LUERS CHEERLEADERS

LUERS CHEERLEADERS

7^TH IN THE NATION

IN CHRISTIAN SCHOOL DIVISION!

On December 27^th, when everyone else was still sound asleep, the Bishop Luers Cheerleaders were heading to the Ft Wayne International Airport for the trip of a lifetime. The girls departed Ft. Wayne at 5:56 a.m. bound for Chicago, then another flight from there to Dallas, Texas, for the National Cheerleading Association, High School and Jr. High Nationals. Never in the history of Bishop Luers has the cheerleading program been awarded the opportunity to travel to a competition of this stature and represent not only Bishop Luers but Ft. Wayne! NCA Nationals are the oldest and most prestigious competition in the United States. The girls received a bid to attend this competition through a first place win in Cincinnati, Ohio, earlier in the season.

Upon arriving in Dallas, there were cars to rent, bags to pick up and 18 people total to get to the hotel. Several parents and friends of Luers joined this trip at their own expense to watch Luers history being made. The first day there was spent eating, sleeping and practicing. We were lucky enough to have the First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas, allow us practice time in their gym free of charge, and what a facility this was. The church and its buildings took up one whole city block in Dallas! We practiced till we were exhausted then returned to the hotel.

The next day was an up early and head out to the Convention Center, a massive building where there were two separate areas for competition. Competition began at 8:00 a.m. and went until 8:00 p.m. in both areas!!! There were a total of 171 schools participating in this competition from all over the United States. Jr. High through High School, some from as far away as Hawaii and five from Indiana! We competed at 11:56 a.m. the first day and you could see nerves and lack of sleep and air sickness had taken a toll on us. Four of our nine girls were sick. So we collected ourselves, looked at our score sheets and decided on a plan of action for the next day’s final competition.

On day two of competition we did very well for our first ever trip to Nationals. We were proud of our effort and received 7^th place in the Nation in Christian Schools Division. The rest of our day was spent going to mass and eating dinner. We found a lovely little church called the Holy Trinity and joined their congregation for a wonderful mass. They welcomed us and asked where we were from and we proudly told them of Ft Wayne and our Bishop Luers HS. We then went to the Land and Cattle Co. for dinner Texas style! We had fun and then began to talk about our departure the next day. Our plane did not leave until late so we decided to go to the Texas Stadium to see where Luers alum Anthony Spencer plays football for the Dallas Cowboys! We got to see everything, the field, the locker rooms, where they give press conferences, box suites and we got to run down their hall to the field where we tried to imagine what he feels being on that massive field! To say we were impressed doesn’t quite get it.

I know I will never get the chance to participate in something as awesome and inspiring as this once in a lifetime chance to have a team compete in the National Level, for one it is so expensive and second I have coached for 20 years and this was the first opportunity ever to take a team. We learned a lot, we got to know each other better and had the trip of a lifetime. I am proud of these girls and their effort, they are the 7^th best team in the Nation among Christian HS’s and they deserve the recognition that goes with that. They represented Luers very well and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you to everyone who supported us and who donated funds towards this trip. We are forever grateful to you.

We will be having several fundraisers over the next few months to pay for the trip and hope you will consider attending them to help us out. The first is a McDonalds Knight, January 21^st, at the Waynedale McDonalds, 5-8 p.m. We will also be having a Burger King Knight this month. Watch for them! GOD Bless and thank you to everyone for their support and help to make a donation please see Anita Correll 456-1261-3117.