Word: cheerful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...across a giant field where they've camped out through the damp and chilly night. The image of Benedict XVI in his popemobile appears on the giant video screens. He is somewhere here, in this gathering of Woodstock scope called World Youth Day, 15 miles outside of Cologne. Some cheer the sight on the screen, others clasp their hands in prayer. There are also plenty who seem to simply gravitate toward the physical presence of their Holy Father-some running in the direction of the faraway stage, others walking in a head-up, open-mouth trance. Whether he likes...
Rivalries within the squads are inevitable--between those with boyfriends and those without, between those with money and those with little, between the flyers and the earthbound, between those who can do a standing backflip and those who can't. Beth Hammack, a Euless cheer sponsor, swears that most of the fights revolve around boys: "Junior-high kids are just hormones running around in tennis shoes, "she says with a knowing look. Then there's the perennial friction from freshman "fishes" lording it over the lowly eighth-graders. "My flyer and me got into it again today," says Breanna, whose...
Meddling moms, or moms who are just being protective, create problems too. Everyone remembers the Texas cheerleading mom who killed off the competition, thereby providing the story line for two TV movies in the early '90s. "Parents really do get crazy," says Henderson cheer sponsor Washington, who sees some parents pushing girls to perform stunts they're not ready for. "I think the parents like to get involved more than the coaches," observes Breanna. "It's like they want to be a teenager again...
...from her buff 5-ft. 2-in. frame and sculpted biceps. "I started tumbling when I was, like, 4 or 5," she says. "You have to train and be committed to the team." Besides school practices, she takes lessons with a private coach, who also happens to be her cheer sponsor, Washington--a point not missed by some of the other girls' moms who have complained about favoritism...
...cheer camp, jealousy and the stress of competition start to hurt the Henderson team's scores from the National Cheerleaders Association instructors. So late one night, the 14 girls hold a "Come to Jesus" meeting in their S.M.U. dorm room to air grievances and try to put their problems behind them. Krystin, caught in the cross fire of parental sniping, is sage enough at 13 to know that teamwork matters above all--more than the moves and certainly more than the makeup. "It's not just about one person," she says on the last day of camp. "You want...