E-mail would have to do. Brian Bridges, Ouachita’s new cheerleading coach, only had one chance for the next week to meet with me. We planned the interview for Monday night, while the cheerleaders practiced, and I missed it. My car and I had a date with a ditch and it was about half an hour before I was able to leave there, unharmed but disappointed.
Read related story on the cheerleader squad by clicking here.
Nothing is ever as good through e-mail, and I wanted to get to see into Bridges’ world face-to-face. It is a world with which I have not had much acquaintance. No one in my family was a cheerleader, I never wanted to be and only one or two of my close friends were. I didn’t go to practices or learn thousands of eight-counts to put into a routine. I can’t imagine spending a summer with hundreds of peppy girls. It would make me scream.
Somehow he does it though.
He has been a part of this mind-blowing world for 10 years now as a cheerleader, coach, director, choreographer or owner and most of the time, more than just one of the above.
When he was 14, Bridges started cheering at Lake Hamilton High School. “My cousins all cheered in college when I was growing up. I was always going to their practices so it seemed like it would be fun,” Bridges said.
After graduation he went to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville to try out for its cheerleading squad. He was confident from his experience, but this was an entirely different thing from Lake Hamilton. “Every time you try something you have never done before, you are always going to feel a little bit nervous,” he said. He made the squad and spent four years at UofA while he balanced his time between cheerleading and studying for his bachelor’s in mathematics.
During the summers he started working as the director for Arkansas Pepsi Challenge Summer Camps in Hot Springs, Ark. When Bridges became the owner of the camp four years later after his graduation from U of A, he changed the name to B2cheer&dance.
This was the first summer Bridges spent as owner of the cheerleading camp, he said, “We trained over 350 cheerleaders and dancers in Arkansas this past summer.”
Now, he not only owns this booming summer camp and coaches for Ouachita, but also works as coach and choreographer for nine junior high and high school teams and is the director of all star cheerleading at Spa City Cheer, also in Hot Springs.
“My current schedule is extremely busy. I am always on the go coaching various teams, so I am constantly driving to their schools and working with them and I practice with Ouachita two to three times per week plus games,” Bridges said.
Since coming to Ouachita, he has made quite a few changes for the cheerleaders, all aimed at them having a more collegiate appearance. They now emphasize tumbling and stunts as well as crowd leading material. The sideline routines are no longer just about the cheerleaders. They include the fans by using signs to get them to take part in the cheers.
All of these changes must have been overwhelming for the cheerleaders, but Bridges said, “I could not ask for more hard-working individuals.” Not only have they worked hard to prepare for games, but they also are preparing for their own game for the first time.
After experiencing the devotion of these cheerleaders, Bridges decided to take them to competition. From Jan. 16-19, 2009, they will compete in the National Collegiate Cheerleading Championship.
“I knew this would take a lot of time and dedication, but the cheerleaders were up for the challenge and have been working extremely hard on the skills and routine,” Bridges said.
Although it would seem that Bridges has been aimed toward this career his entire life, it isn’t so. “I had so many different aspirations as a child, just as everyone does when they are younger,” he said. “I never planned on making this my career, it just happened. Like most things in life, it is what you never expect to happen that ends up happening.”
