Cheering
It is interesting to me how things I said to my children as a father with Younger Eyes comes back around to Older Eyes via his grandchildren. Recently, my grandaughter, Savannah, joined a competitive cheerleading team, The Elite Academy Heat. Originally, my daughter enrolled her in dance but Savy wanted to cheer. This week, we are here in Utah visiting and we got to see Savy’s team compete. As we were waiting, Savy asked her Mom, Why didn’t you do cheer, Mommy? My daughter told her a fact I hardly remembered … Papa said I couldn’t. Hmmm. She then leaned over to me: Don’t you remember? You said you thought girls should do something more than stand on the sidelines cheering for boys while they play sports. Oh, yeah, I remember that guy … in fact, I’m still him. But Savy loves cheer (as cheerleading is called these days), and her team isn’t cheering for anyone … they are competing against other teams. I guess Older Eyes can live with that. My daughter couldn’t resist adding one more bit of information. You know the high school cheer team did this kind of comptetition in the off season. I guess Younger Eyes was wrong. Nothing new.
Seeing my grandkids in their activities is one of the best things in my life, and also one of the things we don’t get to do as often since they moved to Utah. The competition yesterday was the American Celebration Cheer Championships at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. There were at least fifty teams competing in divisions by age and experience … we had to be there at 5:30 so Savy could warm up with her team and her team wasn’t on until almost 7:30. In those two hours, I heard all the pounding cheer music I need for the year, but I also got to see Savy’s team win first place. Savy was great … I especially loved her tumbling run.. It was almost more joy that a Papa should have … I got all verklempt when they won, and again congratulating Savy afterwards. In so many ways, Older Eyes are better than Younger ones.
Tags: cheerleading, entertainment, family, fatherhood, grandchildren, gratitude
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Older Eyes 
March 20, 2016 at 6:15 am
Oh, yes. Cheer is the new big thing. Well, new to me anyway. When my now 22 year-old daughter was Savy’s age, they didn’t have cheer for girls. They had dance and gymnastics. Anyway, my girl wanted to play soccer with her pal, Patrick.
A good friend’s daughter has been in cheer for several years. She’s now a high school freshman. The videos my friend shares show moves and stunts that are simply amazing. This is no small endeavor Savy’s involved in. You should be proud!
March 22, 2016 at 4:00 pm
We loved having you there!!