|
News Florida PAL
Our Activities
Youth
Directors Forms
& Applications |
|
SFAPAL Annual Cheerleading Competition Is it true, “Girls just want to have fun?” That’s what hundreds of PAL girls did at the State of Florida Association of Police Athletic/Activities Leagues (SFAPAL) annual cheerleading competition. When the competitors gathered on December 6, 2008, at Disney’s new Josten’s Center at the Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida, they really livened things up. “We almost tripled our participation in cheerleading this year,” said Rhonda Scott, SFAPAL program and events manager. The numbers totaled 458 girls and 61 coaches, and that’s not counting staff members and volunteers. Adding spectators, the total attendance was somewhere in the 800 range. “It looked like we had a packed house,” Rhonda said. The PAL cheerleaders arrived full of pizazz and flash. As the Melbourne PAL contingent exited their bus outside the Josten’s Center, they were chanting loudly, “Pump it up!” That’s what cheerleading is all about. Build up the momentum! Stir up the enthusiasm! These girls are expert at doing just that.
Inside the Josten’s Center, lively music and cheers from different groups resonated as various PALs took their places in the bleachers around the side walls, waiting for their turn to compete in the center staging area. The atmosphere was charged with excitement, the air redolent with the aroma of freshly popped corn and nacho chips. Master of Ceremonies Albert Chester, an SFAPAL corporate board member, kept the competition moving in a timely and entertaining way as the groups competed during the course of the morning. He stepped into the MC role voluntarily and took to it “like a duck takes to water,” Ms. Scott said. Mr. Chester later reported how much he enjoyed himself: “I had a great time! It was so easy. Such a nice crowd and such a nice group of girls.” Ms. Scott concurred. “The young ladies have always been like little professionals, like they were already at the Olympics. They are very respectful and responsible. So many of the little girls say ‘thank you.’ Then the little smiles on their faces. So that was worth it for me. It seemed like everybody was really happy.”
It’s not just about the competition, Ms. Scott said. “Even though they are here to compete, we’re hoping they will network and get to know each other.” Florida PAL pays for accommodation for one night for the PALs, but many pay extra to stay for an additional night, so the girls can enjoy the Disney theme parks longer. SFAPAL staged the cheerleading competition this year instead of an individual PAL chapter hosting it, as has been the custom in the past for this event. The Disney environment offers world class facilities and is a safe place for the kids to enjoy themselves, Ms. Scott said. She explained that Florida PAL chose the Disney venue because they wanted “to give the cheerleaders a taste of what the [PAL] basketball players and the hot shot competitors get when they enter the Milk House [for their competition]. Even though we weren’t at the Milk House, we were still within Disney’s Wide World of Sports at their brand new Josten’s Center, not even a year old.” Disney’s website describes the Josten Center as a “state of the art, multi-sports facility with more than 44,800 square feet of competition space.” SFAPAL depended on Vonda Wynn to keep this competition in compliance with cheerleading guidelines. Vonda used her connections in the cheerleading world to arrange for college and high school cheerleading coaches in the St. Petersburg area to judge the SFAPAL competition at Josten’s. Vonda was herself a cheerleader in high school, is a PAL parent, and has been a cheerleading coach for more than ten years. This is in addition to her full-time job as a police officer working in internal affairs in the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Vonda’s involvement with PAL stems from her children’s participation in PAL. Vonda’s daughter, Elizabeth, was SFAPAL Girl of the Year, a prestigious honor, and Vonda’s son just finished his last year of playing ball with PAL. Vonda had volunteered to help coach cheerleading in Elizabeth’s private school and later agreed to help St. Petersburg PAL organize and host the annual state cheerleading competition for SFAPAL. “I have been doing it ever since. I love it. You’ve got to love it to continue doing it year after year. I like dealing with children,” she said. “Just to see them enjoying themselves in a positive manner--that’s pretty much what it’s all about honestly for me.” Vonda knows cheerleading inside and out. She knows when pyramids are allowed and when the girls can do splits. She knows that the basket toss is not allowed. “A lot of schools and organizations are not allowing basket toss because of the possibility of injury. If you miss somebody that’s coming out of the air, then it’s a problem. We do any type of extension, things over the head, as long as the individual above you is still connected to the base person, connected to the ground. There is no throwing anybody up in the air.” What determines a good cheer? “It’s all about basically the precision. It’s your motion, it’s your jumps, it’s your voice projection, it’s your facial expression, your appearance--it’s just the total package,” Vonda explained. “Making someone in the audience smile, want to cheer with you, want to be part of what you’re doing: that’s pretty much what a cheerleader does.”
