Yogyakarta in My Mind Eps 7

The popular girl, Saviour Cheerleaders

Debby Zunta

 Part 1 – To become the captain

         Cheerleader is someone who makes a motion and yell to make a spiritual call as a team sport. You have to put on a happy face during cheering time. A Cheerleader is usually sexy, beautiful and popular. It is a teamwork performance. From history, I have found out that Cheerleader was established by some guys.  I find it interesting.

I joined the cheerleading team in my beloved STERO SHS. I have to join an extra activity. I  haven’t any experience in other activities such as violin, English club, photography, basketball, football, or volleyball. It was not my passsion and I was quite lost. Who could I consult?

I have told you about Kak Mug in Episode 5. She invited me to watch her practise. There are two levels of girls and one on the top, the pinacle. It was cool. I was amazed. I was mesmerized. I took a photograph when they were making the pyramid and shared it on FB.

I was enjoying the show. They were the Saviour Cheerleading Team. Kak Mug recommended me to join it. I had no other choice and. I was sure it would be fun. 

        Our goal was to be the champion. There were so many cheers competitons in Yogyakarta and the most famous was The A Team (TAT) Cheerleading competition. A is for Ani. Cheerleaders called her Bunda Ani. She is the founder of a cheerleading company in Indonesia. I actually did not know the facts, but everyone said she studied in Florida, USA.   

       The captain of my cheers team was Nona. She was a beauty. She would always ask to wear dresscode for every practice because the main power of this team was teamwork, we are nothing without it.

Nona was in grade 12, Yem took over after she left. Yem was a petite girl. She was the flyer. Flyer is the one at the apex of the formation. 

        In the team I was a multifunction girl, but I could never be a flyer. Hahaha I was 158 centimeters weighing 53 kilograms. Ideal! But not for the flyer. I could be back, front, side, or became the bottom of the pyramid. Oh no…bottom is too crude a term;  I mean pillar. 

The problem with my team was we could never start on time for practice. If the captain said 1 pm;  we would come in at 2. It was hard to change the habit. Another problem was not everyone turned up. We  never practised as a full team.  I was the one who was always present. It was because I had no better things to do in my boarding house and I really enjoyed cheerleading. 

          The first performance that I participated was the Philip Lamp event. The captain was still Nona. It was also my problem in the homogen school. I hated that I was innocent and apathetic. I always came for practice and Nona asked me to take the place of a senior who never came for the practice. Because of my innocence, I was very happy with that. I didn’t know that my decision made the senior angry and thought it was not my right to take her place. I felt guilty.

Time flew by and Saviour managed to achieve  third place in TAT regional competition. We went on to the National competition. The time happened when Yem wanted to relinquish her post as captain. I did’t understand why she wanted to leave so fast. National cheerleading competition was the most popular event in cheerleading community. In my opinion, she had to finish it. 

A vote to choose the next captain was held. I was suprised that everyone chose me as the next. I was happy, but actually I didn’t have any ambition to be one. My co-captain was Grace who was my best friend in my boarding house. Whatever, I had to carry out my duty. 

It was not easy to be a captain. I was a perfectionist. Everything must go like clockwork. It was disappointing to know that not everyone like me to be the captain. Everyone has different agenda. Especially, I was still in grade 11 and there were also seniors in my team. They were unhappy with my appointment. They looked like they didn’t like my command passing sarcastic remarks in my face. The problem might have arisen when I took over the senior’s place in the Philip Lamp event.  If  I remembered correctly.  I was like a little girl  trying to drive the ducks instead of running  to catch the gaggle of ducks . I had messed up but acted happily.

Another cheerlading competition was Ambarukmo Plaza event. It was the hottest issue during my term as captain. My Coach named Cina recommended us to join that event. All the members agreed. Mr. Right had agreed with that also. So, I went to the administration to ask for the letter of permission. They said I had to wait until the next day. 

On the next day I went again to check. One thing that suprised me was I was not getting the permission. Mr.Administrator asked me to see the headmistress for the reasons.  I went to her room and asked. She said something that I couldn’t understand. She claimed that I had not  understood the school policy. We could not join because we had a slim chance to win and it was not an academic achievment. I felt that she had killed our right as students. There were no rules stating that students were prohibited to try for non academic achievments. 

I was never afraid of anyone as long as I obeyed the basic rules. I asked so many quetions to get an answer, but it was never given. Still I didn’t see the point of her words. I was obstinate and was not convinced. It was like a drama. All my members  cried upon knowing the outcome. 

“ Girl, why are you so smart in speaking?” She said.

“ Yes, of course.” I replied angrily and stomped out of her office.  

       The next day, Mr. Right asked me to make peace with the headmistress. Mr. Right was  agreeable about this competition at first. But the  Headmistress said that both did not agree. I felt that Mr. Right had lied to me. I hated him from then onwards. He was my favorite teacher before. I really didn’t like the headmistress.  In spite of what she had said, we still continued to join the competition. 

We continued practising as usual. We made our routine but lack enthusiasm. I didn’t know why. Days ran by so fast, but our preparation for Ambarukmo competition not even 50%. I was worried. How could they  cried and asked me to join the competition without putting in the effort. I regretted my decision to go.

I tried hard to make them to put in competitive spirit.  In that event, I had some new members too. So I had to borrow the more costumes from my seniors and ex-saviour. Ex-Saviour means those who had left the cheers team. Some of them were so apathetic and said that they forgot to bring it on the day of the competition. Lucky that I had borrowed more. So, the problem was fixed. 

The day came. I had to face whatever eventually happened. In my head, the headmistress would laugh out loud when we  lost. I was worried, but there was nothing more that I could do because it was teamwork. I felt that I had failed to be a captain and yes all the pyramid was falling. There were no smiles on our faces. It was bad really bad. One of my members fell unconscious.

In that messy situation, my boyfriend came and asked me to join him. I want to crush him.“Don’t you understand my situation!” He would never understand. All I wanted was to be left alone.

That event made me so shy to tell anyone that we had lost. Even in my school. I had to slap my own face. How could I be so arrogant.