So.. I have been looking forward to this weekend for some time. FSU going to Nationals to compete! Cheerleading and dance squads from all over the nation converge on Orlando to forge their place into the national standings and I was going to make an attempt to get some photos here. Being the first time I have shot cheerleading in an venue such as this I was a bit nervous.
A buddy of mine who also acts as my assistant told me he would come along which made things a hell of a lot easier considering my camera equipment, tripod, laptop, external drive etc... (Thanks Mark) I owe you bro. So walked around, and met up with some friends and hung out watching the event until FSU all-girl went up.
Finally it was FSU's turn to go! Routine starts and wow it all happens and is done in just a few moments. These girls are flying, flipping, jumping, tossing, all over the place..... and boom done! Over in an instant and I am hoping I have some keepers.
FSU did well, only having a couple of drops. All in all it was a solid performance - and was enough to put them in 6th going into the finals!
Going into the finals the girls looked good - didn't look nervous at all and I thought they were going to peg their spot into the top 5. Unfortunately they did have a couple of mistakes and other squads were a bit more solid in their 2nd performance but we did place 9th in the nation! HELL YEAH!
After this Co-ed went up and NAILED their performance also enough to seal a spot into the finals! They perform later today and I hope I can make it up there to see the final performance around 6 pm!
Lastly I went over to catch FSU Golden Girls (our dance team) in their jazz performance... as usual they put on a hell of a performance. A bit different from others in the sense that it was powerful and didn't seem like a routine all the way up until the end! I am not exactly how they fared on placement, but I am sure its going to be strong.
Anyone that claims that "Cheerleading" isn't a sport or that Dance can't be entertaining owes it to themselves to catch one of these events. It is by far an eye-opening experience. I was very repetitive in my "wow!, Whoa!, man!" remarks through out the day! Everyone of these schools put on an incredible show! FSU, USF, UCF - all forces to be reckoned with!
The time in which these guys/gals put into their performances shows. I can't wait until next year...
Damon
Sunday, January 17, 2010
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