Universal Cheerleading Association

           
         It was a warm sunny day with a slight breeze and the bell just rang for lunchtime. As usual, Hope and I went to her house to eat. After we finished our chili dogs my phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out and read, “ONE NEW MSG” from “Nichole Lozano”. The message was urgent and said, “CALL ME!” in capital letters. We had 5 minutes until the bell rang for class to start again so I knew she was already in the office. I told Hope to take me back to school now so I could see what the big fuss was…

            When I walked into the office she was standing at the desk with a HUGE smile on her face. At least I knew something terrible did not happen. She asked me if I had talked to my mom and I told her yes and that she was going to check me out to get my car looked at around three o’clock.

She looked at me and said, “Not about that!”

I told her that was all we discussed and she said, “Well lately I did a student profile on you and you’re cheerleading for UCA (Universal Cheerleading Association). I sent in photos’ and a letter about you and your skills…”

My mind went blank. I just looked at her and said, “What’s your point?”

She grabbed me and said, “THEY WANT YOU TO TRY OUT!!! You can earn a spot in six places out of 15 girls!”

I froze. I had no words, just an extensive smile across my face. This is EVERY cheerleader’s dream, especially mine! I could not believe this was happening. I have gone to a UCA summer camp for the passed four years and of course I stood out there imagining how awesome it would be if I was an instructor. But, I assumed every girl (or boy) at that camp had the same thoughts flowing through their minds.

            After I came out of my shock comatose, I looked at Nichole and said when do we start? She told me that I had a week to put together a video to submit. I needed jumps, a cheer, a dance, basing, back spotting, and of course… flying. We started that night at practice. It was pretty complicated since we had competition the same weekend that my video was due. But, we worked around it. I stayed late and worked super hard to get everything perfect for this squad. At one point, I even deleted part of my tryout video off of the Ipad. Oops! My team was a huge help, they cheered me on, clapped for me, and most importantly brought up my self esteem.

            The video was due no later than Sunday night, January 29^th, at midnight. We e-mailed it at 10 pm that night, and the next morning posted it on youtube. We don’t know when I will find out but I hope it is soon. No matter what happens I know that I was very lucky to get this opportunity and I thank God every day for giving it to me.

Livin' The Dream!

This week I am going to talk about one thing that I could do every day for the rest of my life, my passion, cheerleading. The first time I ever picked up a pom pom was my 7th grade year. My sister was just starting as a freshman in high school and made the JV cheerleading squad. When she received her uniform and, to what seemed to me, huge pom poms; I knew I wanted to be a Holbrook High School Cheerleader!
When I finally got up to the High School in 2008, I made the first freshmen squad that Holbrook had in many years! I was ecstatic! That year the district had hired a new coach who had previously been a cheerleader for the NAU Lumberjacks and moved to Holbrook for personal reasons. She started off as the freshman coach that everyone soon started to love. My sophomore year, I made the Varsity squad- there weren’t enough girls for 2 separate squads. Our program took off and soon every fan in Holbrook weren’t only fans of the HHS football and basketball teams, but also the HHS Spiritline. This was the first year I had ever gone to competition. We did not place, but the fact that Holbrook even went was a step up for us. That year flew by and before I knew it, my sister was graduated and I was now a junior.
This year was the year that I realized not only did I love this sport, but how much I loved it. I decided that I wanted to go to college and cheer for the NAU Lumberjacks, just like my coach. She was my inspiration! I informed my coach of how much I wanted to do this after high school and that I wanted to get better every step of the way, so she started working with me as a flyer. After the first time they threw me in the air, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop! We enrolled ourselves in a new category to compete in at competition and only missed the top ten by TWO POINTS. We were crushed, but I thrived for more!
This year I am a senior, captain of the HHS Spiritline, and one of the main flyer’s for our squad. We competed in the all-girls show cheer category at the AIA competition and ended up making the top 10 in ninth place and we are now on our way to state. I have gotten accepted into NAU and I’m working to get money to go cheer on their squad. I’ve also gotten asked to try out for the largest cheer association in the world, the Universal Cheer Association.  I never gave up on my dream and I cannot wait until it comes true. My love for cheerleading will never die, and I will never give up.