A couple a weeks ago, Haru’s cheerleading coach announced that there would a few openings in both the Ace and Elite groups.  Haru had already spent a year in the Peach group, which is the beginner’s group in which absolutely everyone needs to spend a year in when starting cheerleading.  She also spent the following year in the Clover group which is like the novice group, in which they begin to do aerial stunts.  Ace is the next group, which is the intermediate group.  Along with doing more complicated and fluid dance routines, this group also does more complicate gymnastics skills like round off to back limber, front limbers, and front hand springs -all of which Haru was already doing as a Clover.

Last spring, both the Ace and Elite groups had their spring casting calls.  Many of the older girls who graduate elementary school and go onto junior high school tend to quit cheerleading to either move onto competition cheerleading or to join school clubs.  This in turn, frees up spots on all levels so that the lower level kids can move up to higher groups.  Because Haru had such a hard time remembering her routines, my wife insisted that she get passed up, and spend another year in Clover, but neither Haru nor I were please over this decision, because although Haru tended to struggle during practice, she was always able to bring it together during the shows, which at the end of the day, is what really counts.

Most of Haru’s Clover teammates were promoted to Ace last April, leaving Haru behind to have to work with the newly promoted Peach members, of which many where still in either kindergarten or first grade.   At first, I thought this would demotivate her, but this put in her in somewhat of a leadership role, and was often placed in front and center during the shows.   Additionally, she was given some small solo tumbling routines during Cheer Fest and Summer Fest  which kind of boosted her ego a bit.  But despite all of this, there was some degree of noticeable dissatisfaction, and she often talked about wanting to move up to Ace to be with her former teammates again.

I discussed this with my wife and told her that Haru should be free to make mistakes so that she can learn from them and improve herself.  Holding her back will only serve to demotivate her and in turn, make her want to quite, especially when her friends are being promoted around her.  So after much deliberation, we all agreed that if given the opportunity sometime within the year to be promoted, we would not hold Haru back.

It was only a few weeks after our discussion, we learned that there would be four slots opening up in the Elite group, hence four slots opening up in the Ace group, once the four lucky Ace members are promoted to Elite.  Haru desperately wanted to move up.  So much so, that she literally talked about it for days.  Every time I drove her to tumbling or gymnastics practice, she would ask me, do you think I will be able to move up to Ace? to which I would respond, You can do ANYTHING if you want it bad enough and you put your mind to it.  However, moving up to Ace would not be as simple as volunteering this time, as Haru’s cheer coach announced that there would be auditions for the Ace slots.

Apparently, there were more people up for promotion than there were slots available, so Haru’s cheer coach announced that the candidates would need to audition for it.   Normally, when there are slots open in the cheer groups, the cheer coach would simply ask who’s interested in moving up.  And as long as they were slots available, and the cheerleader wasn’t too horribly bad, they would get promoted without having to jump through hoops (or in this cause, go through an audition).  Normally, only the Elite group would require an audition to get in.  But since there were more cheerleaders than spaces available, the coach wanted to select only the best of the volunteer.

For the audition, the girls were judged on five different categories: dance ability, tumbling ability, high kicks, concentration skills, and facial expression (smiles).  The cheer coach rated the ability to be able smile while doing the routines as being utmost highest priority, so much so, that it has been rumored that a couple of cheerleaders who had extremely good all around mechanical skills could not move up to Elite, because they had a hard time smiling while doing the routines.

We were very confident in Haru’s tumbling abilities, but her other skills were somewhat questionable at times.  Her dance skills were good for a Clover, but the Ace’s dance routines were much more complicated so I wasn’t too sure if she was ready for it.  But the one thing she lacked the most is the ability to concentrate.  Haru is EASILY distracted, to say the very least.   If she were able to hold her concentration better, I think she could be so much better at everything.  As it stands, she has small burst of instances when she does concentrate well.  For her, its like an switch (or more like a broken switch) -either its on or its off.  And when its on, it doesn’t stay on for too long.  But during that short period she is able to stay very focused, almost to the point where she is unaware of anything that’s going on around her.  I only wish that she could apply this to everything she does.

Fortunately for me, I had a business trip on the day of the audition that allowed me to come home a bit early, so I was able to catch the audition.  As usual, the coaches didn’t allow parents to be in the room during practice, so we stared in through the glass window.  Haru looked very serious.  She really wanted to get promoted into Ace.  But I noticed that she looked too serious and was not smiling, which means that she could marked down for it  So I waved frantically through the glass to get her attention so that I signal to her to smile more.  After a few attempts, she got the message and her facial expression lightened up a bit.

The coach made it very clear that they were being tested, so that they can perform their best.  Haru was tested on cartwheels (easy), jumps, kicks, dance, and ability to smile while doing it all.  From my point of view, Haru was doing well, but I wasn’t too sure exactly what the coach was looking for.The audition ended without mishap, and all we could do is hope for the best.

Haru was antsy during the whole trip home.  She kept saying “I didn’t do well.  I kept forgetting to smile., but I reassured her that she did very well, and no matter what the result is, if she did her best, that’s all that counts.

I initially thought that the decision would be made the same day, so I kept telling my wife to check her email.  But my wife told me that it would probably be about a week before hear back, so both Haru and I were antsy for the whole entire week.  Towards the end of week, Haru was beginning to accept the idea of not being promoted.  “It’s okay”, she would say,”being in Clover is not that bad.”   Or she would say, “Being in Ace would be too much pressure.  Clover is easier, but I am going to miss my friends”-referring to the girls who would get promoted.

The week went by, and we still hadn’t heard anything.  Haru and I weren’t the only antsy ones at this point.  I overheard other mothers asking each other if they have heard any results, but none of them had heard anything.

The following Monday was a holiday.  Haru had tumbling practice in the evening, but since it was a holiday, I figured that there still wouldn’t be any word from her cheer leading coach. I slept in for most of the morning, and went down into the living room at around 10:30.  Haru and my wife had already been up, and they were both watching TV.  As I sat down on the sofa, my wife told me that Haru’s cheerleading coach called with the results.  Haru is now officially an Ace!  Good Job!