The Girl's Got Spirit!!

Our High School, Westlake High,  has a little league cheer squad.  This year they dropped the age restriction to allow first and second graders onto the squad.  Olivia dreams of becoming a BYU cheerleader some day (a dream that may have been influenced just a bit by her mom) and she decided to try out.  One thing I should mention about Livi . . . she is THE most self-motivated little girl I have ever met.  She amazes me.  When she sets a goal for herself, she does whatever it takes to accomplish it.  She had three weeks to prepare for tryouts.  Each morning Livi would lace up her running shoes and we would run a mile together.  Then we would spend 1-2 hours at the church gymnasium perfecting her jumps, kicks, and tumbling.  At night, she would have me sit on the couch and critique everything she did.  If I said, "good job" after a roundoff, she would say, "No, Mom.  You need to tell me how to make it BETTER!"

When tryouts arrived, we were shocked at how many girls were there . . . more than 200 tried out.  Parents weren't allowed inside, and I was so nervous waiting outside the gym door.  I seriously thought I was going to throw up.  After tryouts, the coach called the first and second grade parents into a meeting.  She told us they had decided to create a new squad just for the little girls, and none of them would be cut.  She asked us not to tell the girls they had all made it.  She wanted them to experience the whole tryout process.  I was grateful I would at least be able to sleep that night.

The next morning, rosters were posted and Olivia was beyond excited to see her name on the list.  She told me all the hard work had totally been worth it!  Now she is loving every minute of the cheer camps, the parades, the football games, and the competitions.  She's being trained up as a flier, and working on her back handspring.  I'm so proud of my little cheerleader!!

She won the spirit stick at practice for best tumbling:

Parade Time!

At her first football game:

With her bestie Sara:

Let's go Thunder!!