Well with NCA happening last weekend, and ACA happening this weekend, I had to do something fun for the big Cheer events. It's a long one, I'm sorry. But I think you'll like it.
Enjoy!
Ask any All-Star cheerleader what the most coveted prize they can win in and you will probably get two answers: the World's ring and the NCA Jacket. Both prizes are given to the best team in every level in both the country and the world, and is the goal and dream of every young cheerleader to receive.
With only two days until they travel to Texas to compete in the National Cheerleaders Association National competition, Nolan Travis is running his Youth Level 5 team through their routine one last time.
"Straight legs! Smile! Face! Good." He calls out critiques to nit-picky things as he sees them. Nolan yells out the counts as they start their pyramid sequence, watching as the young flyers flip over each other before being expertly caught by their bases; one of which is nine-year-old Danielle Castle.
Waiting for their practices to start, the older kids watch the younger ones and start cheering and clapping and counting along, showing support for the team. The audience's screams rise in volume as the team on the floor finishes their dance and hit their final pose.
The girls come off the floor breathing hard, but all with smiles on their face.
"Alright, come sit over here," Nolan directs, corralling his team who have dispersed the second they stepped off the floor. Once everyone is sitting around him and relatively quiet, or as quiet as 23 tween-age girls could be, Nolan starts to speak to them.
"You guys know how proud I am of you, right?" When his team nods in response, the coach smiles and continues. "And whatever happens this weekend, I will still be so proud of you. You guys have worked so hard and I want you to give the best performance you can this weekend, okay?" Again, they nod. "Now, I won't see you until we leave, when?" he asks.
"Friday!" the team chorus, answering the same question that had been asked for the past month.
"At what time?"
"Six-fifteen!"
"Okay, stand up; hands in."
They all stand, forming a circle and sticking one of their hands in the center, as is tradition at the end of every practice and before every performance, waiting for the cue from their coach.
"Okay, 'Light it up' on three! One! Two! Three!"
"Light it up!" the girls cheer, raising their hands in the air.
With practice finally over, they all disappear in a million different directions. Some going over to the older kids for hugs and to tell them of their practice, others head straight for the cubbies in the corner for their bags.
"Cam! Cass! Let's go!" The sister's mother calls to her daughters and Danielle, who they are giving a ride home. The three girls run over, gathering their bags and sweatshirts before following the mom outside.
In the car on the drive home, all three girls are talking over each other and at the exact same time, but somehow can follow each other and the conversation.
"And mommy," Cassadee starts, "you know the double down we have and how I never get it right?" At her mom's hummed reply, the girl continues. "Well, today I got it!"
"Good job, baby girl!" Cass' mom cheers. "Are you girls excited for this weekend?"
"Yes!" All three girls shout.
"And Caroline's full is finally consistent enough that Coach Nolan said she could add it to her pass this weekend if she wanted," Cambree comments. At 12-years-old, she's a veteran and one of the oldest on the team
"Cool. I can't wait to see it this weekend."
The drive continues with near constant chatter from the three girls, and after a request, they end up singing along to their cheer routine music and marking through their entire performance; as if a two-hour practice wasn't enough.
Ten minutes later they pull to a stop in front of Danielle's house.
"Thank you for the ride, Mrs. Wilson!" Danielle smiles, grabbing her bag and getting out of the car.
"You're welcome, sweetie. I'll see you on Friday, okay?"
"Alright. Bye, Cam! Bye, Cassie!"
"Bye, Dani!" the girls call to her. And the next second Danielle slams the door shut and dashes up to her driveway. Mrs. Wilson makes sure the girl gets inside before driving off.
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Thursday goes by, at least in Danielle Castle's mind, as slow as a snail. She's too excited for the weekend that not even the M&M math activity they do in school can hold her attention. More than once she's caught daydreaming, and her teacher has to get her attention back, and Dani is not the type of kid who daydreams (at least not obviously).
After they come back from lunch, Danielle's teacher takes her over in a corner to get to the bottom of her behavior.
"What's up with you today? I've never seen you this unfocused."
"I'm sorry, Ms. Martin. But I'm just really excited! I'm going to Dallas tomorrow to compete with my team at a national cheer competition."
"I know you are. And I know it's really exciting. But I do need you to stay focused, okay? Promise me you'll try better this afternoon?"
"I promise," Danielle nods.
And she does.
That night is a blur of activity: homework, chores, last loads of laundry, and packing for the weekend. The whole family was going to support Danielle and her team, but it still seemed that for a four-day trip they had packed way too much.
