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.