BeeCharmer’s Buzz

Last night after work, Honey and I sat down to watch “We are Marshall”.  Honey doesn’t know anything about football or team sports, so occasionally I would pause the movie to explain the importance of “team”,  how players can still play after an injury or the benefits of playing a veer offense with a week offensive line. I watched a lot of football in my younger years. Somehow cheerleaders came up in the conversation. Honey said something about cheerleaders being useless and dumb. I was forced into action.

Let’s just get this out of the way now. I was a cheerleader in high-school and  coached a wonderful cheer team in my early 20’s. I was one of those fanatical cheerleaders, involved in every aspect of high school life. In our school cheerleading was a sport. I lettered in both Cheer and Softball. We had male cheerleaders on our team and we did some fantastic stunts, the kind you see on collegiate cheer competitions on ESPN. We practiced 3-4 hours a day, 5 days a week and I was built like a brick sh*t house. Our season lasted from June through March, sometimes cheering at 5 games in a single week. Not to mention competitions and cheer camps during the summer.

Back to last night. For the first time in 5 years, Honey asked me what kinds of things did we actually did as cheerleaders and if I was any good. I told her about pyramids, basket tosses, and partner stunts such as “chairs” and “torches”. Then I remembered how I was particularly good at jumps. I hadn’t thought about that in years. In my attempt to show Honey how good I was in high-school, I attempted a “toe touch”, a pretty basic jump. Sort of a spread eagle with legs parallel to the ground. In the good old days it was something I could do without thought or preparation.

Well guess what? I am almost 38 and in no shape to be attempting such ridiculousness. First of all it was terrible and Honey laughed out loud. Secondly, I scared the dogs. I’m suprised I didn’t find any puddles afterwards. Lastly, I think I hurt myself. Groin pulls are terribly painful and can take days to fully develop. I’m pretty sure I have a pulled groin muscle. I sure don’t want to put an ice pack down there, but I am not sure what else to do. Needless to say,  I am officially hanging up my pom poms.

**side-note** “We are Marshall” is a fantastic sports movie, even for someone not into sports. The cast was great and the stroy is true. I give it 4 bags of popcorn. Get out and rent it or find it this month on HBO.