Every year we have a bonfire pep rally before the Chapman versus Abilene football game. It has been a tradition that the senior football boys either dance with the dance team, or put on a short stunt routine with the cheerleaders. This year the boys were with the cheerleaders. It was going to be great!
As the boys are trickling into practice, some of us girls start putting the boys up in preps. It is difficult since they have never done it before and don’t exactly know what they’re doing. As Chelsea, Milea and I grab a football player to put him in the air, we tell him everything he needs to know about flying. “We’re going to stop at a load. When we are there, you are going to hold your own wait on Bailey and Chelsea’s shoulders by locking your arms,” Milea tells him.
“You are going to keep your knees together and up towards your chest. It helps us to grab your feet easier,” Chelsea says.
“Next, you’re going to feel us dip. After we dip, we are going to push you up to a prep. As we are going up, you are going to stand up and stay as tight as possible. Squeeze all your muscles,” I add. We try and try to get him up in the air but it just isn’t working.
Finally, Coach Witt notices us struggling and says to bring it in so we can start working on the main stunt of the routine. We all decide that Tyler would be the best flyer for the pendulum. “Tyler, as a flyer, you are going to have to be very cautious and listen to everything I tell you,” Coach Witt says.
Once we decide who all the bases would be, we continue on with instructions. “Tyler, you are going to jump into your bases’ arms and hold your own weight on their shoulders. You need to lock your arms and keep your feet together with your knees pulled to your chest,” Coach tells him.
“Bases, you need to grab his feet. Once you have his feet, you will dip and bring him up to chest level. This is known as prep level. Tyler, when you feel them dip, you are going to stand up as they are pushing you up.” As they are try to put him up, all of us cheerleaders can’t help but to laugh. It’s funny watching them struggle with it.
Once they have finally mastered the prep, we start teaching the pendulum. “Pushers, Tyler is going to fall back onto you and you are going to catch him. Do not let him fall! You are going to catch him when he is still high in the air. Once you have him, the next step is to dip and throw like crazy to get him all the way over,” Coach continues, “Tyler, you will be lying on your back and when they push you, you should go all the way over and land on your stomach. When they push you again, you are going to land on your back in a cradle. Pushers in the front, you are going to do the exact same thing the ones in the back are. And then the ones in the back are going to catch him in a cradle.”
All the boys think they are ready to try it and they start to put it up. The stunt is going so great! The prep goes up perfectly so far; he falls back and the pusher catch him, and then suddenly, on his way over to the front, his bases drop him and he falls to the ground. The boys have the determination to get it done, but they can’t help but to laugh with us cheerleaders. They want to try it again. “Practice makes perfect!” One of them says. The second time is a little better, but it’s still great to watch and record all their trials. After many tries, the boys finally have it game ready. Meaning it’s ready to be performed.
They’re ecstatic to perform it on Wednesday. And when Wednesday finally comes, the performance is better than it ever was in practice. They start off the hilarious MC Hammer dance moves that we taught them, and then they move to the stunt. Tyler jumps into his bases’ arms as if he has been doing this for years. He falls back gracefully and goes forward perfectly. It was so pretty! They did it! They move to the next stunt. Three preps with an ending Heisman pose. They all hit, and their routine is done. The boys have, once again, gone out with a bang.