"Speak It Into Existence" - Extreme All Stars Lvl X Wins First Worlds Title
"Speak It Into Existence" - Extreme All Stars Lvl X Wins First Worlds Title
After a 2nd place finish in 2023, Extreme All Stars Lvl X returned more motivated than ever. Lvl X made it happen winning their first-ever gold medal!
Extreme All Stars gym owner Mandy Field says a world championship win was a dream that she really didn't know could ever happen. It was something they worked hard for & train hard for every season, but she knows how talented teams are year after year.
Ever since taking the silver medal at the 2023 Cheerleading Worlds, Field knew her team was putting together something special with how motivated they were.
"Every single athlete after awards were like, 'We're doing it next year. Like next year is our year!' Every single kid tried out. From our first practice, they were declaring they were going to be World Champions," said Mandy Field, Extreme All Stars owner, Lvl X head coach. "Basically, all season we used the motto that we were going to speak it into existence."
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The season came with highs and many lows with moments of overcoming adversity. Injuries inevitably came throughout the season, and that presented a challenge as a D2 gym. There wasn't the option to easily plug in another athlete as a fill in. That resulted in long practices and extra days of hard work, but the team never complained.
"We had a time in the season that we practiced for 30 days straight. We never had a day off because we were having one injury after another, re-work after another, and again we're trying to train people who have never competed level 6 before so it's a very different procedure for us," explained Field. "We are a smaller gym so it was a big challenge for us, but the kids, they never batted an eye with longer practices, later practices, coming in extra days. It's been their mission all season and they made sure it happened. I couldn't be more proud of them."
Lvl X started to gain some momentum after CHEERSPORT Nationals where the team hit zero both days and took first place out of 11 teams. That's also where they manifested becoming world champions.
"We got to CHEERSPORT and we passed around a piece of paper, and everyone wrote on that paper 'I am going to be a World Champion.' I saved that piece of paper. We ended every practice saying 'We are World Champions.' We were just determined to speak it into existence, so we continued to do that from February on," said Field.
April quickly approached as the final touches were put in ahead of the 2024 Cheerleading Worlds, but more adversity hit. Lvl X had a serious injury with an athlete shortly before Worlds. They didn't know if she would be able to compete until two days before the team left for Worlds.
"It was a stressful weekend for us. She was able to compete but just not tumble and pulled off an amazing routine," said Field.
All of the unknowns, all of the stress, and all of the hard work ended up being so worth it in end. Lvl X was in first place after semi-finals in the L6 Limited Senior XSmall Coed division. They came back for finals and hit a zero deduction routine giving everything they had on the floor. Then, the dream became a reality as the announcers called out "'And your 2024 World Champions... Extreme All Stars Lvl X!'
"It took 26 years of building the gym for that to happen for us. I guess you could say it was a dream that I didn't know if it really would ever happen," explained Field. "It was always my ultimate goal with coaching, but it almost didn't seem real. It's like you work so hard for that moment and put in so much time, so much passion, and then when it happens, you almost need to pinch yourself to make sure it's real. I was so grateful that the kids actually got to see the reward of hard work."
It was a special journey that resulted in the program's first-ever World Championship win. From D2 Summit titles, NCA titles, competing level 6, taking another season back down in level 5, taking second place in 2023 and speaking a win into existence. The journey all came full circle.
"They stuck with it. They didn't go somewhere else, they trusted that we would one day pull it back together. They worked every day just as hard on a level 5 team as they did when we got to level 6 again," said Field.
Hard work does indeed pay off.
