“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. ” Vince Lombardi, Green Bay Packer coach. This quote has been the foundation for my father’s belief that team sports teach commitment. When I started middle school my father insisted that I do a team sport. At the time I had been riding horses for many years and was facing a fork in the road and had to make a big decision.
At 11 years old I changed the course of my life by joining a team sport in which I have learned the value of personal commitment, strong leadership skills, and how to challenge myself to achieve both mine and my teammates’ goals. I grew up riding at my parents’ horse barn in Bozeman, Montana. I started riding when I was three and continued until I was jumping cross country jumps by age eleven. When I was old enough I started to learn how to jump and once I got the hang of it I was in love. Bigger, higher, faster, whatever I could jump | would.
In September of 6th grade, my first year in middle school, I competed in my first big Three Day Event horse show in Missoula, Montana. My horse Sunny and I had a great performance, nailing all our jumps. My family owned Sunny for a little over two years, and then everything changed. Just two months after the big horse show, my trainer Meggan broke the news. Sunny needed to retire from jumping. I was crushed; I couldn’t fathom competing with any other horse. Meggan said that we would need to start looking for a new horse if jumping was what I still wanted to do. Sunny was a great horse and he could still be used for flat work but he was o longer able to do the level, and intensity, of jumping that I wanted to do.
It was unsafe for both of us for him to keep jumping. After that, we started to look for a new eventing horse and I test rode three of them. After trying a few horses, my mom sat on my bed one evening and asked me, “Hanna, you don’t seem very excited about any of the new horses. Are you sure you want to keep riding? ” She was concerned and very confused as to why I was not excited about any of the new prospects. I was in shock and completely confused. I had no idea why she was asking me if I still wanted to ride. I was flooded with such conflicted feelings.
I had been doing horseback riding for 8 12 years; I couldn’t even comprehend not having riding as the center of my life. On other hand, I was becoming aware that I was getting really sick of freezing all winter at the barn, and constantly relying on an animal’s health in order to do my sport. I was so tired of the weather dictating if I could do my sport or not. Also, I was lonely at the barn. I wanted to be doing something with kids my own age. At that point, the only people I rode with were adults because they were the ones jumping the levels of jumps that I could. It took me three weeks to come to a decision of what I truly wanted to do.
One evening I announced, “I don’t want to ride horses anymore. I am tired of being freezing. I am tired of constantly going out there and not having any friends there and I feel so frustrated when I go out there I can’t ride him, or do what I was planning on doing. I want to be done riding and I don’t want a new horse. ” My parents were in shock. Now that I had made up my mind I had to think of what I wanted to do next. I felt my choices went from two to 100, I was overwhelmed with options and choices and panicked at first. Soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, holy cow, I thought of everything and anything.
Then it hit me. I went to my parents and declared, “I want to do competitive cheerleading, just like my friend Kaity does! ” My mom looked at me with a completely blank face. She didn’t say anything at first, but finally spoke, “Um Ok cool. But, I don’t know anything about competitive cheerleading. ” That’s when we started talking to people and asking around to find out more about the sport in Montana and what I could do in Bozeman. Kaity’s family offered to take me to several out of town cheer competitions so I could see what they were all about. I loved them! I had the time of my life!
I absolutely loved the energy, teamwork, and athleticism that were shown on the floor. Competitive Cheerleading was what I wanted to do. And best news of all, my dad agreed that it qualified as an “…. actual intense team sport. ” That was the beginning of my new road in life. Everything would change drastically over the next few months. Immediately I started taking tumbling classes at Motion Athletics Cheer Gym, which is where I met Kota, Ash, and Erika. All of which are still my three best friends. At first tumbling classes were scary because I didn’t even know how to do a somersault or a cartwheel.
But, with determination and focus, and a lot of hard work, I was eventually able to not only do a somersault and cartwheel, but I also got my back handspring: the one skill I needed to audition a competitive teams. Finally, nine months after my last horse show, I was officially listed on a competitive cheer team. I was so excited, I did it! I had accomplished my first major goal. Cheer was everything I wanted it to be: it was kids my own age, it was indoors, it was not weather dependent, there were kids from my own school in it, I didn’t have to depend on an animal for my activity, and I was able to be social.
I was constantly around kids, parents, coaches, older kids, younger ones; I was around so many more people than I had ever been with horses. When I was riding horses, it took a lot longer to see results because I was so dependent on an animal. Once I was in cheer I started to see results very quickly because I only had to depend on myself. Seeing results motivated me even more. I could push myself and work as hard I wanted to, with nothing standing in my way. I learned that if I set my mind to something I could accomplish it. I liked feeling challenged to learn new skills and become a better teammate.
It was so exciting for me starting out because for some reason I was able to get my tumbling skills extremely fast compared to other new girls. Feeling successful made my sense of commitment even stronger. I loved the teamwork aspect of it all and being able to be a leader. I wanted to be a good role model for my team and the younger kids in the gym. Over the past four years I have competed on three traveling competition teams, felt ecstatic and filled with joy when we have won medals and also spent nights in tears over frustrating teammates and devastating losses.
I was fortunate to get to work with kids my own age as well as those four years older and younger than I am. I have not always cared for my coaches, but no matter what, I’ve always stayed absolutely committed to the group effort, and to learning how to work hard together to accomplish our goals. I went from being the little kid who was in love with animals and wanted to be a veterinarian, to being the cheerleader, performer, leader, competitor, and athlete that I am. I discovered the very competitive side of myself and realized I like to win!
I wanted to be a successful competitor. My whole concept of what I wanted to be and the level of effort I was willing to put in became more serious and intensely more focused the longer I did cheer. Who Tam today I never would have become had I not done a team sport. Being forced to learn to cooperate effectively has given me life skills that I can use in every job, and social situation, that I might encounter. I wouldn’t have the work ethic and leadership skills I do if I had stayed on my previous path. Vince was right.
