The competition started at 9:00 AM, and we were planning on stopping and picking up Sarah before heading over to the LaCrosse Center. This meant we had to leave very early in the morning, approximately 5:30 since it is a 3 hour drive. I managed to make decent time doing about 78-80 mph (yes, I know I was speeding, but I drove behind cars that were going faster, so sue me) so we got up there a little earlier than planned. We actually had to wait for Sarah because she had only gotten up about 10 minutes before we arrived. Ali’s team didn’t perform until around 11:00 (I forget what the actual time of their preliminary performance was) so we got to watch all the other teams.
The arena was actually fairly empty when the first teams went on (which I suppose is to be expected). I wanted to make sure that we got to see the “competition” so I could evaluate whether they would make the finals or not. When it came time for them to perform, I thought they did a decent job, but after seeing some of the other teams, I didn’t know if they would make the finals. I thought they were going to be “on the bubble”. There were, if I remember right, about 14 teams, and the top 7 advanced to finals in the evening. It turns out they placed higher than I would have thought, placing fifth. Go figure. I suppose that it is a good thing I am not a judge.
We had about a 90 minute break before finals started so we went and grabbed some lunch with Sarah. We made it back early so we would be able to get a fairly good seat for the finals. The lower level seating right in front of the girls was reserved for all the judges, so we had to try and sit as close to the middle as possible. Their performance in the finals round was much better than the preliminary round, so we were hopeful that they would place well.
Then a couple of the teams that finished better than us in the prelims had a fall or two, which opened the door for the girls to move up.
We were hopeful that they would at least place, which they did. They ended up getting third, though I thought they were better than the team that finished ahead of them in second place (Boo Hamilton!). I thought they were jobbed, but as we saw with the prelims, I don’t know much. When everything was over and the coaches picked up their scoresheets, we found out that the girls missed out on second place by 0.1. That is even worse than how they finished at nationals! (coulda, woulda, shoulda). But the girls were very happy with their performance, and at least they placed.
Now on to the critique of the event itself. IT SUCKED! The venue itself wasn’t too bad, though I may have changed around the placement of the stage, or where they performed. I wasn’t thrilled with having to watch off to the side. And how bad would it have sucked to drive up (3 hours from the Milwaukee Metro area, longer if you were further south, like Racine) and have your performance be one of the first of the day, not make the finals, and then have to drive home. I guess you could have come up the night before and stayed in a hotel. We were planning on doing that until we found out that our team was going to drive up the day of. If we had gone up the night before, then no one would have been around to take Ali to school. Then a couple of days before, after calceling our hotel we find out that the girls were just going to meet in LaCrosse the day of the competition and save the cost of renting a bus. Had I known, I wouldn’t have canceled out reservation.
But all of that paled in comparison to the awards. The event got behind so awards were supposed to start at something like 7:00. In reality it wasn’t until more like 7:30. And then, it took over two hours to announce all the awards in each category. That was not cool! There was also some rule about teams having a 30 minute window after their performance to appeal their score. So we had to wait 30 minutes after the last team finished to start. I understand that they wanted each team to have their time in the spotlight. But couldn’t they have done all the pictures in a different place, off stage, while announcing the next category? Fine, I’ll applaud the third place team in the Small Varsity Cheer/Dance Non-Tumble division. But do I seriously need to watch them have their picture taken too? All the parents were on the floor taking photos as well as the “official photographers”. Also, they could have begun the awards for some of the other teams/categories that were not waiting for that 30 minute window at the end. With how long the award took and when the final teams were announced, I don’t think starting awards 10 minutes after the last team performed is much to ask. And if they are tallying the scores in each division anyway as they go along, there should be no need to wait so long. It was ridiculous… the epitome of inefficiency. Toward the end, the announcer was yelling at the crowd to sit down, and quiet down, so they could finish announcing the winners. But I don’t fault people for wanting to get out of there. We had a 3 hour drive home, and some teams had longer drives than us.
The president of the WACPC had said before that she welcomed comments and suggestions since this was their first year in LaCrosse. I am seriously thinking about taking her up on that and blasting how the competition was run this year.
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