Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Earplugs Not Included

I admit my first thought of attending a cheerleading competition was not favourable.I had this prejudice,fostered by years of guiltily watching those trashy American teen movies,that these cheerleaders are not the nicest of people around.And I was supposed to interview them?See one of the many tasks that I undertook during the two days of competition as a BRAT was to create vids and a blog post on the event.So naturally,I was nervous about how crappy I would get the job done.Thankfully,I was proven wrong.The people whom I met were one of the friendliest and smartest bunch of girls that I ever had the opportunity to talk to.Sure,there were a few bad apples among them but the rest were quite witty with their answers and had interesting stories to tell about their participation in the event.One girl I interviewed was the captain of the supporters team of Xavier,who has been attending the comp for 7 years already.Apparently,her school is very supportive of the sport and encourages its students to participate in CHEER,whether as a cheerleader or one of the many supporters.It only took one day to get everything organised,from the chants to the members of the supporters team.The aforementioned captain took time off her busy college schedule to take the captain's armband once more this year.Truly,remarkable stuff.You would never hear of such a thing at my school,which employs a ridiculously shallow and conservative woman as its HM.A few girls wanted to form a team a few years back but was told to wear 'tudung's and long pants to cover up.Obviously,the girls' wishes never materialised.So what exactly did I do at CHEER?
Most of my time spent was on the computer,whether it was editing the vid I just finished shooting or typing my blog post for RAGE's website.
Ahh,the sweet life of being a member of the Youth Desk.Here,Ian occupies his time waiting between performances by amusing himself with iPhone games.Though,I was given a dose of reality later that his life was not that glamorous when he had to stay back after CHEER ended to write an article on the event.

This is the secretariat room which has been turned into a makeshift office for the BRATs and RAGE team members to concentrate on their work away from the din that generated around the hall every few miliseconds.Although we could still feel the thump thump thump of music blaring from the overlarge speakers outside,it was an improvement on being outside itself.
And what a din it was.To my eye,there were probably well over a thousand people cramped into the tiny stadium.It did not help matters either that the hosts and cheerleaders kept egging them on to "make some noise!" to which they promptly accepted.I know I shouldn't expect quiet at an event like this but on some occasions the crowd was uncontrollable.And I was only irritated because I wanted to get my work done which was not what Ivy had in mind for us BRATs.
She was pretty ticked off seeing us around the desk working and ordered us to have fun,to watch the performances.As we could not say no to the nicest and friendliest member of the Youth Desk,we obliged.But I have to admit that after a while the performances looked too samey.And cheers turned to yawns soon after.On the first day too.Ivy told me off,albeit in a teasing way,that I would make a terrible journalist if I continue this way.
Well,I can't help it if cheerleading does not interest me.And no,I did not go to CHEER to ogle at girls.One of the many reasons why I am considered a poof at school and home.
But one team did caught my attention for the two days and the honour goes to SMK Cochrane's Pirates.They were without a doubt the best boys team at CHEER,topping the sometimes glitchy performances by Stunners All Boys and Vulcanz All Boys.
And I made it no secret that I was rooting for them to win,in spite of better teams.Though they finished in sixth place,just outside of the placings that would grant them medals,they managed to win the well-deserved Best Sportsmanship title.
In the end,it was the Blitzers from SMK Damansara (4) that were crowned champs.Not only that,they managed to sweep up some of the major awards,including Best Supporters(which I think should go to Xavier of Convent Bkt Nanas)and runner-up for Best Makeup.Excuse the terrible pics,I was using my crappy 2 MP camera phone.
As the event drew to a close and everyone(well,everyone who weren't upset by the results) gathered at the mosh pit to listen to some bands perform,the BRATs scrambled to the desk to finish off whatever work incomplete.Thankfully,mine was done and over with.
A parting shot by me.The cheerleader is actually a BRAT who together with everyone else in the pic were participants at the Ipoh workshop.Great bunch of guys,hope I would work together with them again.For more pics,please visit me on Facebook and for my extremely short blog post and the vids I helped produced,visit the RAGE website.Till the next event,which is the carnival at Berjaya Times Square,this is Tristan Toh,the Star BRATs.

No comments:

Post a Comment