Emily Young- Sestina

I stroll off the bus with my team, it’s states, and we’re all ready.
We enter instantly feeling the eyes of rival teams, they wonder about our team, our skills.
We continue past and glare back with a “no emotions” face, though we’re anxious to perform
because nobody knows what will unravel on the mat
or the feelings, likes, harshness, or moods of the judges
or rather or not we’ll nail our stunting and tumbling. We’re full of nerves.

We make our way into the large auditorium, peel off our warm ups, and settle our nerves.
We’re going to try to sneak in some mat time to make sure we’re all ready.
I can’t wait to finally face the judges.
We hurry to get ready so we can go warm up skills.
We have to be dressed appropriately immediately because we have time for the mat
We have many hours until our time to perform.

We return to our spot on the bleachers and we wait until we perform.
We wait anxiously to start watching routines and we’re all crawling with nerves.
We get our makeup done, touch up our hair, and make sure we’re 100% ready.
For the next few hours we’ll be watching team after team go on and off the mat.
Once it starts, we observe each peewee routine and cheer every time they land a skill.
We’re anxiously awaiting to be face to face with the judges.

We watch team after team try to wow the judges.
Finally, we’re ”getting ready” then “on deck”  so we’re after the team thats about to perform.
We just want to go out and nail every jump, dance, and skill.
Thats when we have crazy nerves,
We have to be ready...
It’s almost time to take the mat.

We’re lined up at the back of the mat.
I shake when I visualize us running towards stampeding judges.
We’re all ready.
In our heads we’re thinking about our routine, every tumble, stunt, and skill.
They announcer says, “The Hancock Hornets may now take the floor.” So many nerves.
Just a minute ago we were shaking, off the mat when they said, “next to perform”

We need to nail this, we know how to perform.
We know we’re going to own this mat.
“Now performing, the Hancock Hornets!” we are exploding with unsettled nerves!
we sprint towards the judges.
We show off our routine with attitude and precision, executing each skill.
We’re off the mat. It’s almost time to hear results and we’re more than ready!

Every team rushes down onto the mat to hear results. We’re sitting with all the teams we had to perform against, that brushes up our nerves. We think about how we launched each stunt, skill.
“1st place. HANCOCK HORNETS!” We were ready and we brought it! We wowed the judge!