Well I’m
back but not sure for how long. The truth is, I just
haven’t been motivated enough to sit down and write my
thoughts down. When all is said and done each rendition of
my “Nelson’s Thought’s” is close to 2,000 words or a 4 – 5
page essay. I’m not in school anymore and although I love
writing I just lately have not been motivated to put out
these things every month. Maybe that will change in the
upcoming weeks. Maybe it won’t. But now that music season
is done and the teams are running on auto pilot sitting down
for a few hours to knock one of these bad boys out can move
higher up on my priority list. Or maybe not. Either way
this one’s pretty good with a handful of teams to talk about
and new subjects to discuss so buckle in and enjoy the
ride.
Fremont is
new to the Team Cheergyms program and funny enough, was my
school’s rival when I was in High School (back in the
day…which was a Wednesday by the way). It’s fun to rag on
them about it and throw in a few jokes here and there.
Overall though, they are a fun group and are a work in
progress. We’ve lost a few individuals since the team
started here but now that we’ve trimmed down I’ve got 11
girls that I know I can count on to be at every practice and
put the work in. They just had their first competition at
the USA Regional at Washington High School and in a division
of 8 (Small Varsity Novice) they were able to take home 2nd
place (behind Team Cheergyms’ Wilcox High School) and also a
qualifying score for USA Nationals. They did all of this
with only 2/3rds of their routine as well; definitely an
impressive feat. Now the team will add onto their
choreography and hopefully start adding more skills into
their routine. It is tough with only 11 as it will be very
demanding on each of them, but I am eager to see how they
will handle it.
I like our
new uniforms. I really do. I like the simplicity of it. I
like flashy uniforms as well but I’ve always felt that too
much can be distracting. We now have a uniform that I
believe has the right amount of simplicity mixed with a
small amount of flash. When you hold up the uniform by
itself I think it visually looks plain. But when it’s put
on a team performing one of our routines I think the uniform
really stands out. I like it and I’m happy with the
results.
Monta Vista
High School is also new to the Team Cheergyms program. I
admit that I enjoy working with smaller squads as its hard
to give individual attention when you’re one person to 34
but you can always do so much more choreography wise when
you have a large team. And I’ve definitely been able to do
that with this team. Their routine is somewhat finished as
I really hope to do more with their dance before Nationals
hits. Other than that though, their routine is finished and
now its time to improve on the skills they are performing
their routine. I have a lot of ideas for what I want them
to do and after watching them their first two competitions I
am very confident that they can pull those ideas off as we
introduce new skills to this division. The team had a great
first competition pulling out with 1st place at
the USA Regional at Great America. Their second competition
wasn’t as smooth or as clean as I would have liked but the
team still walked away with a 3rd place finish in
what was a very competitive division at the USA Regional at
Washington High School.
So I lost
my first season of fantasy baseball. Basically I was
cheated out of it (okay, maybe not but it makes me feel
better to think so) but I am a gracious loser (well, I
didn’t really lose…I was 5th out of 8!) so I have
accepted defeat and moved on (even though I know that the
only reason Danny won was because he cheated me out of
Albert Pujols who had a monster season the minute after I
traded him to Danny while he and Derick conspired against
me). I’m in the midst of fantasy football as well and I
smell another conspiracy. How is it that the owner of the
league and the one that set it all up has Tomlinson AND
Jackson on their team? And Marc Bulger as well?? I’ve got
Alex Smith and have had to trade for 4 different RB’s
since. I smell a conspiracy. Regina’s a cheater!!
Wilcox is
moving into their third year with the Team Cheergyms program
and I think this will be their strongest year. The team
only has 14 members on it but 11 of them are veterans of the
cheergyms program and our style of coaching. It has
definitely showed on the floor as they are very crisp and
clean with their routines. Their routine is finished
although like Monta Vista, I think I may end up tweaking
their dance a bit. Right now the work we are putting in is
towards upgrading the skills they do in the routine and like
Monta Vista, introducing a few new skills to their
division. This team is very strong and once they realize
the future they can have laid out before them they’ll have
an opportunity to take advantage of it and be even
stronger.
Not too
long ago I tried Dirt Bike Riding for the first time in my
life. I have never driven or ridden on a motorcycle before
but I’ve always wanted to so this was a great opportunity
for me. Unfortunately, I learned a very tough lesson that
day. It hurts to get thrown off of a bike when it is
traveling 25 mph and all you have on is a pair of jeans, a
t-shirt and a helmet. Still though, I had a blast and now I
have some killer scars.
