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.