PAL ILLUSTRATED wondered how cheerleading is different now from when Vonda was a cheerleader in high school. “It’s a lot more athletic, a lot more competitive than when I was in high school twenty years ago. We did compete, but it was nothing to the level of what they do now. The stunts are much more high tech. For years, the profession of cheerleading has been—‘We don’t do much; we just kind of raise spirit and shake our pom-poms.’ But now it’s a sport, it’s an absolute sport. Come to any of my practices, and you’ll see we actually train and we practice. We’re actually lifting girls from the floor up. They don’t understand how much practice and timing it takes, because one slip and somebody’s on the ground and hurt. So it’s a tough, tough sport.” Lakeland Girls are Number One The big winners this year were the Lakeland PAL Girls. Lakeland PAL brought 168 girls to compete, ranging in age from four to fifteen. “We start so young because of cognitive learning,” Jamey Henderson, Lakeland PAL executive director, said. “We believe that it’s an opportunity for us to have a greater impact on influencing children. I learned from my years of working with youth, the younger, the more impressionable they are. A lot of PALs average out starting their programs at ages seven or eight. I think people get afraid when they look at working with children at age four. It’s all about patience—having patience.” Lakeland PAL Keeps the Spirit Cup! For the second year in a row, Lakeland PAL was awarded the Spirit Cup. How does SFAPAL decide who gets it? Rhonda Scott had the answer: “It’s based on all the yelling and screaming. It’s based on the support that you get from parents [and friends who are in attendance]. We want the squads to cheer, yes, but we also watched for crowd response. If you could get your supporters to support you, that’s what counts. Some of the Lakeland parents were even doing the cheers [along with the girls]. “Zephyrhills gave Lakeland a run for the money. Their parents got involved,” Rhonda said. The Zephyrhills’ support group had signs and inflated orange and black tubes that they used to good effect to attract attention and make noise. But in the end, Lakeland’s numbers just overwhelmed everyone else, Rhonda said. “Where does all this spirit come from?” PAL ILLUSTRATED asked Lakeland’s Jamey Henderson. “What you guys saw there was something that we always do on a local level,” he said. “The same girls, all six squads, won first place in their divisions in our local cheerleading competition [Sunshine State Football and Cheerleading Competition] a month before on November 8, [2008]. Our program is built on pride, self-esteem, and actually, the family atmosphere. “We have been really blessed to have success in our program. But as I’ve always said, our program can only be as strong as those who volunteer, and we have a very strong volunteer base for our cheerleading program. That partnership between the coaches and the parent volunteers is the only way for us to have any success.” Henderson voiced credit to some of those whose help is invaluable to the Lakeland cheerleaders: Monica Campbell, head cheer coordinator, and Talisa Burton, co-head cheer coordinator; Coaches Mariam Joseph, Diedra Joseph, Latisha Giles, Kelley Wheelis, Nicole Smith, Twanna Brown, Demetrius Gant, La-Chaz Coffield, Iris Hinson, Donshae Thomas, Shereana Williams, and Anasia Dyer. “Not only do we try to fulfill the [PAL] national motto of Filling Playgrounds, Not Prisons, but we do that as a family. We believe it takes a village to raise a child, and we believe that we’re all needed to complete our task,” Henderson said. With all the success of the Lakeland girls’ achievements, Henderson ended the competition on a bittersweet note: in weeks, he would relinquish his role as Lakeland PAL director (because of budget constraints) and begin work again as a police officer on the street. “I accepted years ago that my gift was that I was blessed to work with children. I’ve been doing that for twenty-six years,” he said. “So my leaving, it feels like part of me is being taken away. I really do plan to still be involved. I’m pretty sure they’ll find something for me to do.” He can count on that! Congratulations, Cheerleaders! “Thank you, everyone who participated,” Rhonda Scott said. “It was a perfect event—a great way to end the year of sports for Florida PAL.”
