Summer notes, part 2: From Cheer Dad, 5-6-7-8

The calendar (not to mention my ultra-literal oldest son) tells me there are five weeks left in summer. But my eyes and ears tell me otherwise. As mentioned in a previous post, Marist fall sports teams’ preseason camps have begun. And as I type this on a beautiful summer evening, in a high school parking lot pockmarked with potholes and weeds growing through the pavement, I distinctly hear the sounds of autumn in the air.

Yes. That’s right. I am at my daughter’s cheerleading practice. The coaches and the girls are counting out and cheering in unison. Most cheers go to a cadence of 8, and they start out with a count of 5-6-7-8. If this means nothing to you, it means you have not lived in the Cheerleading World. And that’s OK! Here at Blog Central, we forgive you. And we are here to educate. If there are typos in this or other posts, please forgive me. The girls are bellowing out their counts very loudly, and very proudly and it can be distracting to the writing process. But alas … it is the Cheer Way. Also, in the background, in the fields below, I hear the whistles, grunts and crunching of pads that signifies Pop Warner football practice. Sounds of fall, to be sure.

Wait! Did you think I was gonna give up on Cheerleading Talk? Ha! Not so lucky. Not so fast! Anyway. At last week’s Thursday evening cheer practice, Coach Jenn (Natalie’s excellent and dedicated cheer coach for many seasons) had a station wagon full of Cheer Swag (yeah man). Some for sale. Some for free! Is there anything better than Free Swag? Not really. And so, as a public service and forewarning to all team members that I will see next week, and alumni I will hopefully be seeing soon thereafter, there is a new T-shirt in my heavy rotation (as you can see), and it reads as follows, in very boisterous and bold letters: “Cheer Dad.” Yeah man. That’s me! Go ahead. Make fun of me. I don’t care. I am many things to many people. Cheer Dad is one of them.