Chapter 4: The New Cheerleader Coach

The next morning I awoke to the smell of coffee brewing and the sound of eggs frying. I sleepily made my way to the kitchen to find that Kim had gotten up early and was making me breakfast. She greeted me with a kiss and said "I thought I would surprise you with a thank you breakfast." I told her that kiss alone was thanks enough. I sat down to a meal of eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice.

After cleaning up the kitchen Kim and I went to the school to meet with the principal to discuss how this coach job was going to work. He said that he was willing to do whatever we needed and pull whatever strings he could to make this a success. I admitted to him that I had no idea how to coach the squad and would be playing it by ear. He indicated that it should not be all that hard and handed me a book published by the state. It was a detailed guide to coaching cheerleading squads. I quickly scanned the table of contents and noticed that included sample routines, exercise schedules, dress codes and discipline examples among other helpful information. He also said that some of the teachers would be willing to help wherever they could. He also gave me a list of the new girls who had signed up for the squad so I could interview them to see who could make the team.

We headed back home where I sat down and went over the book in great detail to see what I was going to be facing in the fall. The book was virtually a coaching for dummies manual. I asked Kim to call all of the new girls and the other members and have a meeting at my house next week. I also had her ask for the moms and or dads to come if they could. It was going to be quite a crowd so I planned to hold the meeting in my back yard. Oh, before I forget there's one thing I neglected to mention here is that we have an in-ground pool and hot tub installed courtesy of the trucking company's settlement. I also had Kim mention to all the girls to bring their swim suits and towels so nobody got bored while I interviewed the newbie members. Of course being male it would give me a chance to check out their bodies as well. Since the meeting was an official school activity the principal offered that the district would spring for pizza and soft drinks.

On the day of the meeting things got just a little hectic but I was pleasantly surprised to see how much help Kim and the other seven girls were. It seems I didn't have to do very much beyond sitting down with the new girls and chatting with them. They were so cute that I decided they all would be in the program even though the plan was that we would only field eight at a time.

I told them that there was going to be a lot of hard work and when they got good enough they could join the original eight on the field. I explained that the hard work included some very strenuous exercises and if it got to be too much for them I would let them drop out but that they could try again next year. After all cheerleading is really as much a sport as any other field event and is physically demanding. I guess that's why they all have bodies in such good shape.

I had a back yard bulging at the seams with happy girls and grateful parents. And of course yours truly had a smile on my face the whole time. Maybe it was so many delicious bodies bouncing around but I doubt it. It was just satisfaction of doing a good job. (Yeah, right) The meeting had been called for one in the afternoon and when five o'clock rolled around I call Pizza Hut and ordered the pizzas. The manager at the store said that the principal had already called so the order was covered.

After we all obliterated the pizza the meeting started to break up. Before they left I told all the parents that they are more than welcome to attend any function we had and one of the things I demanded when I took the job was that parents would be allowed to attend any function we participated in for free. Since there were 32 seats on the school buses that they could ride to and from the away games with us. That evening I was so beat that I collapsed in bed and passed out cold.