I-O-W-A IOWA ELITE!

I'd first like to note the fact that this post was finished and created on Saturday morning at 8 AM on 10/03/09, for odd reasons beyond my belief, it did not publish and was sitting in a draft in my blogging account which I found today when I logged on to do a blog for this week. So, I'd really hope this counts for last weeks and here was the post...

As I told you in the last post, I want to describe to you the world of competitive cheerleading, and trust me it's pretty broad. First off, I'd like to point out the difference between competitive and regular cheerleading. School cheerleaders are those who promote school spirit and pump up the crowd at large school games by yelling loudly, doing some jumps, and occasionally some stunting. Competitive cheerleading is a combined sport that involves the main aspects of cheerleading intensified. Competitive cheerleading is where a team of cheerleaders put together a 2 minute and 30 second routine that involves skillls based on their levels. They must have a cheer, a dance, varied stunts (these are the things where cheerleaders put people in the air), jumps, and tumbling (this is the flipping aspect). In a typical cheerleading competition, teams are pitted against each other based on their skill level. This being the hardest tricks they can throw. Teams who have more people on their team that can do more flips and harder, more complicated stunts are generally in the higher levels, whereas beginner teams that have less tumbling skills and easier stunts are placed in lower levels. The levels range anywhere from 1-8, they also include titles like Senior meaning the team is all of ages 11 or older, youth meaning they range from 7 to 11, and minis which range from 3-7. All of these have sub groups like all girl meaning every person on the team is a girl, Co-Ed meaning there are boys on the team, and Combo meaning the people on the team can range from any age. There are over 100 competitions in the USA each competitive season, which usually runs from August-March and there are over 1000 teams nationally that compete in these. The biggest competition is by far, Nationals, which are located in Orlando, Florida at the end of the competition season in March and attract the largest number of teams and is therefore broadcasted nationally. The best of the best compete here in a two day competition, pitted against their rivals, fighting for the first place trophy (which tend to be 6 ft tall) and most importantly the chance to own the title: best National team in their level and wear the famous all star championship jackets. It's a dream every team wishes to achieve each competition season but only few actually accomplish. Last year, my team, Iowa Elite, placed 4th for our all girl team and 2nd for our senior co-ed team and we hope to do better this year. I guess I kinda forgot to tell you about my nationally ranked team that I'm prouder then ever to be a member of for the past two years. Located on 6th Street in Cedar Rapids, Iowa near Hawkeye downs. This is the 7th year Iowa Elite has become a home to all of us cheerleaders and is currently the largest competitive team that Iowa has. Our colors are green, orange, black, and silver. We compete in over 10 competitions each season, traveling to Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and of course Florida. We have 7 teams: Tinys, Minis, Youth, Youth travel team, senior all girl, senior co-ed, and adult team. We have over 75 girls and about 10 coaches. The gym is always open for new members and we also have integrated tumbling practices and open gyms inside of our twice a week two hour practices for each team. We are very competitive, and we work hard in our practices. It makes us even prouder to wear our uniforms competition day, having our cheerleading friends and family surrounding us and cheering us on, and we all love each other very much. It's like a second home and second family for me and is a very big part of my life that I hope to share with the rest of you. Our cheer words are as follows and feel free to follow us to any of our competitions and follow along: IOWA ELITE, TAKING CHEER HIGHER! CHAMPIONS THATS RIGHT! WERE ON FIRE! I-O-WA!