Nationals Change

This evening as I was finishing putting away Christmas stuff and cleaning up, Kris informed me of an email she received from one of the cheer parents about Nationals next month.  It seems that this year, the Preliminary round is taking place on Friday rather than Saturday.  The official schedule has not yet been posted/published, but apparently, in our division, the girls could perform anytime Friday between 9:00 AM and 8:00 PM.  This is particularly troubling this year because when the team tried to get accommodations at the Disney “budget” resorts, they were told they were all booked up.  Apparently, the coach worked out something with UCA to get into the Resorts Friday, but that leaves them someplace else on Thursday which would mean pretty much moving everything Friday in addition to competing.  It also means that they will most likely spend much of their time on Thursday practicing.  And with them not staying on the Disney grounds it is going to be very difficult to get to and from the practice fields.  It is turning out to be a very difficult trip/competition this year, and I am already resigning myself to not expecting too much.  If they do end up performing well and advancing, I will be pleasantly surprised.

It would have also been helpful to know about the schedule changes ahead of time, such as when they qualified, so that flights and other travel arrangements could have been made right away.  In the past, the schedule was Saturday and Sunday, so some parents scheduled their flights on Friday.  This year, if they are flying Friday, they had better hope for a later performance time, or they will need to change their flights.  Luckily we have always gone down on Thursday and had always used Friday as a “free day” before the competition for going to the Disney Parks.  This year, we aren’t planning on going to the Parks, so it worked out OK for us, but I am still not a fan of the schedule change.