You did it you made it to my third and final part! If you missed any here are the links to my previous blog posts. Part Two or the beginning of Part One
The start of Day 2
It's Day Two of NCA! Which means you cannot mess up. Everything must hit perfectly and cleanly, or else you should expect to be dead last in the competition.
Our coaches stressed this to us.
We wanted it bad. That huge golden megaphone trophy. To see what the winner's circle looked like. We needed to get one of those rings.
Varsity, S. (2023). NCA Trophy. photograph, Dallas, Texas.
Jones, H. (2023). Varsity All-Star NCA Rings. photograph.
On Stage
The wait felt like forever.
If we hit the routine as cleanly as possible, there's a chance we could win.
When it was finally time for us to go on, it was time to give it our all.
"That feeling when you're standing on the blue mats. When you're waiting for the music to turn on and when you're waiting to perform your best. That feeling of not knowing. Not knowing if you will be successful. That feeling when you know that right now in this moment it's all or nothing." -Gabi Butler
Pieroni, L. (2022). NCA The Work is Worth it. photograph.
Sorry, I had to let the anticipation fade in.
WE HIT.
EXTREMELY CLEAN!
Don't believe me? Watch the video below!
Northwest Power Athletics 2020 National Champions. (2020). Youtube/ Northwest Power Athletics 2020 National Champions. Retrieved October 2, 2023, from https://youtu.be/eEI6EFleoh8?si=5jQBcC1jU6LqeNU.
Awards
It's time to see if our hard work has paid off.
Waiting once again... I swear to god.
Okay, fast forward a long few hours and we are on the stage at the awards. Waiting for our name to be called. Before we know it it's top three and our names still haven't been called.
Third place. Nope.
Second place. Nope.
Wait pinch me. Am I dreaming?
Screams.
"BRIDGETTE WE DID IT" "AH"
Yep, definitely not dreaming.
Then I finally heard the staff say our names.
In first place, your national champions, the Lady Warriors of Mukilteo, Washington!!
We freaking did it. Now for a ton of pictures.
NCA Champions on the NCA Stairs. (2020). photograph.
NCA Golden Ticket. (2020). photograph.
For some context, this is the ticket to get your NCA winning jacket.
NCA Banner. (2020). photograph.
Stunting while holding the trophy. (2020). photograph.
References
Trophy
Varsity, S. (2023). NCA Trophy. photograph, Dallas, Texas.
Rings
Jones, H. (2023). Varsity All-Star NCA Rings. photograph.
The work is worth it
Pieroni, L. (2022). NCA The Work is Worth it. photograph.
Routine Video
Northwest Power Athletics 2020 National Champions. (2020). Youtube/ Northwest Power Athletics 2020 National Champions. Retrieved October 2, 2023, from https://youtu.be/eEI6EFleoh8?si=5jQBcC1jU6LqeNU.
Sitting on the stairs
NCA Champions on the NCA Stairs. (2020). photograph.
Golden Ticket
NCA Golden Ticket. (2020). photograph.
NCA Champion banner
NCA Banner. (2020). photograph.
Stunting while holding the trophy
Stunting while holding a trophy. (2020). photograph.
This blog post is Part Two of my NCA Series. For Part One click here. Part One Day One-Warm ups My team and I are in the back waiting to hear what just happened. Two of our best people just collied heads in warm-ups and were bleeding. So here we were waiting in this giant room for our coaches to tell us the game plan. "They're gonna do it for you guys, but we are going to be the last team to compete all day," our coaches say. Relief. The place looked lifeless. Everyone had already gone back to their hotels. It was just us and one other team that had watched what just went down in warm-ups. Photo Baker, J. (2019). Was the night before NCA . photograph, Dallas, Texas. Above is a photo of what part of the warm-up room looks like. On stage A stunt falls. One stunt that never would fall, had hit the floor. Tears. The girls who dropped the stunt felt horrible. Our coaches didn't make matters better by yelling at them....
The Journey to NCA Dallas... The journey to get there you ask? What do you want to know about? What training does it take? The hours I spent in the gym? The plane ride there? How many people go to NCA??? Here I'll break it down. First off what is NCA...? NCA stands for National Cheerleaders Association. It is the most-known competition in the entire cheerleading world. Around "26,000 athletes in downtown Dallas"(PR Newswire, Feb. 28, 2023). Here is a link to a little hype video of NCA. 2023 NCA All-Star Nationals | The Work Is Worth It Varsity. “NCA All-Star National Championship.” NCA , 25 Sept. 2023 The Training it takes Last practice before NCA Dallas . 26 Feb. 2020. The photo you see above is my team dressed as frat boys, as the theme for our last practice before NCA. If The Lady Warriors of Northwest Power athletics knew one thing; it would be hard work and dedication. We would be in that gym Monday to Thursday from 3 p.m. to 9 ...
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