One Week 'Till Homecoming!

The end of today marks the offical one week remaining until Homecoming! This week, instead of having a game we had a "Bye Week" which is when the football team takes a week off to prepare for the all important Homecoming game. The cheerleaders also took this time to have an extra practice at the school and practice our stunts and timing and stuff. My stunt group for the elites was all there except for our backspot. But luckily Serenity stepped in for us so we could still practice. Our extension lib is hitting and it seems really sturdy and perfect. All except the cradle. I think we get a big enough dip, but I tend to get right under my flyer and take all her weight. Generally I could save it and she'd never hit the ground. Well this one incident when we cradled I got right under her and collapsed under her weight. We're both ok, but literally I'm so exhausted.

We got out of practice and for some reason someone hit my energy button and the hyperactiveness came rushing out! I was hopping all over the parking lot in my sports bra and spankies doing split jumps and handstands everywhere. Rachel took us to 7-11 and her and Maddy got food. Now I'm home and the exhaustion just hit me like a brick. I'm ready for some Lost time and a good nights' sleep :)

Epic Cheerleading Picture #5

Bows, cheer bows to be exact. The single thing that differenciates cheerleaders from gymnasts and dancers. Well, apart from the crazy stunts and cute uniforms. Cheer bows come in all sorts of different sizes, shapes, and colors. I personally have a various array of different bows, but none are quite as flashy as I'd like them to be.



Pretty blue bow :)

Anyway, I love cheer bows. Love love love, like I could write a whole book about cheer bows! Well..short story atleast :) And this bow in particular is one of my favorite. It's a combination of light blue, white, black, and rhinestones which make any bow pop.

This just happened to be one of the few search results that came up when I typed in cheer bows, cause I decided I wanted to blog about something :) If anyone has any suggestions of what I should blog about, let me know!

Sybling Bonding & Tumbling!

Today was the first day Belle and I have been in the same tumbling class since I was 12 atleast. So it's been roughtly four years since I've seen her throw any type of tumbling skill! I remember when she was working on her bridge fall, and perfecting her round-off getting ready to start learning back handsprings. Now she's flipping and flying working on her round-off two back handspring, and I couldn't be any prouder :')

Awkwardly holding Belle's phone

Also, I had someone to drive with, which made me a happy girl :) I hate driving by myself! So the only people I can drive without it being illegal is my family. I mean she can be fun when she's not telling me to turn down the radio and drive careful. But ya know, it's a human being I can associate with rather than talking to myself... awkward.

But yeah Windy worked with us each individually on our skills. I really feel confident about my tuck now! I was throwing a round-off back handspring back tuck on the floor and they were really by myself unless she just grabbed my shirt and made sure I rotated all the way. Then on tumble trak we did standing back handspring back tucks which I did with no spot at all. Then we just perfected the running tumbling by being confident and showing I have this skill. Hopefully I get it by homecoming! 2 weeks left, who thinks I can do it? :)

Cheer Pictures :)

Today we had Cheer Pictures, which is when we get an individual photo, and a team photo taken for the yearbook. Also cheerleaders can individually decide if they want buddy pictures with a close friend on the squad. Naturally, I chose my best friends in the whole entire world! Taylor and Maddy <3 But we don't get those for a couple weeks and I wanted some cute pics that I could share with the Social Networking world immedietly. So Maddy and I brought our cameras and we had a little fun once the professional people were done shooting.


Taylor and I :)

Taylor and I showing attitude by the rails, we're pretty adorable. It totally describes our friendship though. She's crazy and fun, while I'm simple and smiley. But together we make a Best Friend couple that no one can beat. We've been together since 3rd grade. As of senior year, it will have been 10 years of being best friends. That doesn't even seem possible! I mean, that's only a couple years less than I've known my sister, and we're related! But, Taylor practically is family <3

We had fun posing in all sorts of places, like by the railing...



Two blondes and a brunette!

 And on the stairs...


Camp Dance Group :)

 Taylor, Maddy, and I are all in the same group for the camp dance so we figured, "hey that might be a cute picture!" Maddy and Taylor got their little sassy faces on ;)

Then we got sime individual ones of eachother. Like me next to this tree. I make that tree work though, right? ;)

 And the rock poses are pretty cute :)

 Serenity, Destiny and I all by some plants and stuff. Photo credit to Maddy for being an awesome photographer! That Photo Arts 2 Class seemed to come in handy.

