If winning the NCAA Cheerleading Competition once is already hard enough, how about doing it six consecutive times?
The Arellano Chiefsquad did just that last Thursday as they cemented their legacy in the annual event.
For head coach Lucky San Juan, the journey to the title was harder this time, especially with many new faces on the squad.
“Sobrang hirap, especially ‘yung emotional and mental [aspect] ng mga bata kasi ‘pag practice minsan ‘yung mga bata, nagiging exhausted, minsan nagkakaroon kami ng stress, especially yung sacrifices ng bata. Minsan nasa-sacrifice yung schooling nila. HIndi kami perfect, may times din na down kami sa ensayo, not in the mood, ‘di nakakasunod sa program,” San Juan said.
[It’s so hard, especially the emotional and mental aspect for the athletes because in the practice, they will get exhausted, we’ll sometimes have stress, especially with the sacrifices they make. Sometimes, it’s their schooling that gets sacrificed. We’re not perfect, there are times we feel down in practices, not in the mood, not able to follow the program.]
The six-time champion coach, however, said his athletes are determined despite all the challenges.
“Sila kasi ang tibay ng puso nila. ‘Yun ang na-build ko siguro sa kanila, sila na rin, nagiging legacy na nila ‘yun.”
[It’s them, they have such strong hearts. I guess that’s what we built into them, and that’s what their legacy will become.]
Talking about legacies, San Juan said maintaining a winning program is also a challenge in itself as it also involves innovating and going beyond what they already did.
“Mas mahirap siya kasi pag palagi kang champion, kumbaga nasa top na kami eh, di na kami puwede bumaba,” he said.
“Hindi ako puwede huminto, hindi ako puwede tumigil sa mga ginawa ko noong una kasi kailangan ko siya i-apply nang i-apply pa rin.”
[It’s harder because when you’re always champion, and it’s like we’re already at the top, we can’t go down… We can’t stop what we were doing before, we have to always keep applying it over and over.]
And even if they had errors in their performance, San Juan said it did not stop his players from finishing the routine and eventually clinching the title.
“Ang motivation kasi namin, hangga’t hindi humihinto ang music, hindi ka puwede tumigil kasi hindi na natin siya puwede ulitin. No matter what happens, maging lesson sa atin if magkaroon tayo ng error, ganoon talaga,” he said.
“Kaya kami nag-champion, siguro for me, sacrifice and hirap din ng training na ginawa nila, talagang tinrabaho nila. Siguro dahil nga sa [level of] difficulty ng ginawa namin, kahit may errors, natabunan pa rin ‘yung errors namin ng [level of] difficulty na ginawa namin.”
[Our motivation is, as long as the music is still playing, you don’t stop because this is not something we can re-do. No matter what happens, let it be a lesson to us if we make an error, it happens… The reason we became champions, I guess for me, it’s sacrifice and the hard work in training that they put in. They really worked for it. Because of the level of difficulty we tried, even if there were errors, the difficulty of what we did overshadowed the errors.]
For now, the music is on pause for the Chiefsquad as they take a break, but San Juan said he is already thinking of what his team will do for Season 101.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News