Oh, It's Just A Scratch

I know, right, here I am writing about something other than my training and racing experiences. But, after reading this post, you will see, it really is about training and competing, it’s just not me who is doing it.

So this is how it goes, I have been into sports all my life and I always hoped that one day when I had kids they would love sports just like I do, especially running and the outdoors. Well guess what, all my kids went through the paces, soccer, t-ball, karate, running, dance, well Garrett didn’t try dance, and as it turns out none of these sports stuck with them. Garrett is a Music Man, not a Sports Guy. Jade and China on the other hand, almost put me in the grave when they became cheerleaders, I asked them “why do you want to cheer for others when you could be out there competing yourself”. When they started in this “sport”, well that’s what I though at the time, I was a naysayer, laughing at all the parents discussing stunts and tumbling and the points system while they critiqued every squad, taking notes during the competition. Oh you’re not going to believe this, but I have become one of them, yes me, I can hardly believe it myself.

So you still don’t know where I’m going with this, do you. I quickly found out that cheerleading is a “SPORT”, it’s one of the hardest sports you can ever compete in, with the most injuries of any high school sport. My oldest daughter Jade broke her nose three times in one season, she also hurt her knee and after three knee surgeries, it still isn’t fixed. Cheerleading is not for the faint of heart, if you want to be a cheerleader, you better learn to take a punch and like it.

My youngest daughter China is a Varsity cheerleader and she is on one of the best squads in the area, earning 1st place in her first two competitions and 2nd in the third competition which was this past weekend. This is what I have been leading up to.

This past weekend was the Mt Vernon Invitational, the girls went into it on a very poor week at practice, they were all a little nervous. At the start of the routine the music was wrong and the girls were confused, but they quickly regrouped and by the time the problem was corrected, they were back in step, jumping, yelling, tumbling, stunting, all in perfect unison and they were totally amazing.

They pulled off an almost flawless routine, with only one small error that I could see. They only lost first place by 9/10th’s of a point and they brought in their highest numerical score of the season. This is where I get to the point of the story. These girls are tough, one flyer, Madison was competing with bruised ribs and during the competition Megan was hit in the face and her nose was a fountain of red. Do you think she ran off the mat to first aid or fell down crying, nope she finished the routine and then covered her nose to try to stop the blood from running onto the mat. Come on now, that’s pretty darn tough, we aren’t talking about insane adventure racers, we expect this kind of action from them, we don’t expect this from a teenage girl.

Bloody Nose

So I think Megan deserves the “Oh, it’s just a scratch award” What is this award you say. This award was created by my friend Bruce, it’s for those who get hurt but keep going anyway, as in, “oh, it’s just a scratch”. For example, if you crash your bike on the road while going 25 mph, taking off a layer of skin, then get up, get back on your bike and finish the race, you would be nominated for this award.

One day I’m going to design a golden Band-Aid to give out in just these types of situations. You are the girl Megan and lets not forget Madison gets an honorable mention for being injured in a previous practice.

Madison (middle)

So Let’s Go Tigers! Show them what you got at sectionals this weekend.

Go Tigers!