"Danielle, bring me your extra cheer shoes, please," Kate asks her daughter.
"Why?" Dani asks, climbing the stairs to her room.
"Because God forbid something happens to yours, at least you'll have some you can wear."
"Okay."
The two girls part at the top of the stairs, each to their respective bedrooms, and a minute later Danielle enters the master bedroom, the white sneakers in her hands.
"Thanks, baby," Kate smiles at her.
"You're bringing this?" Danielle asks, pulling out a folded t-shirt from the suitcase on her mom's bed. It's one of their team shirts for that season: black with silver and blue bolts of lightning across it. The words 'Youth Voltage' are written on the front and 'Lightning can strike twice' is on the back.
"Yeah. Dad and I both are. Gotta show our spirit for you guys, right?"
"Yeah." Danielle smiles. "I'm really excited."
"Me too. I think it will be fun."
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Somehow, through the four inches of snow they got overnight, the twelve teams from Danielle's cheer gym who were competing that weekend made it to the airport and onto their plane with only a short weather delay. Dani sat with her teammates and the girls talked and giggled the entire time despite the early hour of their flight, and only stopped with the trio of older girls sitting behind them yelled at them to be quiet.
Dallas/Fort Worth airport is sunny, warm and loud the second they step off their plane. As they gather their luggage, Castle spots girls and teams from other popular cheer gyms, including World Cup and Cheer Extreme, in town for the weekend. They get loaded onto a bus and are whisked off to their hotel. But the cheerleaders are only there for a short time before they are back on the bus to go to a borrowed gym for an extra practice. Their parents don't see them until team dinner that night.
The restaurant is packed with regular patrons as well as scattered teams of cheerleaders and their families.
"Mom! Dad!" Danielle shouts, rushing over to them, a pair of navy blue spandex shorts in her hands. "Look!" She waves the shorts in front of them, a wide smile on her face. "Simone Porter gave them to me!"
"Who is that?" Castle asks, not at all familiar with the name.
"She's on Cali Black Ops. She's the best! We were practicing with them and I was practicing my Arabian through to full and she was helping me kind of and when we finished practice she came over and gave them to me and told me to keep working hard. It was amazing!"
The awe and delight on her daughter's face makes Kate's heart leap. "That's amazing, baby," she says, hugging the girl quickly. "Are you hungry?"
"Starving!" Dani scoots into the booth next to her brother and across from her dad, and a few minutes later the waitress comes by and takes their order.
After eating, a team meeting about the next two days, and a quick swim in the pool, they all call it a night to get a good night's sleep for an early morning tomorrow.
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"Okay: drop your stuff here and then spread out and start stretching," Coach Nolan tells his sleepy, but excited team as they enter the convention center before warm-ups for their first day of competition. The girls do as they are told, and soon 23 nearly identical black backpacks are piled under a window and the floor is covered in kids going through their stretches. Music plays quietly from a speaker and the girls sing along as they help each other stretch out; hands grip onto ankles, thigs, arms, and backs as one partner pushes the other lower. "Okay, everyone ready?" Nolan asks, getting mostly 'yes's' in reply, but a few beg for another minute, which he grants. "Alright, everyone up," the coach orders and when everyone is standing, he changes the music to one his teams knows very well.
They cheer and squeal at the first three notes and a second later they are singing and doing a self-choreographed dance that has become a traditional part of their warm-ups at competitions. By the end of the song, no one is sleepy anymore, turning that sluggishness into excitement and energy. When the song was over, Nolan led the girls through a few more physical warm-ups and then they waited the last few minutes before their turn in the official warm-up room.
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"These are our seats!" Castle calls over the din of noise in the large room. The crowd was cheering uproariously for the team currently performing; clapping and singing and counting along, giving their energy to the team to use. Castle herds his kids into the row, making sure they get settled before sitting himself. They are surrounded by families from their gym, all wearing similar spirit gear. One final rush of cheering lets him know the team on the floor has finished and are leaving to make room for the next one.
"Next up in the Youth Level 5 division, from Freehold, New Jersey, please welcome World Cup Tinkles." The announcer was drowned out as the crowd went nuts once again as the team of girls took the stage in their glittering gold and white uniforms. The once undefeated team was in a bit of a slump, and though they proved to be a threat to Danielle's team, they were certainly less than others competing that weekend.
Their music started, and Castle watched with rapt attention. Besides the stuff he got via osmosis from Danielle and her friends and teammates, Richard Castle knew very little about All Star Cheerleading, so this was a crash course in the world, and he was excited to learn. So when the crowd groaned and dropped in energy, her turned around to one of the mom's behind him and asks what had happened.
