“And now your Upward Cheerleaders!!!!!!!!” Those are five words that I heard almost every January and February morning for two years of my life. I was blessed with coaching over thirty girls in that time period. I was a coach for Upward, a Christian basketball and cheerleading program at my church. My first experience with Upward was helping my dad coach his basketball team that is when I fell in love with the program, everything about it excited me, teaching young kids a sport and being a spiritual leader, what was not to love. The next year I was head coach of a first and second grade cheerleading team and the following year I coached two teams. I had been cheering for nine years and I was shocked at our first practice I had been so used to people grasping onto material quickly, and it was all of a sudden different for me. I was in charge on eight girls who had never cheered a day in their life and at the beginning, I will admit, it really frustrated me, I was not a patient person. By the first practice I learned to be patient I now had eight girls who were looking up to me as a role model and were watching my every move. Midway through every practice we stopped and had a devotion, the girls and I sat in a circle while I shared the devotion I remember being so impressed the first day with these girls they sat there were quiet and when it was time participated I realized they were really interested in learning about Christ. We continued practice for a month before our first game, the girls showed up at the game all dolled up in their uniforms and were ready to cheer. When their names were called their faces lit up, they were ecstatic to be there. After every game it was time to hand out stars, every girl received a star of a different color standing for something special: sportsmanship, best cheers, most spirit…etc., my favorite star to give was the white star which stood for Most Christ like when I gave this star I would first look at the girls face and watch...