Some of us are born with the natural talent of singing a beautiful aria. Some of us will go on and write that Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Some out there may even have their eyes on the White House and become our next great President of the United States. However, not all will join the ranks of the legends that fill our history books and captivate our souls. No, some of us go on to become... cheerleading coaches.

Slaton, Texas is not the kind of town where greatness happens often. In the small town of 7,000 people once, every few decades, a football team will make it to the state playoffs and one or two will go on to play for the Texas Tech Red Raiders; achieving pivotal success and high honors from the town. Seeing that the Slaton Tiger Football team has been 2-9 for the past couple of years, the pendulum of success is not necessarily in our favor. 

 We had one major star this past year who could, "sing like a nightingale," as her mother describes her, who went on to the big city of Lubbock to have her dreams smashed into a million sharp little pieces when the community theater didn't offer her the main lead in their annual production of Steal Magnolias.

In the nineties, I was pend as Slaton's next great rising star. I fondly remember the first time I took the self-proclaimed title and did the best I could to make my town proud. It was 1997 and I was at the National Cheerleading Competition in Dallas, Texas. All of the nations finest cheerleaders rose to their feet and cheered on as I back-flipped, summersaulted and toe-touched my way into cheerleading history by becoming the third best cheerleader in the nation in the individual competition (my team, as they did most years, placed last).

When our Greyhound Bus pulled into town the day after the competition, a police escorted us through down town with their sirens blaring in honor of their new hometown hero. I remember carrying my trophy (which is now kept in storage somewhere next to the old Christmas Tree we could never get rid of no matter how many garage sales we had), and marching out of that bus as the townspeople cheered for me. A local television station did a special report on me and my name was featured in American Cheerleader Magazine with my hometown proudly displayed next to it in bold letters. I was fifteen years old.

After such a tremendous amount of attention placed on a young boy from Slaton dissipated, I joined the ranks of the not so famous within a generation of kids who, no matter what we did, were told we were special every day of our lives. Awards, for so long, had been given to everybody. Mr. Rogers sang us to sleep at night letting us know that we were his neighbor and we were special. Then this - we go to college only to have that ripped from our hands. Although I made the cheer team in college, everyone on that team had won many awards and everyone could tumble just as well, if not better, to the latest Britney Spears track. It was a rude awakening in the cheerleading world of giant tooth-y smiles and the over usage of body glitter. 

Post college life wasn't nearly as glittery, but was just as gritty. I tried it all. I tried selling cable to high end customers in Austin. I tried working in an art gallery as a marketing director. I tried working at a summer camp as a camp director. Nothing seemed to stick. Putting cheerleading on my resume seemed to create more snickers than interest and so I found myself back in Slaton. Another golden child with their hearts smashed into a million little sharp pieces.

Soon after moving back, through the gossip in the produce isle at the local super market or while women got their hair permed at the Rose Salon on the square, some how or another, people had heard I was back. "Couldn't make it?" People would ask through their wicked grins. "So the big world proved to be too much for our little hometown boy?" Old women would ask, politely. Soon, the principal of the high school gave me a call and wanted to know if I could handle the cheerleading squad.

Could I handle cheerleading? It's all I ever really knew. So I said yes, and little did I know about the adventure I would have for the past two years as the Slaton High School Cheerleading Coach. Little did I know about the blood, sweat, tears and spirit tattoos I would go through. I never thought about the adrenaline I would have after teaching a young girl how to do a back-handspring or how to perfect that toe-touch. I wasn't aware of the changes that had been made in the sport in the past ten years I had been absent from the sport. Little did I know about the childish ways a cheerleading mom can act at one two-hour football game or the grown-up lessons a teenager can learn in merely four years of their lives.

So, here I am, back in the game again. Receiving my second chance at greatness as I take the Slaton High School Cheerleaders to the Texas State Cheerleading Championships; for the first time in school history with the chance of a first place finish and achieving their own greatness as I remember mine.