The big day has finaly come - State Championship day! Emma's 5 man group went first thing in the morning! Jared and I headed out to the Diamondbacks Stadium...we don't really understand how to score cheer routines very much - we aren't sure what is considered hard and what is not...but we can tell when a reoutine "hits" - which is clean and without mistakes. Holy crap....Emma's 5 man team got up and there hit zero!! No mistakes!! It was perfect! They knew it, the coaches knew it and we knew it. We could see them all jumping up and down heading off the stage together. Now all we had left to do was watch and wait....wait while their competition all went. Did I secretly sit there and pray and hope that each group would drop or fall, I 100% did, but I also wished that no one would get hurt, just make a mistake - see I am not a complete horrible person! One by one each routine went and a mistake happened....is it seriously possible that Emma could win state for 5 man?? They would be the first team in school history to do that?? Finally it was time for awards....we were down to the final 2 teams....one would be runner up and one would walk away with a ring....Jared and I had tears in our eyes...it was to good to be true....until they announced that Perry High School won!!! We were crying!! We were dying!!! EMMA JUST WON STATE!!! She just made school history!!! The best part was the "better" cheerleaders didn't want to do 5 man, it had never won before so they didn't want to waste their time...well those who want it most get it! And these girls got it!!!!
The rest of the day we kind of relaxed and didn't care that much what happened with the team, we wanted them to be their best, but we also already won a ringso we were content! They got up and did pretty dang good! They made one mistake (someone touched down, I know Emma did on her back tuck, but I think there was another deduction if the judges happen to catch it). People were stressed. We continued to watch the other schools, some made obvious mistakes, some didn't. Jared and I had no idea where we stood with scoring. Finally it was time to announce the winners of D1 Small Showcheer....one by one they called the other schools...could this be?! Do we really have a chance to win another State Championship in the same day?! Could Perry Cheer be back to back state champs?! Oh yes!! They sure can be!! Emma just freaking won 2 rings in 1 day!! How is this even possible! Emma and Adrian are the only girls in school history to win 2 rings in 1 day!!! They did it!!!! More tears! More smiles! Highland on the other hand was so mad at us they didn't even congratulate us, they just walked off the stage, so rude, but we have to laugh at them for their lack of sportsmanship.
This girl...this girl who entered highschool wanting to be a pommie, but got cut her freshman year so she made the freshman cheer team instead to get in good with the coaches and then was going to switch to pom her sophomore year...the coaches knew it and that was the plan for everyone...then she ended up falling in love with cheer and stuck with that instead. It shocked us all. Then her senior year she finally makes Varsity, but since the coach ended up not liking her at first because she became good friends with Coach Asay at first, decided to make her an alternate at the beginning of the year. Emma was PISSED! She wanted to quit. My mom gut told me no. I told her she had to stick it out through football season, get her senior banner, enjoy Friday Night Lights and then if she wanted to quit before competition season started I would let her, but I knew deep down, she wouldn't quit if she made it that far into the season. And as it turned out, I was right and Heavenly Father guided me to help her through that. She never ended up being an alternate...she always had a place as someone was always injured. She never nuggeted. She competed at every competition, SHE WON 2 STATE RINGS IN 1 DAY!!! I couldn't have written this season to go this way if I had tried. Best part was, in the end of the season, the coaches wrote her a letter and apologized for not giving her the fair shot she deserved and earned and they appreciated everything she put into the program!
The next day we woke up and watched her win again and showed the boys, cried some more, it was a feeling we hope to live again with the boys and its a feeling we will never forget!! So so proud of her!!
.JPG)