 

 Oh the original Freshmen 4... Taylor, Serenity, Maddy, and I were the only girls who are left from Freshmen year. Granted there was only one other person and the reason she dropped was cause she was taking so many AP classes, however next year she'll join again. But as for continually being with the program year and year again, us 4 take the cake... or pom pom, whatever :)

 

 Taylor Maddy and I kinda stole the idea from Charlie's Angels. We worked it out though!

Then there's Maddy and I. We've been best friends for 5 years, can you believe that? It wall all coincidental too. Who'd of thought I'd make so many life long friends when I was in elementary school and middle school. Goes to show you what real friends are like :)

Epic Cheerleading Picture #5

Yes, I just posted I'm aware. I'm in a bloggy mood though, so I figured may as well find something else to write about! Then I realized, it's been a while since I've done an "Epic Cheerleading Picture" so may as well do that, right? :)

This girl has an awesome needle stunt! For a long time, I didn't know this was called a needle. If I saw a girl do a scorpion that was that straight I called it a "straight leg scorpion" simple as it sounded. But then I saw a guy who was on our cheer team last year start posting pictures on Instagram saying he was gonna stretch all summer to get his needle. I looked it up and it was a straight leg scorpion!

So I just typed in "needle cheerleading stunt" in google and this picture popped up. I can't tell what team she's on, but it looks like this routine was performed at Worlds. Her facials are super cute too. You can see how concentrated she is in geting her leg perfectly straight in the third column on this picture. In cheerleading, if you can get your leg that much more straighter, that could mean the difference between 1st and 2nd place.

The support her backspot and bases are giving her foot seems really stable, which is probably why she can pull her scorpion so straight. She has no fear of falling or keeping her balance because she knows and trusts the people beneath her. That's what cheer is all about.

Well hope you guys like Epic Cheerleading Pictures. Leave a comment or something and let me know if you're enjoying it!

Gameless...

I was so looking forward to today. I was gonna wear my uniform, it was my easy day for school, I was gonna be dismissed early from 6th period, and I was gonna spend the whole day with my cheer friends in Hayward and have an awesome away game. WRONG!

JV's game got moved to Thursday at 4pm, and Varsity's game got moved to Friday at 4pm. And because it was so short notice we weren't able to go, so we had a "day off". I don't want a day off though, I was so excited to cheer today! Considering the fact that I missed my Tuesday tumbling class cause we were getting the whole private lesson thing situated since my original class was cancelled I was super amped to cheer today. I wanted to start throwing my tuck! Now the next time I'll be tumbling on turf is Oct. 5th on Homecoming, and I wanted to practice my tuck before then to make sure I could do it!

Long story short... my week went downhill when I got that set of news. Anyone else know what I'm experiancing?

Team Bonding!

Today we had a team bonding day and it was alot of fun :) First of all, I got behind Maddy on our way there, so I was following her and of course she got lost. She's a litle directionally challenged but I (with the help of my mother via speaker phone) found our way to the restaurant. We went to El Tapatio, a mexican restaurant because it was Taco Tuesday! :D


Awkward webcam snap shot

We ordered tacos, and then we got to start making our Breast Cancer bows which turned our really nice! They are pretty simple, but they get accross the point of Breast Cancer awareness. I got Taylor to fold mine because I'm bow making challenged :) I'm sure your asking yourself, "how can a cheerleader be bow making challenged!?" Trust me... when you suck at Arts 'n' Crafts as much as I do, it's possible.

Anyway, after that we got to make noise makers, which are basically water bottles filled with beads, glitter, and wrapped with purple string. Sure, it sounds lame now but when you hear a stadium full of them it gets the mood up!

It was a fun night :) After that Maddy, Taylor, and I went to Big 5 Sporting Goods and found Maddy some running shoes. Now I'm home, and once again I should be studying for my history test tomorrow but.. I'll get to that later :)

DISLCAIMER:That last little fact didn't have anything to do with cheer, it just happened in that sequence of events in the day. Are you interested in hearing about that or should I just stick to my normal stuff strictly involving cheer. Leave a comment and let me know!



3 Practices 'Till Homecoming!

Today at practice we worked on our Homecoming routine which is coming together really nicely. Considering the fact that I picked this up in a matter of weeks, I feel really confident about most of my spots.

