Lorianna and Leslie love to cheer! They cheer for Champion Force, which is a competitive cheer team. They have 2 competitions a year, one in the fall and one in spring. Each season usually consists of 14 to 15 practices in order to get ready for competition. Lorianna is in her 4th season and Leslie is in her 2nd season of cheer. They have been lucky to have an amazing coach. Coach Destini and her helpers work hard for our kids and are good at what they do. She has helped all three divisions come in first or second place at competition year after year. Lexington, Kentucky’s team has become the team to beat.

Lorianna and Coach Destini

One of the reasons that I love Champion Force and Coach Destini is that they are accepting of children with special needs. The goal is for all the kids to learn and have fun. Lorianna has struggled season after season, but is still included and allowed to participate. This is a facebook post that I wrote after Lorianna’s second season cheering with Champion Force:

“For anyone who knows about special needs children, they have as much of a need to feel included and successful as anyone else. They have more struggles to get through than most, and so many people tend to brush them off as odd or unable to succeed. I’ve seen numerous times where special needs children get passed over for children more capable of something. But thanks to Champion Force Cheerleading, and coaches that understand that it’s about having fun, Lorianna has received, not one but two 1st place medals in cheer competition and because of this her self esteem is raised and she feels accomplished.

She’s a child that struggles during cheer practice, and tends to be 1 to 2 beats behind everyone else on the team and plays around too much, but is still allowed to go to competition with the rest of the team and seems able to pull together when it’s most important (with plenty of reminders to “stay down”, “pay attention” and “not wander off”). She gave a fairly good,not perfect but amazing for her, performance at competition and it’s all because her amazing coaches push her to do her best, encourage her, and allow her to compete, even though she’s not got the routine down perfect or has trouble paying attention during practices.

Another huge thanks to Coach Destini Cornett, Amanda Raquel, and Summer Nicole Garrett who look past Lorianna’s disability and see her potential, and encourage her to try her best. I appreciate you all for your hard work and devotion to our kids, and your love for them as well, AND for allowing Lorianna to be there. Cheerleading has always been her biggest dream and she loves doing it.”

Lorianna’s cheer team

That sentiment still holds true to this day. I am so glad that Lorianna is able to be included, learn and gain experience in things that she loves to do, cheerleading being one of her biggest accomplishments.

We found out at the beginning of this season that it will be Destini’s last season coaching, so that she can focus more on her career. She will be missed by everyone on the team. A coach is a huge part of what makes a team who they are. If the coach cares about the team, it shows, and the team responds positively.

As parents, we don’t get to see all the behind the scene action. However, we do get to see our kids go from knowing very little about cheer to being confident cheerleaders. Leslie came home one day, saying that she wanted to learn how to do the bow and arrow. I had no clue what she was talking about, immediately thinking of archery. I quickly learned that it was a cheerleading term for a stunt. Since then, we have worked hard on helping her try to learn how to do the bow and arrow. She doesn’t have it down yet, but knows the basics of it and knowing Leslie, she won’t quit until she does. For both Lorianna and Leslie, cheer has been a confidence building opportunity and we will be forever grateful to Coach Destini for her dedication to our kids.