Our Junior
Maroon team is back as a coed team (fans may remember when
one of our Senior Black members Robert Herrera was coaxed
into cheerleading because Nikki saw him doing handstands at
the gym) and has gotten off to a solid start. One of the
things that I have really enjoyed so far this year is that
Nikki has taken on the task of creating her own music. I’ve
always believed that when you coach a team if you are hands
on with your music and you know how to create music your
routine will look better because you are creating your own
music. As someone who produces music for numerous squads
across the country it can be difficult to create music for a
routine that I am not familiar with. Although I enjoy most
mixes I produce for these squads I’ve always enjoyed
watching the routines I coached with the music I created
because it just fits better. I think that this year we’ll
see the same thing with the Junior Maroon team. The team is
off to a great start with two first place finishes (okay
okay…one of the first place finish happened with no one else
in the division) and I think we can definitely see promising
things in this teams future.
Our Senior
Maroon team is basically our Senior Black team of last year
but progressing up one level. The makeup of the team is the
same type of people although the personalities are a bit
stronger. My favorite thing about this team is that they
don’t see themselves as living in the shadow of the coed
team. Rather, this team is making a name for them and is
not living in anyone’s shadow. Their routine is probably my
favorite routine I have choreographed this year and they
perform it well. Right now their biggest obstacle is
obtaining newer skills so that they can come closer to
maxing out the skills in their division. The one downfall
of this team is that right now they aren’t performing enough
level 3 skills in their routine. But it is a work in
progress and I am confident that they will reach that level
soon.
Senior
Black has definitely started off the year on the right
foot. Our talent is stronger than it has ever been before
and the best part is that everyone on the team continues to
get better. We’ve got a solid routine and the people to
pull it off. I’ve also choreographed the routine in a way
that can make progressing the skills and adding those in
easy. Our eyes are focused on the competition in February
in Atlanta (Cheersport Nationals) as that is what we are
progressing our skills towards. We will always do what we
can to perform clean and solid routines at competitions but
we are specifically working two parts of our routine towards
Cheersport (our partner stunt section and pyramid
sequence). I know that there was a bit of controversy a
while back about World’s and the crossover issue
(personally, I’ve always felt that you send the Dream Team,
not the San Antonio Spurs) but the issue has been resolved
and everyone is moving on. I think it would be unfair to
say that this team is going to World’s again as there are
still many teams out there that we’d have to beat in order
to get a bid…and I’m sure many of those teams are just as
talented (if not more) and are working just as hard as us.
But, I would be lying if I said we aren’t thinking about
going. Truth be told it is our ultimate goal and one we
hope to achieve this season.
Aren’t the
message boards funny? You know what it reminds me of?
Sports talk radio. I love sports talk radio and it’s
generally all I listen to when I drive (except for this time
of the year when all that is playing in my car is Christmas
music). On sports talk radio the majority of the show is
dedicated to people calling in and giving their opinions.
Many times these people calling in are quick to criticize
the local coach/athlete/team and give their opinions on what
the coach/athlete/team should be doing. Our message boards
are like that. Right after a competition those boards blow
up with people sharing their opinions on who looked like
what and who should be doing that and why teams don’t belong
here and so on and so forth. However, unlike Sports talk
radio there isn’t a host to control the arguments. So our
message boards become a place for argument and rarely, a
place for bickering. In the end though, I think many
coaches and directors do what I do; take their opinions for
what its worth. In sports talk radio many of the people
that call in are your average sports fan. They’ll call in
with their opinions on why a coach should be doing this
rather than what they are doing but the bottom line is;
they’re just a fan. The coach is the one that is paid for
their expertise. Our message boards are the same way. I’m
willing to bet that 98.2% of the people that post are just
the athletes/parents/fans. In the end it’s the
coaches/directors that make the decisions for the teams.
NELLY’S
RANT:
This past
weekend I was at a High School competition, the USA Regional
at Washington High School. Can I just say something here?
It’s called a heel stretch for a reason. However, some
people have yet to figure it out. So let me help them out
with this one. They call it a “Heel Stretch” because YOU.
GRAB. YOUR. HEEL. You don’t grab your ankle. You don’t
grab your calf. You grab your heel. Your heel. The heel
of your foot. Your heel. For a heel stretch you grab your
heel. If you’re grabbing your ankle its not a heel
stretch. If you’re grabbing your calf you’re not even in
the right ball park. You grab your heel. The heel of your
foot. For a heel stretch you grab your heel.
Oh, and for
those of you that talk about it on the message board its
spelled “Heel Stretch”. Not, “Heal Stretch” or “Heel
Streatch” or even the dreaded “Heal Streatch”. “Heel
Stretch”.
Until next
time everyone,
Do what you
love. Love what you do.
Nelson de
Dios