We worked on our extension libs, and they were hitting solid! It wasn't until we got to the whole stunt sequence when it kinda crumbled, but I think that's just because we're all nervous and rushed it a little bit. But I'm sure with practice it'll quickly be improving! Also, I finally have a spot in our pyramid! Not a big spot, I'm just a front spot, but every spot is important in cheer. I front spot Maddy's stunt group which is just a prep, but I like knowing where to go in the pyramid rather than running to the front because I'm not sure where to go and I don't wanna get in people's way.

Team bonding tomorrow, so juiced! Gonna make noise makers and bows for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I'll post pictures once their made :) Tumbling classes may continue! My sister and I might take 45 minute privates with Windy just working on the skills we wanna work on. Hopefully that works cause I want my tuck soo bad! Can anyone else relate? Being so close to a skill you want so bad but things just keep getting in the way? Yeah... not a great feeling.

Gosh it's so hard for me to go to sleep knowing I haven't updated my blog with what we did today in cheer. I think I'm addicted, but it's a good thing :)

Homework... or Blog...

Hmmm.. to do homework, or to post mindless cheer realted topics... I choose blogging! :D Don't worry though, I will do my homework just... when the time is right. Obviously my brain is too high-wired to focus on homework so I gotta blog it out right now :)

Just found out yesterday, my Tumbling Class which I grew to love oh so much was cancelled :( Guess why... Because I was the only one in it! Ok, I can understand why, it's a valid reason. But I was so close to getting my tuck, it's not fair! So my sister Belle and I might start doing privates with Windy and we can both tumble at the same time for a good price. Hopefully that all works out because tomorrow I was supposed to start throwing tucks by myself, but obviously that's not happening!

Anyway, today we have spirit practice from 6pm-7:30pm. On Mondays we have our whole schedule of classes, but Tuesday we only have 1,3,5 classes. I used to be able to do all my homework and get it all done and out of the way before practice. But now since I'm a junior and I've got alot harder classes I can only do my 1,3,5 classes because by the time I get home I eat food, go to practice, and am exhausted! But I wouldn't trade cheerleading for anything, you know that <3 Or I've said it enough and it's been implanted in your guys' brain.. same difference!

Just thought I'd let you guys know what's happening. And obviously my blog comes first before any amount of homework :) Still open for suggestions and ideas on what to talk about, feel free to e-mail me or comment! E-mail ---> larissa_terry@comcast.net Thanks for listening!

What do YOU want me to talk about?

So I was looking at my stats for my blog (which already has almost 900 page views in like.. less than two months, thank you so much anyone who keeps up!) just to see what people liked most on it. And when I checked which entries got the most views it was the post I did about cheer hair.

I realize that more recently I've just been talking about what's been going on in my personal cheer life because I have school going on, and it's like if I wanna come home and write something it's just easiest to write what happened that day. Rather than in summer where I had so much free time and I could sit and research pictures and take my time writing and composing my thoughts.

So I want to know what you, my readers, would like me to talk about. Whether that be my own personal cheer stories, my thoughts and opinons on anything cheer related, or topics you guys pick for me! I'm happy to answer some of your questions, or bring up a discussion on something you'd like to hear from me. Leave a comment, or e-mail me about anything you'd like me to write about. Everytime I see my page get more and more views it makes me really happy so thank you so much to anyone who is reading! :)

Marching in the Parade!

College Park Cheer was asked to be in the Walnut Creek Twilight Parade! Along with some other high schools whos cheerleaders attended this event, it was a super fun parade! Maddy drove me there in her car that she learned how to drive yesterday. a 4-runner (stick shift) and we took freeway! I was a little scared at first, but then I calmed down a little bit, only stalled twice :) I smell like moth balls though.. If you don't know what they are? don't ask.

So we got to the parade a little later than we were supposed to, but that's because the traffic absolutely sucked! We rehearsed our camp dance, and a cheer with jumps in it that we would perform for the judges at the end of the parade. As we walked along the street we did chants that got the crowd interacted and excited. It was really fun seeing all the little kids look up at you and smile when we walked by chanting and waving.

When we got to the judges we were all lined up and ready to perform. We did the jumping cheer first which went really well because at Camp, College Park was awarded the "Best Jumps" award for having the best squad jumps. I'm super proud of our team for accomplishing that :) Then we turned around and got set for the dance. We all worked it out and put on our best facials. It wasn't until midway through that I realized there were two professional looking cameras filming our routine! But we totally played up the spirit and gave them exactly what they wanted.