"They dropped two stunts," she tells him. He nods, knowing that is a bad thing.
The rest of the routine goes about as well: dropped stunts, bocked tumbling passes; the only thing really going for them is their energy never falters, not one bit. They finish their routine the same way they started: full of smiles and energy.
"Wow, that was terrible," the mom behind him says. "I remember when they were good; they couldn't lose! What happened?"
"I know. Those poor girls," another mother next to her says, shaking her head.
"Dad? Dad!"
Castle is pulled away from eavesdropping on the conversation when his daughter taps his arm.
"When is Dani gonna be on?" she asks when she has his attention.
"Soon, I think," he tells her. "Yup, there's her team," he says, pointing them out in the program. "There are three more teams and then it's their turn."
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They had warmed up their jumps, stunts, tumbling and were finishing a quick, easy run through when a crew member comes by top tell them they only have a minute left.
"Smile, Sarah! Point your toes! Breathe! One, three, five, seven, and finish! Good. Come here," Coach Nolan says, smiling. "Okay so we only have a minute, so if there is anything you want to warm up real quick or do again, do it now." Some of his kids scatter off to run through stunts or tumbling passes again, but the all eventually end up around him waiting for what comes next. "Alright, come here."
He pulls them over to a quieter corner of the warm-up room and tells them to circle up.
"I want you guys to close your eyes for a second. Take a few deep breaths and think. Think about everything you have to do. Think about your tumbling. Think about your stunts. What do you, as an individual, have to do? What do you have to do as a team?" Nolan looks around the circle, watching as his girls nod and murmur to themselves. "Okay now think about all the energy going on inside of you right now, it's bubbling and crazy, huh? Now think about channeling it into your performance, putting all the bubbling into your face and motions and stunts and using it to point your toes and jump higher. Now think about how much fun you're going to have." He gets more smiles at that comment. "Okay now take one more breath and open your eyes." When everyone is looking at him, he smiles, and the energy in their little group grows; everyone knows what's next. "You ready?"
"Yes!" The entire team replies.
"What time is it?"
"Showtime!"
"What time is it?"
"Showtime!"
"Who runs this house?"
"We run this house!"
"Who runs this house?"
"We run this house?"
They repeat the chant once more before screaming and throwing their hands into the middle of the circle.
"'Light it up' on three! One! Two! Three!"
"Light it up!"
Everyone is hugging and forming their own little groups to do secret handshakes and their own rituals.
"Have fun! I'll see you guys out there!" Nolan tells his team, leaving them with a crew member to wait the last few moments before taking the floor, to get their music set and to stand right in front of the stage.
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"Next up in the Youth Level 5 Division, from Eastchester, New York, please welcome Titan Athletics Youth Voltage!" The crowd cheered wildly, for the girls entering the floor, and everyone could tell where the team's families were as they were cheering the loudest. Their blue, white and silver uniforms, with a lightning bolt patch holding the racerback shoulder straps together, glittered under the lights.
The girls on the floor jump around, getting a feel for the floor, before standing in their opening formation. Those close enough would have been able to hear Cambree count them off and the rest of the team shout "Youth Voltage!" as they hit their first pose.
"Music's on!" Nolan calls to them, and the next second their routine starts.
Up in the stands, Castle and Beckett watch their daughter in amazement. Sure they had seen her perform at multiple competitions and showcases before, but this was bigger than anything they had seen and Danielle was shining. The entire team looked amazing; both together and individually.
Tumbling. Punch front, round off back handspring, full.
Jumps. "Hit! Hit! Pull!"
Pyramid. "One, three, five, seven!"
Dance.
Everything was performed with ease and skill as if it were the back of their hands.
They hit their final pose and rush to hug each other, screaming and cheering. They come off the stage elated. A perfect performance. They hit zero.
At the end of Day One, Youth Voltage was just shy of third place; only 0.6 of a point separated them from the team in third.
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"Danielle! Hold still," Kate scolds her daughter. The girl is standing in front of her, in front of the mirror in the hotel bathroom. Kate is holding the mass of blonde curls in one hand and a brush in the other, and the amount of knots and tangles created in the night still manages to astound her.
"Ow! You're hurting me!" Danielle cries, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she tries to get away from her mom and the brush.
"I know, but if you hold still it won't hurt so bad and I can finish faster," Kate says, putting Dani back into the proper place. With her daughter making faces and crying out in pain the whole time, Kate finishes brushing her hair and pulls it back in a tight high ponytail. She wraps the black and silver bow around it as a finishing touch and then sends Dani off to cool down with cartoons and breakfast.
