Author: Katie Welker

Readjust

by Katie Welker

Either there’s something in the water, or this week just came with a tough pill to swallow in terms of being a coach.

While cheerleading is inevitably a difficult and risky sport like many others, I pride myself on having an extremely limited amount of injuries each season. I go over safety rules numerous times, teach each athlete how to properly spot a stunt, always ask them if they have questions and never let them execute a skill they’re not comfortable with.

Yet in the past three days I’ve had a fractured ankle, two concussions and a busted lip. One of those injuries happened less than an hour before tonight’s game started, and another happened in the third quarter right on the sidelines in front of a bleacher full of parents. Delightful to say the least.

It was stressful, scary and exhausting. Yet as I drove home at the end of quite a long day, I felt so proud of the girls I coach. They adjusted, rolled with the punches, and were attentive and focused as I gave them a new game plan. From the outside looking in, they didn’t miss a beat.

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What beauty queens. Love ’em.

At the end of the day, you can take as many precautions as you want, lay out rules, cover all of your bases and then do it again just to be sure. And guess what? Bad circumstances still happen.

Many of life’s misfortunes simply can’t be prevented. So when curveballs hit you and alter your original course, there are always two choices: stay down and sulk, or stand up and readjust. I’ll give you two guesses as to which option I prefer, but I bet you’ll only need one.

None of your business

by Katie Welker

Coaching a group of high school girls entails so much more than, “here learn this skill and execute it as well as you can.”

Yes, the skills are a top priority. However, it has never been just about the sport, at least not to me. It’s about each individual girl and who they have the capability of becoming, both inside and outside of the gym. I always had coaches who cared about me as a person, not just an athlete, and that’s what I try to pay forward to the girls I coach now.

So when one of my girls came to me crying today and said, “everyone hates me, they were talking about me in the locker room, I don’t know what to do!” I told her what i’ve been telling myself pretty frequently the past few weeks: what other people think of you is none of your business. 

Words can hurt, and we’re all justified in showing emotion because of the actions of others. But at the end of the day, the only aspect of your life that you have total and complete control over is yourself. That’s it. You can’t control what other people say, how they feel about you, what they discuss in front of others…. none of it.

All you can do is approach each person you meet with respect, and hope that the consideration you demonstrate is reciprocated back to you. Be kind, the world needs more of it.

 

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My lovely little group of crazies