Cheer camp

So I blogged last week about TB starting cheer camp. He went on Sunday and spent 3 hours in a gym learning the cheers they were going to do. There was one other boy there and although they were in the same group, they didn't seem to interact much.

TB managed to get in trouble while he was there for hitting a girl. He said she kit him in the face first but when he told the coach that, she insisted that him hitting her hurt worse so he got in trouble. I wasn't there, so I don't have any idea what actually happened but if that was the case, that sucks. Apparently the coach is VERY young, having made some comment about "Jeez, they still have picutres up from 4 years ago, when I was a student here", so anything is possible. In any case, we went to watch his pre-performance and while all the other kids were at least trying to keep up, he stood and did absolutely nothing.

Tonight, we had to be at the field at 6:30 for the game to start at 7, then sit through the whole first half until they could cheer at half time. I took my book and TB borrowed RF's DS since his is broken. I didn't get nearly as much reading as I hoped done because my parents showed up with MT 4 minutes into the first quarter.

Then right after the second quarter started, they both had to go to the bathroom, so we walked all over the school to find the bathrooms and by the time we got back, it was time for the cheerleaders to line up. They lined them up by age, but weren't doing a very good job of making sure they actually got where they were supposed to go. TB ended up with the 4/5 years olds because that was were they pointed for him to go. Whatever.

They led them onto the field with about 30 seconds left in the game. The last 30 seconds seem to take FOREVER and a lot of parents were ticked that the cheerleader parents were standing by the rail to keep and eye on their young children. Hows about a giant, SUCKS TO BE YOU. Then Looseyfur, MacTroll and X-man joined us for the performance and one of the other cheerleader moms was upset that Xman and MT were standing on the fence, getting in the way of her picture taking. Too bad lady. Seriously, I'm a crazy mom-arazzi, taking tons of pictures but she seriously took twice the shots I did, she could live without the 5 that X-man and MT got in the way of.

They did their cheer, then they did a little dance and then they sat and watched the band. Then they did another little cheer after the football players were back on the field. TB was (as he tends to be) his unique self. He moved how he wanted to move, where he wanted to move and didn't give a flip what anyone else was doing. Then while they were watching the band, he got bored and was laying on the track waving his feet in the air.

After the cheering, they led them off the field into disaster. Apparently, the kids were supposed to wait on the field for the parents to sign them out and then come and get them. I absolutely understand that that was for the safety of the children but it was chaos. I stood in a mass of parents for quite awhile, when I see TB wander off the field. If I hadn't been standing right next to the gate, I wouldn't have seen him and he would have been gone. Not particularly safe, IMO. We stood around for another little bit when a mom went on to the field to get her kid and leave. The organizer chased her down and demanded that she sign out and the woman FLIPPED OUT. She started yelling, telling the organizer that it was a madhouse (true) that they didn't know and thing about organization (true) and that she wasn't going to stand there and wait anymore, she was taking her kid and going home. Not much they could do at that point so they let her go. I waited another few minutes and didn't move at all so I decided to say "eff this" and we started to walk away. TB got upset that I didn't sign him out and I said loudly enough for the organizers to hear "I'm not going to mess with that, this too disorganized and I don't have all night to stand here. If they want me to sign out, they need to make it quick and easy for me to do it, since they didn't I'm out of here" No said anything to me and we went ahead and left.

I mentioned his free flow dancing on the way to the car and he said "I had to do something to entertain myself, cheering is boring"

So overall, it was not good. I was willing to get excited about cheering for his sake but since he proclaims it boring, I will revert to my long held opinion about cheering and cheerleaders. I will also be emailing the organizer and telling her how unhappy I was with the whole event. They have my money, but they won't be getting anymore of it. Any more flyers from them are going staight in the trash. Maybe the other high school would be better, but I doubt we'll be doing any more cheerleading of any kind, for either kid in the future. And that is sad because TB would have been good at it :(