After that, Maddy dropped Taylor and I off at Jo'Annes. In the Bay Area, it's basically like a fabric store. We went there because we wanted to make special bows for Breast Cancer Awareness month in October. Even though we didn't really find anything we liked, we know what's there. And we still have a fair bit of time to do some researching. It was a super fun day, I love cheer <3

Falcons for the Win :)

College Park faced the gruling Pinole Sabercats tonight, and beat 'em 14-7! It was a pretty good game I'd say. We coreographed a new pyramid in literally less than an hour, and performed it with almost no practice! One group tosses a flyer back and we catch her, then J-swing and do a quarter turn, straight up extension. Keep in mind, it's not a very difficult stunt. But when you pair the tallest girl on the squad who generally backspots and an ex-flyer who is only 5'2" it's a little tough to stay even. And our backspot has never backed before, she's generally a base! So it was something really new to us. Notice how the base on the left hand side of this stunt has her knees bent alot, and the base on the right hand side has her legs locked and close together. That's basically what it was like for me and Taylor basing together. She was the one that had to get really low in the stunt.



Extension!

Well after the extension falling down twice we got it up there and held it! Everyone clapped and cheered for her and it was awesome :) We went into halftime knowing we could perform it... then bobbled... But luckily Taylor, Sammi, and I caught it just in time and saved it into a prep. Not as impressive, but I think everyone rushed into the stunt a bit and it all got bumped down to a prep.

Other than that, I thought it was a pretty fun game. There was one point where we were all laughing really hard so Sammi thought it would be a good idea to call a cheer and we would focus. But she ended up stuttering on the words and we all laughed and couldn't even start, let alone finish the cheer!

Also, I'd like to add I did a total of 26 back handsprings that game! 6 for warm-up, 3 during halftime, 7 during the banner breaking, and 10 on the sidelines during the game. The crowd started cheering and counting how many I was gonna do! My friend thought I was gonna tumble all the way back to my high school! (Awkward, we play at a Community College field, not our home school field) But yeah it was pretty incredible and I feel aweosme! My wrists are a little dead though... Well I need some sleep.. Kinders Fundraiser and CP Comp Team car wash! Also, gonna perform at the Walnut Creek Parade, too excited :) 

Friends are the key to Happiness

Cheer is a really big part of my life. I mean, I know if I didn't have it I wouldn't be as happy as I am right now. But I realized today why it means so much to me. It's because I get to share it with my best friend. I've known her forever, and we've been through alot. That's why I can say she's my best friend. We've gone through life for 9 years of being there for eachother, and it's not gonna change. There have been challenges and hurdles that tested our friendship, but there's never been anything that has separated us. I'm figuring it out now though, that no matter what, she's always gonna be there for me.

So for anyone who wants to do cheer because they think it's a fun sport, or because you want the challange in life of learning how to stunt or tumble, by all means go for it. But what makes it enjoyable is the people you spend it with. During those long practices where you feel like you're sweating your butt off to make everything perfect, until you preform that routine during halftime. It doesn't even compare to what it's like sharing those sideline experiances with your friends. If you can share something you love with one of your best friends, how can life get any better? That's what I'm doing, and I can honestly say it's the best decision I've ever made.

Taylor... this one is for you. This is me saying how glad I am you're in my life, and how thankful I am to have you as my best friend. Cheers to almost 10 years of Best Friendlyness... and for 10 more to come. Love you girlie <3

4 Weeks Till Homecoming!

Why does it feel as if I haven't blogged in forever? My last post was September 8th, and now it's September 12th. It's been four days.. but it feels like it's been an eternity since I've put my thought into writing. So let me just tell you how my cheer week has been :)

Monday: Practice started at 6pm, so I left the house around 5:40pm so I'd get there with enough time. Naturally, since it was Monday I had all my classes, and I was swamped with homework. But it's literally a cheer sin to miss practice just because of homework. So I get to practice, and I brought my "homework" from two weeks ago. After our first game we had homework to write down what needs to be improved in our squad. I forgot mine time and time again, but this time I was determined to get it to my coach Danielle! So we worked on our Homecoming Coreography which is in a little more than a month, can you believe it! Feels like it just snuck up on me out of no where.
So we line up the routine and we wanted to start working our stunts considering we'd never done them once. In this stunt sequence I am main basing a walking prep, retake, switch grip, extension lib. It sounds a little funny typed on the screen, but it makes sense when we do it! So we practiced those stunts and it actually hit! Considering this was my first time basing an extension anything I was pretty proud of myself :) Although I can't really feel my muscles right now... So yeah that was my Monday practice!

