“Hell Week”
As I mentioned in my first post, every year our cheerleading team stays an extra week after finals in December before we are allowed to go home for Christmas break. The reason for our stay is because once we return back to school after New Years Day, we have a minimal amount of time before we travel down to Florida for competition. From a cheerleaders standpoint, this week sometimes seems like the longest week of ones life, hence the name “hell week.” At this time, the school seems like a ghost town. The only other team here is basketball and for the past couple of years they have been dismissed to go home for the holidays earlier then we have, making our team the only students still on campus. Hell week normally consists of 7 a.m. captain’s practices where we tumble and mark our routine over and over again. After practice, we move down to the cardio room for an hour team work out. Usually around 9 a.m. we are free to return back to our homes and spend the day however we wish. Once 5 p.m. rolls around, it’s back to the gym we go! This time, our coach is present so we are allowed to stunt. After running the routine again and again, we are free to go usually around 7 p.m. If our coach feels that we haven’t had a satisfactory practice, we will be given an hour to eat dinner and then asked to return back for more practice later that evening. Depending upon how confident Coach Danielle feels after watching our routine determines when we are finally allowed to go home for Christmas. Although this week is challenging, it all seems to be worth it once that trophy is in our hands!
Cheers!