After getting herself dressed and ready for the day, Kate brings Danielle back into the bathroom to apply her makeup. She lays it on thick, as to not wash her out under the lights, blue eyeshadow and heavy eyeliner, rosy blush, and deep red lipstick.
After a dusting of glitter, Kate starts to put everything away. "You're all done! What do you think?"
"It looks good," Danielle smiles.
"What looks good?" Castle asks, coming into the room just then. He quickly spies his daughter in the mirror and is surprised, as he is every time, but easily hides it. "Wow! Look at you!" Danielle smiles, preening under her dad's gaze. "Come on, we gotta get a move on or we're gonna be late." He herds her out of the bathroom and to her shoes, and a minute later, walks her downstairs to her team.
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Day Two warm-ups go nearly the same as the day before. The only difference is they are performing later in the day, so their warm-ups are also later. And they also have more of an audience in the warm-up room. The girls look good for the most part, only a slight bobble in their stunts. But after running it again, and a fix of hand placement that still is not consistently correct, the issue resolves its self and everything looks great.
They do their prayers and cheers, and then the girls are left backstage until their performance.
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"Go, Dani!" Liam cheers on his sister as she takes the stage with her team. He's sitting high in the stands with his family, and the crowd and the music from the speakers are really loud. But he easily picks up on the energy of the audience and is soon clapping and cheering right along with them; following the beat as his sister's team does their dance and hits the final pose. "Yeah! They did it!" He smiles, slapping five with everyone around him. His sister had done amazing.
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Youth Voltage comes off the stage from their Finals performance happy and brimming with energy. They knew they had done well; they could feel it, see it, hear it. All 23 of them are hugging and giving high-five's to each other and when they watch the playback of their performance, they scream and cheer and praise each other.
"I am so insanely proud of you guys," Nolan says to his team. "You all worked so hard and put all of your heart out there. Great job."
They throw on track pants and sweatshirts over their uniforms and head out into the arena to watch the other teams in their division.
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At awards that night, ten Large Youth Level 5 teams sit on the stage where each of them had performed earlier that day. Each team sits together in blobs or tight circles, all holding hands. The MC gives out special judges awards first; things like best jumps, best dance, more spirited, and the one youth Voltage wins: best sportsmanship. They had done a great job all weekend of cheering on all the other teams and giving them love and encouragement, and the judges took notice.
And finally, after a long, anxious wait, the official placement awards begin.
They announce tenth place. Not them.
Ninth.
Eighth.
Seventh: Sapphires from Colorado GEMS
Sixth.
Fifth.
Fourth: Flip City Allstars Crush
And then there were three, and they were all getting nervous and anxious.
"And in third place, from Kernersville, North Carolina: Cheer Extreme Youth Elite!" After the team in teal and black get their trophy and banner and snap a few pictures, the MC continues, not waiting for them to leave the floor. "Now: only 0,5 of a point separates first and second place," The MC bates, building excitement. "And in second place," and then he takes what feels like the longest paused in the universe, but is only a few seconds. "From Freehold, New Jersey: World Cup Twinkles!"
And they knew; they didn't even need to hear their name be called, though it was; they knew.
And they were all screaming and crying and jumping around. And their cheer section was going wild, as were their coaches.
"Come on," Nolan says, pushing his team into the center of the floor where he was given their giant first place trophy and banner and where a thousand pictures were snapped.
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Backstage was as close to The Muppet Show as anything could get. Everyone was going everywhere, asking all sorts of questions, kids finding parents, parents finding their kids; absolute insanity.
But in the end, everything gets sorted out and all 23 members of Youth Voltage get their NCA championship jackets put on and a thousand more pictures are snapped.
"We won!" Danielle cheer, hugging her dad first and then her mom.
"You did! I'm so proud of you!"
"Great job, baby!"
She proudly shows off her jacket and poses for yet another round of pictures. And when they are released for the rest of the day, only takes it off to go swimming in the hotel pool. She even sleeps with in on that night.
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They fly home the next day happy and tired and sick. There is a lot less talking and giggling on this flight and a lot more sleeping, sniffles, and coughing. But none of them would trade it for anything.
Later that day they also learn that they earned themselves a full paid bid to The Summit competition in Orlando, Florida (which is the Youth equivalent of Worlds for the Senior level teams). It means they are good enough to compete with the best of the best and to show off their stuff one more time.
And because of that, it's no rest for the weary, and they are all back in the gym Tuesday afternoon ready to practice and make their performance the best it can be.