In the summer of 2012, my sister and I joined the Saltillo High dance team. For Elizabeth and I, our first pair of shoes were ballet slippers, but our fellow team members had little to no knowledge of dance. Elizabeth and I felt a strong responsibility to use our talents to transform fourteen softball players into dancers. We learned very quickly the cost of being a leader- sacrifice. Elizabeth and I found ourselves searching for ways to improve the team, choreographing routines, and privately instructing stragglers. We sacrificed our time and efforts to push our teammates and serve our community. After three coaches quitting on the team, Elizabeth and I were left with broken hearts. Our unity as sisters and leaders sparked a flame to push
It was six o 'clock at the Friendswood junior high mustang field I was playing strong safety and I had to cover the extra receiver they brought out by the snap I was already beating my man and the next thing I know the ball was sailing my way straight to me. I am 13 years old and I am on the Friendswood junior high C-football team I am a second string slot receiver and starting strong safety
It’s Friday night and the St. Rita football team is playing Mount Carmel in our homecoming game. Everyone is cheering and having a great time. The St. Rita football team is winning and everyone is exited. As I look around and see how much attention the football team is getting, and how when people think of St. Rita they think of our sports teams. How we have a great sports program.
At that time there was a head coach and I served as the assistant. Halfway through the season the coach stepped down putting me in charge of forty girls not that much younger than I. It was difficult to gain respect from the older girls because they had cheered with me the year prior, and saw me at the same level as them. I knew I had what it took to be a good coach for all of these girls, but I had to work hard to prove that to them, and that’s exactly what I did. I was confident and believed in myself enough that they began to look at me as an authority figure, and we had a successful
On Wednesday, February 1, 2017, Chino Hills High School was out of power, resulting all the students got released early. I walked into the school campus about to sit at the normal table that I wait at. I usually get to school thirty minutes early because of traffic. I did notice something was off when I sat down. The area where I sat was a bit darker than usual.
In life, even though we are told not to do so, a lot of us “count our chickens before they hatch”. We make assumptions on things before they happen because we believe that if something seems so likely, it will happen. Well, that is what my Liberty High School cross country team did my sophomore year. Going into the year, we not only knew we were going to be strong, we thought other teams were going to be weak. The top teams from the state finals the previous year had all lost most of their key pieces.
When lots of kids spend a lot of time together during practices, classes, and competitions, they really learn to be close to one another. One man or woman cannot possibly run an entire group of about one hundred kids doing who knows what; so then some of the kids that are either the oldest, more experienced, or more talented. This means those kids learn responsibility and leadership. The forms on the field don’t just happen, every person has to move the same way, have the same horn angle, same toe height. Every person out there, they have to work together, it is not just an individual attempt.
High school was a roller coaster ride for me, from the endless fun of parties to the minor breakdowns and panic attacks that would land myself in the hospital. The pressure and stress got to me and the fact that failing out of the school that I’ve been going to for twelve years with long life friends was coming to an end. Now that I look back at it though it might have been the best decision for my well-being because then I would of not been able to meet the people that I met at Chamblee Charter High School. You would think moving from a private to a public school would be a big cultural shock, you are very correct. Atlanta International School, which was the school I went for basically my whole life, was a very open minded, well rounded, and accepting establishment since the most of the students where from all over the world.
It was the moment I had been practicing for. I was finally going to try out for my middle school cheer team and hopefully make it. I was so excited I could barely focus on my classes that day. I had run through all of the steps at least 50 times that day. I had always wanted to do cheerleading and this was my moment to do it.
I have been cheering for five years now. I can not remember the times when I was not a cheerleader, it is hard to imagine myself doing anything other than cheer or simply not cheering at all. I fell in love with the sport and within time, my passion towards it grew even more. Cheerleading consumed my life, it was my only focus. I was fortunate enough to grow up with coaches that pushed me to reach limits I did not even know I had, as well as teammates whom I shared the same passion towards the sport with.
We lived in the North Heights area of Amarillo, across the train tracks and I guess we would considered urban. Growing up in the 60’s we had neighborhood schools, I attended kindergarten at Miss Rosenberg’s Kindergarten, we graduated with white caps and gowns and I was really happy. She was a black woman with a Jewish sounding name, who was our leader who taught us the basic of learning. I attended North Heights Elementary School beginning in first through sixth grade Our high school, Carver High School was forced to close its doors to integrate and become a junior high school by the order the president of the United States. As I mentioned we had teachers that taught us, because they were like us, we didn’t experience a great deal of discipline
Then, tragedy struck the team; three of our fastest girls were injured and out for the season. Now, I wasn’t happy about them being sidelined, but it did finally give me a chance to recover my placement from the beginning of sophomore year. I wanted to help lead the team to state, and with what my coach had previously said, it didn’t appear to be too far out of my reach. However, “too far” should have been followed by an asterisk, as my season soon spiraled out of my
Throughout Sager’s high school career, she has played soccer, lacrosse, and basketball. These three team-based sports built important and genuine relationships for Sager. She believes that these experiences taught her important skills like commitment and sacrifice. Team building exercises are implemented into many close-knit school
I believe in sisterhood. Being the captain of the team comes with leadership and great expectations. This particular leader was All- district, northeast, and state when she ran into a roadblock against a very important opponent. In the past year St. Fredrick girl’s basketball team wasn’t the best.
This summer, I had to turn my back on something that has been close with me since I was eight. My dance studio closed, I had been going there since I was eight. To be honest, when I first started, I was terrible. But weren’t we all when we first started the sport that we loved? Six years later, I am still dancing and even more than I had when I first started.
I have been cheerleading for the past 7 years, and truly love it. Ever since a young girl, I have admired the Perrysburg High School cheerleaders. Cheerleading helps me express myself, and define who I am as a person. Cheerleading has been my passion since a young girl, and I have a true love for it. Cheerleading has helped me grow as a person, and has helped me become more confident in myself.