Take One for the Team

Chapter 14: Competition

I walk through the door and past the competition room. There are many coaches, volunteers, and judges gathered in the center of the room. All of the judges wear a white shirt and blue pants. I recognize a few as parents from our team.
I quickly pace over to the practice room, which is behind the competition room. I spot my team and run over to them.
"Julie!" McKenzie and Lilah cry and come running over to me.
"Julie! We were so worried about you! We thought you weren't gonna come!" Lilah exclaimed.
"I thought you decided to quit the team and bail or something!" McKenzie added.
"Don't be silly," I replied. "I would never do that. I called Lexi and told her to tell Coach Melissa! I guess the word just never got to you guys!"
"Guys! Come warm up!" Coach Melissa called. So we joined the warm up circle.
After warm up and stretches we got in two lines for the parade of athletes.
They call in the teams one by one in alphabetical order. Since we are an S, we are near the end. We walk in second to last with big smiles on our faces in perfect lines.
After all the teams have walked in, national anthem is sang. Then a few words from the announcer and the competition started!!!
The first event was thirty second speed. Speed jumping is where you alternate feet going as fast as you can, and the judges count every time your right foot hits the ground. Our team isn't terrible at speed, but we specialize in freestyle.
Boys thirty second speed was first. We cheered for Joey, Jake and Brandon. After boys they started with the youngest girls.
Zoey was in the first girls heat. She was one of the smallest there! But she was fast for her age, and did well.
A few heats later, I went to the table on the side to check in. They always want you to check in a few heats before. I checked in at heat 12, and I was heat 15. Soon, I was the next heat. I lined up on the numbers that were on the floor. I was in station 7. Then speakers beeped, which meant that the last heat had to stop. Then the announcer called all of our names for our heat.
"And in Station 7 we have Julie from San Diego Speed Skippers!"
It took me a while find station 7. First, I went to the seventh vertical station, which turned out to be station 4. Then I went to the other end, but that was station 15. It was only then that I noticed the numbers on the floor by each station. I found 7 and walked over to it. The judge told me the guidelines, and then put her red flag down.
"All flags are down, lets get to it!" the announcer exclaimed.
Then the audio played over the speakers and said in a low, deep, emotionless voice, "Thirty second speed. Judges ready, jumpers ready, BEEP!!!"
I jumped as fast as I could, alternating my feet. "Ten," called the audio speaker. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. "Twenty," echoed the speaker. I jumped faster, afraid that I was running out of time. Too fast, miss. I untangled my feet and got the ropes moving again fast enough.
"BEEP!" yelled the speaker, meaning that time was up. I stopped my rope and took a deep breath. One event down, eleven to go.
I waited a second, and then asked the judges for my score. "Sixty-five," replied the judge. 65. Not terrible, but not great either. Oh well. I had 11 more events to do well in.
The next event was thirty second double unders. This was a new event, that would not be competed in at nationals, but would be awarded at Regionals.
I won't bore you with details for every single event, but let's just say I didn't do very well for double unders because I dropped my rope.
I did really well for the next event, one minute speed. I jumped my fastest the whole time, and didn't miss once.
I ask one if the judges for my score. "One twenty-seven" he replies. 127!!!! Yas yas yas yas yas!!! New record!
The next event was relay, and then medley. Both are with four jumpers. I don't really like either very much, they're kind of boring.
After that was double dutch speed. This was kind of interesting because we had never practiced it as a group before. Brandon jumped first because he was the fastest. Becky jumped second, and did pretty well. I jumped last. I tried to go as fast as Becky and Brandon did, but I wasn't as good as them and missed a lot. In other words, I basically blew it for my whole group. Oh well. Nobody likes double dutch speed anyways.
After that was pairs double dutch speed. Two people jump for one minute each, and two people turn. I was one of the turners. Zoey was the other turner, and Leia and Joey jumped.
We actually did pretty good for pairs double dutch speed. I made sure to turn perfectly, not too fast, not too slow.
The last speed event was three minute speed.
