As Victor Varsity Cheer starts off their season they are given only 2 weeks to prepare for their first competition in Pocono PA, Dec 10th aiming for an invitation to Nationals located in Orlando Florida.

Full disclosure, I am a member of VVC, and have been for two years. 

It’s been almost a year since the girls of VVC hit the mat to compete. Coming off a strong season with an upsetting end, we wanted more. Not only was this our first comp of the season but all of our first ever times competing with this new group of girls. 

“Get good sleep every night and fuel your bodies” (Maya Diehl) , “We need to absolutely push ourselves this week, no time for not trying” (Lilly Hardy) some of our senior captains are reminding us the week of the comp. We got to the comp and saw how the scenery was very different from the local comps, where we normally compete. We were competing on a hard mat on an ice rink in a huge arena compared to a small school gymnasium.

As we finished getting ready and headed into warm ups, reality kicked in. We stretched to our blasting routine music blocking out any other thoughts and feelings other than the routine and the feeling of adrenaline that we had not felt since February the last time we had competed.

 When our 7 minute warm up started we immediately started running our tumbling passes and throwing stunts. Warm ups were not going great. “Get it together” our coaches said aggressively. We had to throw our stunts multiple times till they hit which is not what we wanted nor needed.

As we got out of warm ups we went into our circle and did our VVC traditions as we would any other comp. We stand in a circle holding hands while we breathe and pray (literally say a prayer). Although half of us don’t know the prayer at all it brings all of us comfort and relief saying it together.

We performed our routine and didn’t do bad at all. We ended up having 1 stunt fall and even with that fall we managed to get our bid/ invitation to nationals. VVC is now going to Orlando FL!!!!