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In the many years I have coached cheerleaders there have been ups and downs a plenty. There have been the late night talks after everyone else has gone home discussing the troubled life at home. There have been parents who have come to me as a last ditch effort when no other form of dicipline works and we end up working together to get their teen on the right track. There have been far too many kids that I have sat in the office doing homework instead of letting them practice because their grades just weren't where they needed to be. Drugs and alcohol have reared their ugly heads both on the side of the students and the parents. A student showing up with a battered face has more than once put me in a situation I would have never imagined. I have stood up with them at weddings and been in the delivery room with them when their first child was being born. But in all my years as a coach, pseudo-therapist and friend today was something I was not prepared for. This afternoon was the funeral for one of my Airborne cheerleaders, Jennifer Wright.
This week has all happened so fast that it doesn't even seem possible that this bright shining girl is even really gone. Jennifer had been riding on the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle when they lost control. She had been in the hospital for a few days. And then it was over. A twenty year old girl gone in the blink of an eye.
When I got the news I hadn't been with Airborne in several years. My last thought of was her smiling. But in one moment I looked down at this text message with the awful news of a student I hadn't seen in so long and something hit me. In that moment I saw the faces of all of them...all the kids I have taught over the years, my Cats and Wolfpack, the Airborne girls, all of the teams I choreograph for across the United States. Some of them I spent years with and some of them only days, but they all touched me in their own way. Knowing that we had lost Jennifer forever struck a chord deep inside of me. It made me ache for my Wolfpack kids who grew up babysitting my own children in Tulsa. It made me worry for my coed boys who are now grown men in Iraq and Afghanistan. In that moment I wanted to hug them all one more time.
I once asked a very good friend of mine who also coaches cheerleaders about having children of his own and he said, "Of course I want my own children, but if for some reason I couldn't have them, I wouldn't be upset. You see, I'm already a dad. All these kids, their mine in some small way and as coaches we become a part of all of their lives. That is a wonderful thing". I think he was right. We as coaches are lucky. With everyday life being so hectic sometimes we see these kids more than their parents in a given week. These kids share their hopes, dreams and secrets with us. They share their hearts.
No parent should ever have to see their child go before them and my heart goes out to the Wright family. Knowing that she lived such a happy life while she was here gives us all a little peace and knowing that she helped five others continue to live on gives us all more than a little hope. Rest in peace Jen. Your smile will live in my heart forever.
Amy Acosta Logan
www.cheerwithamy.com
www.cheerwithamy.blogspot.com
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