List of winners Cheer/Dance 8 and under First Place--Lakeland PAL Second Place—Lake Wales PAL Third Place—North Bay Village PAL Cheer/Dance 10 and under First Place—Jacksonville PAL Second Place—West Volusia PAL Cheer/Dance 12 and under First Place—St. Johns County PAL Cheer/Dance 15 and under First Place—Lakeland PAL Second Place—West Volusia PAL Third Place—North Bay Village PAL Cheer/Dance/Stunt 8 and under First Place—Lakeland PAL Second Place—West Palm Beach PAL Cheer/Dance/Stunt 10 and under First Place—Lakeland PAL Second Place—Pasco County PAL Third Place—Daytona Beach PAL Cheer/Dance/Stunt 12 and under First Place—Lakeland PAL Second Place—Melbourne PAL Third Place—West Palm Beach PAL Cheer/Dance/Stunt 15 and under First Place—Lakeland PAL Second Place—Lake Wales PAL Third Place—Daytona Beach PAL *******
The State of Florida Association of Police Athletic/Activities Leagues (SFAPAL) sponsored its annual Hot Shots competition on Saturday, April 4, 2009, at Disney’s premier sports facility, the Milk House, which contains numerous basketball courts on two levels. Almost one hundred kids signed up to play, but participation on the day of the event was somewhat less than the registration numbers. The SFAPAL Annual Basketball Tournament, going on the same weekend in the Milk House, took a break for Hot Shots. The Hot Shots competition is an individual sport, and many kids appreciate that aspect. Participants have the floor to themselves for two-ninety second rounds. Speed and accuracy are of the essence. Starting at the free throw line for the first shot, the competitor retrieves his own rebounds and can then choose to shoot for baskets from other marks on the court. The younger competitors shoot from slightly closer marks. Points are tallied based on where successful shots were taken. The highest round score determines the winner. Fans had plenty to watch during the competition, with kids simultaneously taking their shots on three courts on the lower level of the Milk House.
Titusville Police Athletic League (PAL) took home the team trophy. “We were very, very excited, and the kids were even more excited to know that their efforts, when they pulled them all together, made a difference, and they were able to bring the trophy home for the entire PAL,” Chery Lawson Young, the executive director for Titusville PAL, told us. Six kids, three boys and three girls, in all three age categories, comprised the Titusville Hot Shots team. “The event was well organized, which made it easy for us to participate,” Ms Lawson Young said. “It boosted the kids’ self esteem to another level to be able to say, ‘We can, if we try!’ We were all so elated.” “I think it was the first time in our history that we’ve won a team trophy. We were pleased that we have the support of our board, the parents and the community in order to be able to even take all the kids to this particular event,” Ms. Lawson Young said. Titusville’s Austin Smith has won in his category in the past three SFAPAL Hot Shot events. “He is just phenomenal,” Ms. Lawson Young said. “He’s our shining star. He actually did the shoot-off for that team trophy [in the event this year]. He’s a committed kid, and he practices hard. He’s one of the stars on our basketball team, too.” “The young lady, Ambrosia Smith, who won second place in her category, just could not wait to take the trophy home and take it to school. I mean she’s been showing it everybody,” Ms. Lawson Young said. “The competition was excellent,” Rhonda Scott, SFAPAL program director, said.
Congratulations, 2009 Hot Shot Champs! Girls Division 10 and under, 1st place—Jha’ne Wheeler, Jacksonville PAL; 2nd place—Ambrosia Smith, Titusville PAL 12 and under, 1st place—Andrea Roberts, Ormond Beach PAL; 2nd place—Kaycie Zorbus, Ft. Myers PAL 14 and under, 1st place—Erin Graham, West Volusia PAL; 2nd place—Jamica Mack, Key West PAL Boys Division 10 and under, 1st place—Lamont Woods, Key West PAL; 2nd place-- Jordan Zorbas, Ft. Myers PAL 12 and under, 1st place—Austin Smith, Titusville PAL; 2nd place—Stacy Becton, Ormond Beach PAL 14 and under, 1st place—Devon Murthie; 2nd place—Monolito Hamilton, West Volusia PAL
|
