Cheerleading!!

Just back with a car full of exhausted kids from the Love to Cheer Invitational, Brock university, St Catherines, ON!

As a complete cheerleading sceptic........ i have to admit i have had alot of mixed thoughts over the last few months!!

i suppose I'm a typical 30 something European!!! Cheerleading is what we saw in the movies... normally the bimbo type long legged non important role in the movie!! Cheerleaders where an object of fantasy to most males!! A stuck up bitch, a bimbo... not the person you wanted your daughter aspiring to be!!

Then came High School Musical.......... which became a religion in my house for all 3 rounds!! i woke up from nightmares with ...'we're all in this together' singing in my brain!!

and so the cheerleading dream began!!

throw in a couple of 'Bring it on' movies and i had a young girl who was brainwashed!!! however it was a daydream and at most something to play with her friends!!!!!!!!!! That's as close as she was going to get in Ireland!! so she settled for gymnastics and dancing :)

That was until i upped and relocated her to North America :) :)

so 3 months in........ Stingrays was discovered.......... and the rest is history!!

There was still apprehension... i couldn't remove the years of brainwashing...... i didn't want my little girl that stuck up cheerleader!!

however as i watched today as a group of little girls they gave there all, throughout their routine... i welled up as i watched my little girl be part of something very special.

The strenght, power and agility it takes to be a cheerleader is only the small detail, as they learn to be a team player, they lift each other high in the sky, learning the fundamentals of trust most adults don't' understand!

I have to admit, I'm converted!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am tonight.....one proud CHEER MOM :) :)

GO RAYS GO :) :) :)