Feb 13, 2015

The Power of a Cheerleader

I grew up on the western boarder of New Jersey in a small place called Holland Township.  The local high school I attended was fed by 5 small surrounding elementary schools.  My graduating class was just over 180 students.  Pretty tiny.  We were a division 2 school so we had a lot of sports but not everything.

When I entered as a freshman I remember going to one of the football games and seeing the cheerleaders perform during the game.  It was a small squad consisting of no more then 5-10 girls.  They basically jumped around, shook their pom-poms and yelled, "Let's go Team".  It was pretty unimpressive.

Somewhere between my Sophomore and Junior year a new cheerleading coach was hired.  What seemed like overnight to me, the cheerleading squat was transformed!!  Instead of doing a few flips here and there and waiving their pompoms, they were throwing each other in the air, doing hard gymnastics, and actually making cheerleading a sport.  It was amazing.  They ended up blowing the competition away when they went to compete at the local and state levels.  To this day (over 20 years later) they continue to have great success and win many competitions.  I'm proud of them.  

I've thought a lot about what transformed this team from nothing of consequence to being leaders in their sport.  It really comes down to one thing.  Their coach.  Other then the normal turnover in high school, the girls were the same.  There was no real push for a better program.  We didn't have a special school wide fundraiser or recruitment on their behalf.  It really all came down to a coach who had seen better, knew how to teach better, and most importantly - instilled in the girls that they could be better.  The talent and ability was always within them, they just needed a little help finding it and bringing it out.  The coach was an example of the ultimate cheerleader.

In that same high school, I played basketball my freshman year.  There were about 20 of us on the team.  I loved our coach.  To this day he is the best coach I ever had.  We practiced hard and we played hard.  I always wanted to play my best and never wanted to lose for the sole reason that I knew it would disappoint him.  Not because he would be mad, but because I knew he knew we could do better.  He believed in us.  Truly believed in us.  That belief alone made us strive to be our best.

Unfortunately, he didn't coach many more seasons of freshman basketball and the JV and Varsity coaches just didn't have the same belief in us as Coach Petty did.  By our Senior year the number of players from that freshman team still playing was 1.  What changed?  I can tell you it wasn't because we all of a sudden lost a ton of talent.  It was because we didn't have a cheerleader who believed in us.


Cheerleaders are on the sidelines of games to get the crowd excited and to get them to rally behind their team.  They don't infuse players with added talent or strength.  They simply try and help players remember and embrace the talent and strength they already have.  Through the years I have come to realize that this same principle applies in almost every aspect of our lives.  To be successful, what everyone needs more then anything else, is a cheerleader.  A person who believes in them and knows how to rally behind them to unlock and push themselves to excel with the talents and strengths they already have.

Recently I have had a lot of people ask me for help in decorating their homes.  I'm always happy to give my opinion and help them.  What I've found most interesting in this process is that most people already know what they want, they just need a little encouragement and help to push them in the direction they already want to go.  So when it comes to your home and decisions you want to make put my voice in your head and listen as I say, "If you love it, do it!  It will all come together.  Don't be afraid to try.  The power is within you.  Trust yourself and go for it!  It's ok if you make a mistake, you can fix it or do it over.  We learn from our mistakes.  You're amazing and your home can be amazing too!"


Whether tackling home decor or anything else, my thoughts for you this weekend are this: Be a cheerleader and find a cheerleader for you.  We each need to be and have both in our lives.  People are amazing.  We do amazing things.  Just think what we could do if we believed in ourselves and each other just a little bit more.

"GO TEAM!!"  "GO YOU!!"

Go HERE to watch a video of Delaware Valley Regional High School Cheerleaders 2013 National Championships.  "Go Terriers!"

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