By the way, she did it!!!

It seems like a dream, a really, really great dream. She did it. My cheerleader went to Worlds!!! Not only that but she came home 5th in the world in Pom and 2nd in the world in Jazz.

It was everything I dreamed it would be seeing her on that stage. I thought my heart would burst with all the pride and love, all the nerves and excitement I was experiencing all at once.

The whole thing lived up to the hype. The stalls, the atmosphere, the hundreds of teams from all over the world. I got pinned by TOP GUN!!!!!(iykyk)

We spent way too much at the merch stall, buying whatever we wanted like it was a 99% off sale at Sephora. Everything about the 2 competition days was insane and I will never forget it.

I LOVED the team days out and meals together. Applebees steak is like nothing I could ever describe. The water park with all the athletes and the mums was one of my favourite days, watching these girls that have grown up dancing together, setting the world on fire on the stage and then kicking back relaxing, laughing and having the most fun just being in each others company is a memory I will treasure forever.

I even got to go to Gatorland and hold an actual baby alligator! My very mean daughter would not let me bring him home with me, something about airport security, how crazy my husband would go at yet another animal landing in his house, and having to build a pond...I don't know, I stopped listening when she said no.....

Anyway, other than the failed attempt at bringing home Ali and settling for a teddy bear version, I honestly felt like I was living in a dream for the whole 10 days.

Nineteen, she is 19, and we have dreamt and hoped and planned for this moment since she was 4. It was a culmination of all her hard work, her grit, her determination and unwavering love for this sport that got her to where she is now, and wow does she deserve it.

There were times that I did think that her dream was over and it just wouldn't happen, but fate intervened (aka her coach) and put her back where she belongs.

There are so many things I will remember from her childhood, so many times I have thought I couldn't even imagine more success than she has already achieved, and then, there is this.

I know what this meant to her, and I love that she has achieved and made it to where she fought to be. This sport takes so much mental strength and perseverance, it is hours and hours upon days, weeks months and years poured into practice, training, gym sessions, choreo, learning, tumbling, trying, failing and sometimes succeeding to get to that spot.

That moment where you are stood at the side of the stage at the World Championships with your friends, waiting to here your team name called, that second when you finish your routine and realise it all went how you wanted it to. That time. That exact moment.

That is what it's all been about. Being there to witness that smile was enough for me. There will be many more beautiful cheer memories to add to my collection I am sure, this one though, this one will be hard to beat.

What am I doing?!

Help! We did a thing...we registered our team for competitions! Navigating the registration systems has been a whole new world of hell I was in no way prepared for, but I figured it out, mostly.

Now the realisation has hit me, we actually have to go, like, to the competitions, and COMPETE?! I don't know what to do I am so nervous and excited and completely confused with rules and choices of costumes, questions I don't know the answers to, what is correct coach etiquette, I feel like I have been locked in a room full of hairspray and glitter on comp day and I'm choking.

I don't care about the placings, I don't care about the judgement, I care about not letting our athletes down.

We have great routines, we have prepared them as much as possible for the madness that is a cheerleading competition (although until you have been you never really know), our uniforms are on their way, but what do I do? I've never run a backstage warmup, I don't know what goes on back there. Are there secret meetings where they teach you what to do, because if so could somebody please invite me to one?!

How do I make sure I give our athletes the best possible first ever competition experience? How do I convey to them that we are beyond proud of them for just being on the mat, getting to that day, working so hard and doing it through all the blood sweat and tears that goes into a routine? How am I supposed to control (for lack of a better word) the parents??! They will be stressed, excited, anxious and nervous just as much if not more than their children and what do I do with them?

I have so many years of competitions under my belt as a spectator, a stall holder and voluntary hair and makeup artist, but never, not once have I been the coach! The Oracle who everyone looks to and expects to know what they are doing. I will once again be looking for someone better qualified at being an "adult" than I am. Is this normal for a first time coach to feel?

So, I have a plan, (of sorts) I am going to fake it till I make it. I will draw on all my experience as a cheer mum, a cheer friend and feel really lucky to have one of the best coaches I have ever known (as well as being a friend) attending the same competition we are who I know will calm my nerves.

And the final piece of the puzzle...Thank the gods that my daughter has spent so much time backstage so I can follow her lead! Praise the heavens that someone knows what they are doing in this crazy land! Cheers to learning from my eldest child how this is done. I might not know everything, but I'm pretty sure my World Medallist Cheerleader does!

So, once more into the competition season we dive, with a brand new position and perspective on it. Here's to new experiences of a magical world I have spent so much times in over the last 15 years, but never quite from this angle. Good luck this season coaches, parents, and most of all athletes, may all your dreams come true and your bow forever be your crown.

Nobody Told Me!!!

Help! Nobody told me! Nobody warned me! Nobody said ANYTHING!!!!!

OK I'm, skipping ahead here, sorry. So I helped my daughter open a cheerleading school, her very own safe place that all her students could come to and know they were part of something special, they were accepted and wanted and celebrated. It's great I'm super proud of all the amazing work she puts in to classes, routines, and her athletes.

The thing is, it got busy, like really busy, and we needed another coach. I was volunteered as tribute and sent to retake my lapsed qualifications. Now I never really wanted to teach, for one I really CANNOT dance. I was happy doing the paperwork, running things in the background. I have never felt confident enough to walk into a room of children on my own and command the respect that my daughter does.

Afterall, I'm just a mum, a cheer mum for sure, but still just a mum. I have never cheered myself, I hated dance when I was forced to go as a child, and I don't feel "adult" enough as a gen Xer/millenial hybrid, I am an eternal child and will forever look for the "adultier" adult in the room when asked a question.

But, I will always help my daughters, so here we are, with me teaching 3 classes a week and planning how to take over East Yorkshire with cheerleading and pom poms. Now, back to the thing that nobody bothered to warn me about, these pesky kids! They come to class every week, they need your help with their shoes or their hair, they have a million questions, they never remember their drink from in the car, constantly need a wee when you are about to start a stunt, and are so completely spellbindingly beautifully wonderful!

Why did not one single person warn me that I would feel so attached to these children? And that they would actually like me?! They bring me pictures they drew for me, little gifts, want to tell me their news from the week and have made me so much more confident in my own abilities just by being themselves. They always have a joke or a story (often a monologue) and they actually believe I know what I am doing! So much so that I have discovered I kind of think I do! I have put countless hours into researching techniques, finding ways of making conditioning fun, drawing on the knowledge of other coaches who I look up to and I know do amazing jobs.

I have watched our students grow in numbers, strength, passion and self belief over the last 2 years and I am in awe of how far they have come.

These athletes, these amazing small humans have taught me way more that I will ever teach them, they are the key to the future and I am so proud to know all of them.