American Spectacular Nationals ...And Then What?

Heat’s last cheer competition of Nationals season - The American Spectacular National Championship - was March 24-25. (Regionals season is mid-October through mid-January. Nationals season is then through March. Each competition organization sanctioned by Varsity Cheer has their own Nationals competition, so yes - there’s more than just one national championship. The absolute biggest in the whole world is NCA in Dallas, but it’s not the only one.)

Heat has had so much success this year: earning the earliest possible at-large Summit bid, winning Redline Nationals + $5000 — but they’ve had some lows: they had stunt bobbles or falls in half their performances, and they had never placed 1st in a 2-day competition. Other teams at The American Spectacular were there to try to earn the last Summit bids; we needed to find redemption after NCA and prove we could WIN a 2-day comp before showing up at Disney!

Of course, Heat ended up having literally the MOST teams against them of ANYONE in ANY division there!!! :-O This year has been *the* definition of competition, never battling with less than 5 (usually 8-10!) teams...but there we were: FIRST PLACE AFTER DAY 1!!! Could we find consistency on Day 2 and not cave to the pressure?

Level 2 Senior National Champion awards:



NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!! HEAT WON The American Spectacular National Championships!!!

But wait - it gets BETTER: ALL 5 OF OUR ALLSTAR TEAMS WON THEIR DIVISIONS!!! :-O We got a gym sweep!!! So proud of how Heat rose up under the pressure, not only hitting zero (no deductions) & placing 1st after Day 1 against more teams than any other division in the entire competition, but hitting zero AGAIN Day 2, even cleaner for one of our highest scores of the year. #lovemyflyer #nationalchampions #gymsweep

So now what?

Cheer. Never. Ends. :-D

Our End of Season Banquet is this coming weekend, but literally none of our teams – except for the minis, who are too young to qualify for Summit – are actually done with this season. Practices will continue regularly until we go in May. There will be several weeks of overlap from this last season to next: tryouts for next year’s team placements are the evening of April 21, so from then until mid-May, they’ll have Heat practice + their new level practice groups. (Annelise has her back tuck in tumbling, so she’s trying out for Level 3. Her passion above all is flying, so if there isn’t a spot for her to fly on a Level 3 team, she said she will be happy staying Level 2. We’ll see how it works out. Putting teams together is a puzzle so much bigger than individual skills.)

And there’s more: now that she’s a rising 7th grader, for the first time she is eligible to try out for school cheer! That is a whole nother can of insanity. :-P Apparently we live in one of the two (the other is beside us) most competitive, prestigious junior highs to make cheer. :-O There are other schools that can’t even field separate 7th & 8th grade squads... but lucky us: we have 50 girls trying out!!! :-O (Info meeting was last Tues.) Those tryouts are also April 21st, but in the morning. :-D Praying for the best...

(Yes, it’s very normal here for girls to do both school & competition cheer. They are two completely different things. It’s like in dance: ballet & tap don’t look or sound the same, but they’re both dance. Allstar doesn’t chant cheers or use poms; school doesn’t stunt, tumble, or dance with allstar intensity. Both fun, very different.)