Tuesday: Every Tuesday I take the High School Tumbling Class #2 which is for advaced tumblers like myself. Well last week I was a class of one. This week I was again a class of one! So basically I'm getting private lessons for a way cheaper costs, and I love my coach too! We worked on standing tucks and running round-off BHS tucks. Did you know that one standing back tuck is roughly the same as 25 sit ups? My abs are killing me! I actually had to stop for a while because my abdominal muscles couldn't handle anymore tucks! I came home sore too sore to even more. I told my dad how a certain muscle in the lower quadraint of my stomach was hurting and he said I probably strained or pulled an abdoman muscle. Hopefully that heals soon because I wanna start tucking at football games not this Friday but the next!

Well, that was what my week was like! :) Sorry I hadn't been updating in a little bit, and this was kinda lengthy but I felt I had to make up for neglecting my blog. Thanks for keeping up :)

Well that didn't go as planned...

First away game, remember me being so happy and excited for it? Well that didn't go as planned... Infact since we got to the field there was tension in the air. And it was not good from that point out. Things happened, and life sucked at that point. All in all... well, I'm just looking forward to our next one, hopefully it will be better than the last.

Tumbling Love!

It's been a really long time since I've tumbled in like an acutal class. Considering that I injured my ankle around mid March, it has been a good 6 months which is totally crazy! Like I wore a boot for about a month and even went to my cheer clinics in it. I took it off for tryouts so I could tumble and get bonus points, but after that I had to put it right back on. And I went to a couple Open Gyms but we basically just played around and I didn't get to do any hardcore tumbling.

But I got the schedule for my gym's classes and I saw a High School Team Level 3 Class that I wanted to sign up for! I was afraid I'd be the only one without friends but it turns out I was the only one... period! No one out of all 10 of us showed up except for me! And the coach turns out to be a girl who was on our Varsity Cheer team last year! I basically got a private lesson from our cheer captain last year.

But aside from strange coincidence of having a private lesson and a former CP cheerleader as my instructor, the class went really well! We started off with a basic warm up and moved to sets for standing tucks. And she asked if I wanted to do them on the floor or trak first so I just chose floor. And she said they were practically by myself I just needed to do a bunch of repetitioin, which we did. By this point, I'm like sweating, and I think I sweat off a good 3lbs! Then we moved onto running tumbling after about 20 standing tucks!

So that went really good, I have more power than I think I guess cause my tuck was a good 6 feet high at one point! My goal is to have it by Homecoming, but if not then end of football season. I feel like I could nail that, but maybe I'm just too full of optimism? Anyway, I'm so glad to be back in the swing of things with my tumbling!

First away game for me! And actually, it'd be really cool if you guys wanted to help out our team by voting for us as Game of the Week #3.It's College Park vs. Deer Valley. Vote it up! Let me know if your're having as great of a season as I am!

Link for the website --->  http://www.ktvu.com/s/sports/highschoolsports/

V-V-Victory for Var-Var-Varsity!

Victory for Varsity for College Park High! That's right, we won today! Today was our second game of the season and it was alot of fun! Of course there were some major catastrophes that kinda set us back in the beginning. But we got it all worked out and put on a great show!

So in the beginning when we warmed up our halftime we were missing a couple people, and it turns out one of them go sick during the day and went home. So we had to coreograph her out and figure out stunts cause she was a main back spot. Also, we had our center flyer missing, so we had to put some other girls in the stunts she flew in.

So to replace the girl who was sick, we changed our whole pyramid around. I flew the beginning stunts which was a show 'n' go to extension. And then Anastasia flew the pyramid which was a toss backwards to another stunt group that caught her, J-swing to a prep. And Cassie flew the full twisting basket toss at the end of the routine. Well my extension didn't hit, so we had to settle for prep level. And the basket toss didn't get up but.. we were loud and proud falcons!

And we might even be on TV! A woman with a camera came up to us and asked us to yell and cheer, so maybe we'll be featured on the High-School Sports channel.

All in all, it was an awesome game, and I'm super stoked for next week! First away game as a Varsity squad member at Deer Valley! Now I'm just at home ooVooing my best friend :) We have practice tomorrow at 7am! Why am I still awake? Still on summer schedule..

Maddy and I after the game just relaxing :)