Almost a month after the national championships, P's cheer family gathered for the annual awards banquet. P was happy to join his friend Haley at the "cheerleaders' table". They called each team up on stage and gave each member a trophy, and then announced and presented the few special coaches' awards for each team.
We were so excited when P won the "Team Before Self" award! He tried literally every position on the squad and endured multiple routine changes, and despite being one of the youngest members of his team, if he was the base, he would sacrfice himself and hit the ground before he'd let his flyer fall. In fact, one of my proudest moments was when he came home from practice in February and said, "Morgan was shaking today and everyone else was like, 'Oh, I'm not paying attention,' and then I could tell that either Morgan was going to fall and get hurt or I was going to catch her and fall and I might get hurt. So I had to quickly make a hard choice and decide that I would get hurt so she wouldn't." His coach told me about the incident from her perspective, too, and she said, "He got creamed. But he didn't cry, even though I thought for a second he might, because Morgan fell on him hard. But he just got up, shook it off, and said, 'Okay, let's try it again'." P also decided partway through the season that he didn't want to do cheerleading anymore, but we explained that he had to stick it out for the season with a good attitude, because his team was counting on him and he had given his word. He agreed and did just that, which is a big accomplishment for a five year old. Shoot, that's something adults sometimes struggle to do!
Way to go, P!
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