Retirement

April 3rd 2013, a day that will live in infamy! Today was the day my friends. I walked into the athletic office at the University of North Dakota and turned in my keys. After two years of saying I was done coaching, I was finally done. No more emails, no more phone calls, no more late evenings of practice, no more all day Saturday football games, no more my friends. I have retired! People at the office kept joking that I was way to happy and truth be told, I am! Don't get me wrong I absolutely love coaching, it is just very very difficult to manage 3 teams around 60 athletes and all the commitment that go along with those teams and athletics WHILE also juggling 3.5 kids. It was too hard to arrange for which grandparent or babysitter would be watching the kids while I was at game #466 of the year. With Brandon in school and another baby on the way, it was just time. I will miss the staff at the athletic office, they are all wonderful people. I will miss the actual coaching and I will definitely miss the court/field/rink side seats to every event, but it was just time! I started cheering at UND in the fall of 2000 and transitioned to assistant coaching upon graduation. I took over the year after that and have coached through a wedding and 3 babies, it has been such a big part of my life but its time to end this era and start a new one! So, UND, it's been real, peace out I'm off to full time mommy hood. Bring on the gymnastics, ballet and soccer practices, I am ready!

But first...lets remember the last 13 years, shall we?

Blast from the past! Fall 2000 

This is how I started, young, inexperienced and skinny:)

After a couple of years and a lot of pracitce, I ended out my cheerleading career with a bang. I have no regrets and it was SO.Much. FUN! Plus I met a hunky guy and got married:)

 After hanging up my pom poms, I took on a new role, COACHING! 

 Fall 2006, still pretty young, still dang skinny! ahhh youth. This was my first road trip with my new team to a fundraiser in Winnepeg, MB

Fall of 2007, Welcoming back Alumni cheer/dance at the reunion. 4 months pregnant with Mr. Elias

Welcome to the cheer world Elias! He came to camp with me that summer at the ripe old age of 4 months

 

 A year or so later, baby Annie came onto the coaching scene. No such thing as maternity leave in the world of cheer coach, so Annie enjoyed several games from the sidelines with her mama. Look at how little she was! 

After football season was over, it was onto basketball season! Annie was now a seasoned coaches aid at the age of 3 months. 

Annie( and Elias) enjoying the excitement before the homecoming parade started. Every evening and weekend there seemed to be something cheer related I could haul the kids to for entertainment.

Annie grew up loving the cheerleaders, which is a good thing since I always seemed to be around them. When she was 14 months old, she came to help me out with the hockey cheer team.

One of the perks of my job is enjoying free tickets to events! Taking in a women's hockey game at the ralph.

Got to coach a lot of great people over the years!...some stuck around even after their cheering days and became part of the family! 

Another football season, another baby on the way!

Catching another parade with my dear old friend Jade! No break from coaching when friends come to town. Good thing she was a former dancer and didn't seem to mind:)

Sometimes, I even got to coach while my husband worked! Thanks grandparents!

Baby Benjamin was born in the middle of basketball season and made it to his first game at 5 days old...like I said, no maternity leave for us hard working coaches:)

Benjamin oogling over all the pretty ladies

One last football season for good measure. Annie and Elias were on hand to help me end my coaching career. 

 My nephew Gavin hanging out with the cheerleaders at the Potato Bowl festivities

 Sometimes, I even get to meet famous people. Why hello former Vikings player Jimmy Kleinsausser.

Ok, well that was a fun trip down memory lane! Such good memories, makes the stressful times of coaching worth it!