NCA

This was a weekend filled with chaos, trauma, grit, determination, and perseverance. 

NCA 2025: Dallas

We spent a weekend in Texas competing with thousands of other cheerleaders from around the world, only to have the experience dramatically rewritten over the course of a few moments on a Saturday morning. Thankfully, we made a last-minute change in our Saturday spectator plans, which kept us away from the convention center when everything seemed to be imploding around us. The threat may or may not have been real, but the trauma these athletes are processing certainly is. I’m still not sure what happened, and I don’t expect that the true details will ever be clear. 

Camryn competes on two teams for the ICE organization. Sky—her level 3 team—arrived early for competition on Friday. We had a chance to check out downtown Dallas and hang with that team prior to competing. So much fun! 

Camryn’s Sky team. It wasn’t the cleanest program, and Camryn’s stunt group had a few bobbles, but the first-day competition isn’t as important as the second. Brush it off and move on! 

We crammed in to the arena post-comp to watch a handful of Camryn’s favorite Worlds teams put on an exhibition for nearly 10,000 people. She is such a fan girl—knows all of the music and choreo of all of the best teams. And she’s not alone, the entire arena was filled with athletes singing the cheer songs and going through the motions of their routines. It was so fun to be part of—it felt like we were at a concert! Camryn almost died when she got a picture with this athlete from Black Ops! Love it! 

And then Saturday… 

As we were preparing the task of ratting up pony tails, I received a group text urgently telling everyone to stay away from the convention center because there was an active shooter. Details were vague and conflicting, and we were all left waiting on edge to find out how to proceed. The competition would end up being cancelled for the remainder of the day while authorities processed the events. I am so thankful that our original plans had changed in a way that kept us at our hotel 15 minutes away. Everything certainly happens for a reason!

With nothing left to do but waste time, we headed 40 minutes away so that Camryn (and I) could experience our first trip to Buc-ees. Of course we walked away with souvenirs commemorating this life moment. 

Then back to Dallas to meet up with our favorite rival cheerleader for some much needed conversation and distraction! I love that these two have each other even when we are a handful of states away! 

Sunday comps were back on…

And so we went to the convention center where we were greeted with a laughable increase in security to keep us safe from whatever it was that happened not even 24 hours earlier. What a joke. 

It was a long day. We found some seats in the arena where this sweet girl caught a quick nap before her second round of comps. 

Moonlight, Camryn’s level 2 team, was set to compete on Saturday and Sunday but would end up with a single-day competition on Sunday instead. They did amazing, but were up against some tough groups so they didn’t place as high as they hoped.

Sky had a perfect program on Sunday as well. A great way to end this confusing and scary weekend. 

So proud of Camryn and the girls on her teams for pushing through and doing their absolute best under some very unsettling circumstances!