto the knees of the girl behind them.  When they did this at the school pep rally, the place gasped in amazement.  Then the kids in my English class wanted to try it - HAHAHA. no. 

When the team went down into this circle, it really wowed the crowd.  

And then they won - third year in a row!!  This is a great accomplishment for these kids and they were so pleased!  No one has ever won the hip hop dance title three years in a row.  

Yay!  We're so happy (Nora, Rozzie, Maddie)

 The three state champ teams wore their championship jackets to school the next Tuesday and gathered for a picture after school.

Champions - Dance, Varsity Cheer, JV Cheer

Next up was the FHSAA State Championship.  We won last year, and to repeat was going to be really hard.  Travis came in town and I let Rozzie and Maddie skip school and ride the bus with the team.  They were great to have along on the trip.  Travis took a lot of pictures, including this next one.  This has turned out to be a team favorite.  We were getting ready to go into finals and were stretching and all.  I had to run and get something and Travis was peeking around the curtain and had his camera up.  I really didn't have time to talk or anything, but I game him this little wave.  The picture became an iconic image of my career (haha), not really, but everyone thought it was funny.

What up?

We performed twice - a semi-final and a final.  In our semi-final round, the kids did a little pre-performance chant and we were docked 4 points for it.  Easy fix, don't do the chant in the finals.  Both performances were clean and the final one was near perfect!

This is one of my favorite action shots with the girls up in the air like they are!

 And we won.  Which means a second championship ring!!  It was a great day, made even better since Trav and the girls were there with me this time (except for Morgan who was missed

Stay tuned for February.  It could come at anytime.  And I need more comments, so…comment!!