Imagine the most horrifying, terrible, exhaustingly tiring, miserable stupid thing you've ever done and multiply it by ten. What do you have? Three minute speed.
Three minute speed is so tiring. I absolutely HATE it. It is by far my least favorite event in the universe. I would rather do my single rope routine ten times than three minute speed once.
I checked in three heats before mine. Since each heat takes three minutes, that meant I had nine minutes to relax.
There were little arches to stand under by the waiting area, and an open door to look out. I stood under the arch and started talking to Savanna, who was also in line. We must have talked for a long time, because before I knew it, I heard the announcer say, "We have a red flag in station four. I repeat! We have a red flag in station number four!!!"
"What heat is it?" I asked Savanna. "Thirty-six," she answered.
"Thirty six?!?? Oh my gosh that's my heat!!!" I replied and ran off with my speed rope to station flag. Luckily, I got there just in time as the judge put the flag down and the audio started playing.
"Three minute speed. Judges ready, jumpers ready, BEEP!"
I tried to pace myself, because if I started fast, I would get too tired. I made it through the first minute fine. Then near the begging of the second minute, I dropped my handle. I was halfway through yeh second minute when my shoe came untied. I was already going slower than usual, and I knew that I would end up with a terrible score if I stopped to tie my shoe. So I just kept jumping, slower and higher than usual, and missed five times during the last minute.
When the speaker beeped, I left without even asking the judges for my score.
After three minute speed was triple unders, which I didn't have to compete in because it was only for fifteen and older year olds. We sat down on the bleachers with some of the parents to cheer the older kids on. Triple unders went pretty fast, and it was the last speed event. Then we had a break.
We all went outside and found a table to eat lunch at. It was really hot out there! Well, I'm sure it wasn't that hot, but it was hot to me because I'm from San Diego and this was Arizona.
We ate pizza and salad and drank Gatorade and then went back inside to get jumping again. It was freestyle time.
Since we had a little more time before the break ended, we decided to work on double dutch. We started with Becky's part, which was power and dance. We had practiced it a lot at practice, and she rarely missed.
Then we worked on my part, which was double unders. I didn't have to do very much, just jump high, but it was harder for the turners.
Last we worked on Brandon's part. He did more power. He did a flip, a frog hop, push-up turn tables and crabs, all which were hard to turn for, but we worked it out. I thought that we were going to do very well.
We had a little bit more break, and then they jumped right in to singles. Before I knew it, it was my heat.
"In station 1, we have Julie from San Diego Speed Skippers!" the announcer called.
I wiped my sweaty palms on my shirt and took a deep breath. This was it. I had one chance, and if I blew it now, I couldn't go to nationals. This was my favorite event, all that it counted for.
But then I remembered how hard I had practiced, and how when everyone else was working on pairs, I would be working on singles. That meant I practiced almost twice as much as them! I was confident, I was happy, and I was ready. Then the audio started.
"Freestyle event. Judges ready, jumpers ready, BEEP!"
I glided out of my beginning pose and into my first trick, a triple under side swing. I continued smoothly through my multiples combo, and then into my dance. I smiled big, because presentation is half of your freestyle score. I caught my rope release in my hand, and then continued to my crossing combo, saying it in my head. switch cross, toe, awesome annie, double under toe, EB.
I ended with power, which isn't my strongest combo, but I nailed it anyways. The audio called one minute, and I did a turn and caught my rope on my foot, my ending pose.
I smiled widely like an idiot. I had nailed my routine.
I was so happy about my singles that i didn't event care that I couldn't compete in pairs while everyone else did. I watched some, and just hung out for a while.
After everyone was done with pairs, we went to work on double ducth again, Brandon said that he had hurt his back during pairs and couldn't jump. At first we freaked out a little, but then we figured out a new plan: Becky does power, I do double unders, and Becky does power. We had just enough time to figure that out before our heat. Our routine was now very easy, but we nailed it, and our presentation was great.
Last was pairs double dutch. We had two misses, but we all relaxed because it was the last event of the day.
We smiled in our ending pose.