Monday, February 06, 2012

Region & State Drill

Region Drill was on Thursday, January 26, 2012. It was at Salem Hills High School. I did a countdown for the team again. We were spelling out the words elevate and passion. Here is a pic of the team on the day I brought sugar cookies in different alphabet letters and the team had to work together to figure out what the letters spelled.On the morning of Region, the moms brought breakfast to the team and they also received a special surprise. They got some cool black sparkly boots!
The team eating breakfast and waiting to open their surprise package!
This was a poster on the bus--it had cute dolls on it dressed in the costume for each of our dances!On the bus on our way to Region!Region DinnerThe team - showing their love to the crowd - just before the awards were announced.

Well, the awards were announced, and it was not what we were expecting! We ended up getting 2nd in each category and Salem Hills won 1st in each category. It was very upsetting, surprising, heart breaking, wow--I was in a state of shock, disbelief, whoa. I thought it was going to be close, but I didn't think Salem should have won every category. Especially military and dance. Maybe even character? I don't know. I think what made it hard, was that we had beaten them all year at each invitational, except for one time they beat us in character.
Needless to say, I don't have a picture of the team with their awards that night. The pic above is all I have as far as a team pic at Region. They didn't want to take a picture. We did have two girls place in the drill down! Hailey Bishop won 1st and Kimber Creer won 4th--which actually should have been 3rd. Another disappointment for our team. The caller said Kimber was out when actually Kimber executed the command correctly. But, what do you do? It is a judgement call--just like when a ref makes a bad call--you have to live with it.
I had always said that I didn't like it when a team takes 2nd and they cry. I would have loved to be 2nd so many times at Payson! But, now I totally understand why that happens! I kept thinking after the awards had been announced, we need to get out of here. Let's just get out of here and go to our locker room. We shouldn't be out here. I felt like everyone was staring at me and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing? Oh, it was not fun! But, I tried to console people and also congratulate the winners. That's all I could do.
It's hard when you feel like your team has done all that it could--and it doesn't go the way you thought. I had someone ask me if I went in the locker room and yelled at my team? I said, "NO!" They did all that I wanted them to do that night. Seriously! Military was so good! Dance was good! Character did have a little bobble, but I still feel we had a better "character" routine! Well, all we could do was re-group and gear up for State!
We had our annual "Pre-State" Dinner party up at the Hiskey's house again. It was very nice! We had a pasta dinner and then yummy red velvet cheesecake for dessert. Here are a few pics:
The officers each prepared a motivational letter/thought for the team. I felt really good about things that night. I felt the team was ready and confident for State! We gave them a new shirt to wear to state. Normally it would have been a Region Champion shirt, but I decided to get them a shirt anyway and plus we could wear it to California!
The team - Pre-State Dinner Party
Well, State was another experience that I hope not to go through again. Well, I want to be at State with my team, but I don't want what happened to happen again!
We didn't hit our headstands in military! We hadn't had a fall in a long time! And we get to State, and bam-a couple bobbles! Well, we regrouped for dance and I told the team they had to come out strong for dance and show the judges that we were over what had happened in military! They performed the dance so good! But, when they walked on, they were too far back and they were out of bounds! I didn't know what to do--? Could I stop them and say move up? Oh dear, what does this mean? These were the thoughts going through my head.
Well, they ended up getting a penalty, for being out of bounds, but not as bad as I guess it could have been. But still, it meant getting 7th place instead of 3rd! Augh! It also meant getting 7th place overall instead of 4th! We did get 4th place in Character--which was good! But, Salem beat us in military. They beat us in Dance too--only because we got a penalty. If we hadn't received that penalty, we would have been 3rd and everyone else would have went down a place and so Salem would have been 6th in Dance. Salem ended up being 5th over all--but again, if we hadn't stepped out of bounds, we would have been 4th place and Mt. Crest would have been 5th and so Salem would have been 6th. I know all of this because I had Scott enter the scores in the tabulation program the next day after state and sure enough, that is how it would have been.
So, another lesson learned--don't start routines close to the back boundary! And, tell the girls to make sure they know to stay in bounds a million times! Augh! If I could go back in time!
This pic was on the Tribune website. It is my team waiting for the awards to be announced. A cool pic, but it also makes me kinda sad too!The team with our 4th place award in Character!Drill Down Winners again - Neisha Martinez 2nd and Hailey Bishop - 3rd in the State!All three of my girls that went to All-State made the team! They are amazing dancers and I am so proud of them. Aubrey, Makayla, and Kaitlynn - 4A All State Team members.
I am still a little heart broken about Region and State--but I have to remember how much my teams have accomplished in the past three years for being a new school! What a foundation they have built. A very high standard and a name for ourselves. I'm sure this all happened for a reason, and it was bound to happen sometime--but when I figure out why--I will post about it. Until then, I'm focusing on the positive and the fact that we would have been in the top five, we are a good team, and the judges placed us in dance before the penalty, so we are still up there. I also know some things have got to change for next year. I can't wait to get going with a new team and new ideas. Of course, I still have a lot of fun things to do with the current team too!

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