Cheer competitions

The cheer season for 2012 has come and gone. D*starz has competed in 3 competitions, getting 4th in NYD, 6th in C3 and 3rd in Cheer 2012. Juniors got 9th in NYD, 21st in Cheer 2012 and 4th in C3. The roller coaster ride of the team for the competitions was great. I wasn't around for NYD and for most of the last bit of preparations because I was in Shanghai.
But what I am just going to write about it the feeling of having brought the team to top 3 in the nation. D*starz has come a long way from 2004 when it was first formed. In 2008, I first took care of cheerleading in SA. Though I was supposedly only taking care of B*starz then, I ended up taking care of D*starz because someone else didn't want that burden. In 2008, their coach was Eric. I kept an eye on the team from afar, esp when I had to attend a course ending on Cheer 2008's first day. They did ok, as top 15. In 2009, I took over D*starz fully. The team was coached by Marcus. And ended up as 16th or 17th I think. Not too sure, cannot remember.
Then in 2010, everything changed. The dynamics of the team changed, the coach changed ... we took part in SOX for the first time and won, then Cheer 2010 and got 5th. That was something we had never really ever dared to even think about. Chee Wei coached with his team, and continued in 2011. 2011 was different as we had a young team, but we still ended up 8th. This year, 2012, our aim was to win. Realistically, it was going to be extremely difficult. But we still aimed high. And we ended up 3rd, something we were happy with but now we know, we can indeed aim high.
I am proud of the girls. It was a year of hard work starting from late 2011. We had worked hard for almost a year. The team was as strong as it could get for 2012. We had a few panics, when Hannan fractured her arm and had to pull out of the team, then Sobana having a fall and almost fractured her arm as well. In fact Sobana had a few mishaps but thankfully, she was still in the team. Lay Mun had major problems with injuries. She hurt her wrists and also her ankle. She was limping during competition. So it was very challenging this year. It didn't help that I had to break the news that I was going to leave them after the competition. It was hard, but everyone recovered and focused.
In spite of the problems and hiccups we had to go through, the team prevailed. Winning 3rd spot is nothing to be ashamed of, neither is it something to really shout about. We can still do better. Seriously. The potential is there. The problem is how to harness the potential and getting the support they need.  But for now, I am proud of them. I have seen the team grow. I am like a mother hen to them most of the time. I hope I have done enough these 5 years.
Season 2012/13 will soon begin with training and later audition. And I won't be there to see it. But they will always be in my heart and I will always pray for them, their safety and well-being.