Sabrina's First Cheer Competition

This fall we signed Sabrina up for cheer leading at our church.  I have never been involved with this before, so we had no idea what we were getting into with it.  She had never taken dance, tumbling, or anything at all.  But, she smiles a lot, is bouncy and is outgoing.  She has a "cheer leader personality" and I thought would be a good fit.

Today was her first competition.  I had seen the routine many times (they practice twice a week; Catherine and I do school work while she is practicing - but the last ten minutes they let people watch).  It is a 2 and a half minute routine with tumbling, dancing, pyramids, etc.  Very active and well choreographed.

Before the competition, each girl had to get "cheer hair."  This was a totally new phenomenon to me.  The coaches gave the parents a four page memo on how to do the girl's hair, in addition to giving us a demonstration.  Plus, the night before the competition we met as a group and rolled the girls' hair together.  But, by the morning Sabrina's hair was no longer slick and had tons of "wisps" in it.  Apparently this violates the rules for how "cheer hair" is supposed to look.  So, a friend of mine with FIVE YEARS of cheer hair experience touched her hair up for us in the morning (the little tugs of course are painful, but Sabrina was a trooper and did not cry at all):

Before the competition Catherine put on Sabrina's practice t-shirt and marched around with one of the team signs (Sabrina is on the 4 and 5 year old squad).

 The starting places (Sabrina starts in the back row):

 The 15 girls on the squad constantly change formation, running around to new spots on the floor:

 See all the hyper-curly ponytails and glittery stars on their cheeks?

 Sabrina's big smile:

The group pyramid (Sabrina's back is to the audience but she is in the front helping to lift the middle girl):

This may be overkill, but I love all these action shots of Sabrina:

Shaking her hips as part of the dance:

 I haven't seen the score sheets, but if "cuteness" was a category, we would benefit:

 They chant "Johnson Ferry, the best just got better!" part way through the routine:

 The ending pose:

Sabrina found some pom poms to shake for a picture:

At the end of the competition, we attended the awards ceremony.  Our squad won first place!!  Here is Sabrina with her coach, and Catherine about to give her a hug:

Sabrina's personality is custom made for cheer leading and she loves it!