“Aspetuck Wildcats you may take the mat,” The announcer boomed.
We ran onto the blue mat cheering our team on, getting the crowd and judges excited. This was my first ever Regionals, if we got first or second here we would move on to compete at Nationals in Florida. If not, our season was over.
This is it, I thought to myself.
We stood silently with our hands glued to our sides in our opening positions, waiting for the music to blast out of the massive speakers. I kept my head down for several minutes but started to worry when the music didn’t start. I could feel the crowd watching us. My stomach churned and my palms began feeling warm and sticky. My heart rapidly pounded in my chest.
Suddenly, without warning the music started. I was relieved that we could finally begin. But, it started in the wrong spot. It started in the middle of the music. Not in the beginning like it was supposed to. Confused and flustered we tried to go to the middle of the music and catch up with it. We ran to our stunts and hastily got up. My stunt was extremely shaky. I nervously attempted to spot my parents in the sea of people, but there were too many people in the vast crowd to see them.
The music came to a stop and a lady walked onto the mat and told us to start over. I didn’t want to start over, I wanted to get off of the mat. I wanted this to be over. Tears burned in my eyes and I couldn’t hold them back anymore, they spilled over my red cheeks. I was shaking as I trudged back to my opening position. The crowd cheered us on again as the music started. This time, it started in the correct place but we were still confused and shaken up from what had just happened. Still trying to hold our tears back, we did our opening dance and walked to our stunts which went up slightly steadier than before. While I was in the air I realized I could see everything, I could see the entire audience I could even spot the black and gold Aspetuck section. I could smell the salty popcorn and sweet cotton candy being sold. I could hear the music pounding against my ears. After I came down I transitioned to my spot. Next, I went to our pyramid and went up but the other half started to shake and begin coming down, thankfully we were able to save it and keep going. We yelled our cheer as loud as we could and finished the rest of the routine, relieved to be done. We ran off the mat crying and hugging trying to calm down, ignoring the whispers from the stands.
While we waited for the performances to be over, we thought about awards and wondered if we would make it to Nationals or not. When it finally came time for the award ceremony all of the teams sat down and anxiously awaited their results. Our team sat in a circle with our feet stretched out in the middle, crossing our hands right over left to make a chain.
After playing music the announce finally spoke, ¨In second place…Division 10 Small Red Shelton Vikings! Congratulations you are moving on to Nationals!”
There is now way we could have gotten first place, there were thirteen other teams, I thought.
¨And in first place, Division 10 Small Red…Bedford Jaguars! You are competing at Nationals!” He said.
After awards we sobbed in eachothers arms, telling ourselves there was always next year and that we could try again. My coach told us that we had gotten last place, but she believed they had totaled our scores wrong and that something wasn’t right. While she was talking with them, the team discussed whether we could actually have gotten first or second and could possibly be going to Nationals. We hoped and prayed we had done enough to move on. But, when she came back over she announced that we had gotten fourth place. Still much better than before, but no Nationals. The season was over.
After we realized that we should be proud, we managed to get fourth out of thirteen teams with all that had happened with the music. We couldn’t wait to try again next season.