Papa Bear; Forward & Dedication

Dedication

Dedicated to my girls.
First to my love Bethany and our three beautiful daughters.
Second to the spiritual daughters and sisters I’ve been blest with by embarking on this crazy ride. Thank you all for what you’ve taught me, I hope I’ve returned the favor.

Forward

Coaching Cheerleading is a trip. Usually it’s a lot of fun. Occasionally it can be pretty traumatic. One thing for sure is that it is never dull. People often say something to me along the lines of “I bet you have some stories to tell!” Every time that happens first I think to myself, “Oh, you have NO idea...” Then I sometimes tell them “I could write a book.” Then it occurred to me, maybe I really could. Heck, maybe I should.

It first dawned on me that I had an unusual story when I attended the Iowa Cheerleading Coach’s Association conference one spring. There was a conspicuous absence of men. There were a few male college cheerleaders and a couple of guys who ran either cheer, dance and gymnastics gyms or professional cheerleading camp and clinic associations who, no doubt had cheered in college themselves. These of course were all pretty impressive athletes. But there was only one other male who coached at a school in the entire state of Iowa, and he was coaching at a junior college.

It occurred to me that in my seven years teaching and coaching in Southern California, I had never encountered another guy coaching cheerleading.

I write a weekly column for the small-town newspaper that I try to work for during the summer. At least one reader tries to encourage me to write a book almost every time he sees me.
I have a friend who’s the reporter for the same newspaper (and two others run by the same publisher). She used to work for the Sioux City Journal and continues to freelance. She has commented numerous times that I’d make an interesting feature story.

So, at the risk of being too full of myself, I decided that maybe I ought to try to tell some of my stories myself. After all they’re not really my stories. They are the stories of the kids on the squads I’ve coached. Really, they’re the stories of kids everywhere because as powerful, funny or traumatic as I think any of them are; these are the kinds of things that all kids go through every day.

We adults don’t always look beneath the surface to really get to know the teenagers we encounter. If we did we would probably be floored. We’d probably be shocked by some of their struggles and their strength. Hopefully, we’d also be impressed what they’re capable of and by their awesome potential.

I also think that Cheerleading has been underestimated and shortchanged by our society. We satirize it and stereotype it but we overlook its incredible potential in our schools and in kids’ lives. We make a lot out of how “American” Baseball, Basketball and Football are, but cheerleading is an American invention too. Unlike the traditional “ball” sports however, cheerleading wasn’t born of conflict or even competition. Cheerleading was originally about community and coming together to supporting others. Ideally it encourages pride and promotes sportsmanship while providing a sense of belonging and purpose.

I hope that this book helps to show what cheerleading can and should be even when it honestly admits to some of the problems and pitfalls of this popular pastime.

It should probably go without saying that what follows are my versions of these kids’ stories. My memories and recollections and I own the opinions and the impressions that I share. Kids and their parents may have had different points of view, different details and certainly different opinions. Because of that and to protect peoples’ privacy I have change many of the names. As they say on TV, “to protect the identities of the innocent.” I promise that I’m not sensationalizing anything or making it up from whole cloth, but I’m not perfect and neither is my memory. I’m also shamelessly subjective and opinionated.

This is probably also a good time to say that the views expressed here and the provided resources here are not necessarily those of the school where I have been a student, cheered, taught or coached, their administrators or boards. The opinions included in this book are the sole responsibility of the author, however please don't be mad at me about them because I really hate having people mad at me.

There may not be anything world changing or all that impressive about an average guy who does an hopefully adequate job of coaching kids at small schools in a small town in the middle of the Midwest, but you’ve got to admit there is some novelty to an un-athletic, middle aged guy coaching a predominantly female sport like cheerleading. If nothing else, I hope you’ll find my perspective out of the ordinary.

If nothing else, it ought to be good for a few laughs at my expense.