Last week I posted a blog about my College Gameday and Penn State Whiteout experience, however I found the blog in its entirety was very very long. I decided to break it up into two parts and this is the second! For this blog I am going to talk about the rest of the day after College Gameday.

As soon as the event ended, I found myself with a little bit of free time before my game time priorities began. My parents were in town for the weekend, and my brother is a sophomore here, so we all decided to go out to lunch. Being in the uniform I was, with my red lipstick and pom poms, walking downtown was so crazy as people kept stopping me and asking me to take pictures with them. What should have been a 15-minute walk turned into a 30 because I was stopped so many times. When I finally got to the restaurant, I was super excited to sit down and have a nice meal with my family. That did not happen. The restaurant was PACKED as it was whiteout weekend and college gameday just ended.

After talking with my family and finishing up our meals, my parents drove me back to my dorm to get ready for my next assignments. I had about an hour to fix my hair and makeup in order to be at the student bookstore. After meeting my friend and we both walked to the bookstore together, the cheerleaders on the shift before us handed us a role of stickers. Our job for the next hour would be to take pictures with people and offer them stickers as they walked by. This sounded very boring, but it was actually fun to talk to people and give little kids stickers.

When we finished, we walked back to our dorm to grab our stuff to take into the stadium. One fun fact is that we actually are not allowed to bring our cheer backpacks into the stadium on gameday, we are only allowed one clear Ziploc bag. On Friday’s, we have to walk our backpacks to the stadium before 3pm so that they can be sniffed by a bomb dog… weird right. Well, nonetheless, we have lots of makeup and outfit changes that we need throughout the day on Saturday and with only a gallon size Ziploc bag, and 2 pairs of shoes, pants, jackets, and sometimes even uniforms, it is near impossible to fit it all in, As a results, we have to put on as many layers of clothing as possible in order to get it into the stadium.

Once in the stadium, there was literally no time to breathe whatsoever. Our shift at the student bookstore was particularly late so we were super rushed when we got to the cheer room. We put our stuff down to run onto the field and just like that we were in warm-ups. Oddly enough, this was one of the best warmups we have ever had.

After coming back to the cheer room, we were instructed to get ready for pregame and as you may know, this is my favorite part of the whole game. We grabbed our phones and ran out onto the field. A tradition of whiteout is the use of cell phone flashlights to light up the stadium and being in the center of the field when this happened made it look so indescribable because I could truly see everyone. Instead of using my flashlight, I decided to put on my flash and take a video of the entire stadium so I could remember what it looked like for the rest of my life.

Cheering the whiteout game was absolutely incredible, especially because we were winning. This was a special game for my team because we got to spend an excessive amount of time on the field. Our program has been given so much recognition this year than past years in regard to the amount of time we are allowed on the field and I love it. The experience I had at the whiteout game was particular amazing just because of the fans. Seeing everyone in the same color and the amount of noise was so loud all you could do was stand and look and listen.

I am so grateful for the experiences I had at both College Gameday and the Whiteout game and I will never forget how amazing both were to be a part of.

As I am sure all of you know, this past weekend of October 19^th was one of the biggest weekends at Penn State all year. With college gameday, the 7:30 primetime spot, and the whiteout against Michigan, this weekend had little to no downtime scheduled, especially for me and my team. In order to accurately describe everything that went down this weekend, I decided to break the day into two blogs. For the first blog regarding this one weekend, I wanted to start by talking about College Gameday and how this was one of the most thrilling and special things I have ever done and will always remember.

College Gameday, an American College Football tradition chooses one school each weekend to film their show at. The decide which college to go to based off of the fan base, the game rivalry, and the rankings of both teams, among other things. This year, Penn State was picked yet again for the whiteout game for the third year in a row because the atmosphere we have is simply unmatchable. The College Gameday traditions started, for me at least, on Friday as I was chosen to be in the pre-show the day before.

After reporting to the Hub lawn at 3, we were greeted by College Gameday employees and taken backstage. As the sections behind us began to fill, it become real to me that the show I had seen on the television every weekend for years now was being filmed right in front of me and I was going to be a part of it. A lot more people came out to the show than I expected and while the crowd was big in my eyes, it was nothing like the crowd I was going to see the next morning. This being the pre-show, nothing too exciting was going on other than me standing in the corner, waving and smiling to the camera, however it provided me with a little taste as to what was going to go down the next day.

Unfortunately for the students, College Gameday has a start time of 9am, which doesn’t sound that bad until you realize that a school this big with this much school spirit is going to have many kids eager to be in the front row. Luckily for me, I did not have to get up at the astonishing times that other students did just to be seen by the camera once.

My wake-up time was at a beautiful 6:30am, much better than the 2am other students had planned to do. At 6:30 I put on sweatpants over my pajamas and my friends and I on the cheer team walked down to the waffle shop for our team breakfast. With my preordered pancakes on the stove before I even walked in, all the cheerleaders filled the restaurant while the line outside the door only grew. As we finished eating all the freshman walked back to one dorm in order to get ready for the actual gameday.

Since my team is so big and everyone wants to be on television, my coach split the filming into two sections, the first section for the all-girl team was 9-10:30, and the coed section, mine, was 10:30-12. Thankfully, this allowed me plenty of time to go back and get ready before arriving for College Gameday. After getting ready, we walked to the Hub lawn and started taking pictures with people in the crowd and with each other. We reported to our side of the stage, and the fun began quickly after that.

Once it was a commercial break, we quickly switched teams behind the camera and as they counted down, we were suddenly on camera in a matter of seconds and boy was I lucky. We had designated lines that we had been assigned to since the beginning of the season and it just so happened my position was just off the shoulder of the cast sitting in their chairs. Another lucky thing for me, my partner is 6’7. Tall Right. Every time the camera was on the cast, I found myself in the air in direct view of the camera. My position was golden. They placed televisions all over the place not in view of the camera so we could watch the actual show while it was being filmed and I could not believe the amount of time I found myself waving through the camera to see it as its happening on TV. After what felt like 30 minutes of waving and smiling (which in reality was probably 5 minutes) we would take a commercial break and I was able to come down from the stunt and rest my cheeks from all the smiles. This repeated about 10 times as we switched between commercial and shooting and I was in the prime spot the whole time.

During commercial breaks we would turn around and face the thousands of attendees and cheer them on and get them excited. While we do cheer for many more people on the actual field, this was so much more personable, and I was able to see the faces and the smile of the people standing in front of me.

College Gameday was a truly amazing experience for me and I cannot believe the opportunities I am given as a cheerleader to be involved in events like this. After the show was over, we got to go onstage and take photos with the cast of College Gameday. When the event was over and I was able to check my phone again, my messages were flooding in of people sending me pictures of myself on TV. I was truly amazed. Having already completed so much that morning, I was so tired, but my day didn’t stop there, in fact, it got even more exciting as the day went on, but you’ll have to wait until next week to hear my experience at the Whiteout game.

In my last blog, I briefly stated how all football games in State College would be very similar for me, aside from my first game and the White Out game. The homecoming weekend, however, exceeded my expectations and was probably the most fun weekend I’ve had thus far. With everything from going to Nittany-Ville, to the parade, to the actual game itself, everything was just as exciting, with a little extra something else mixed in.

The homecoming festivities began for the cheerleaders on Thursday. Thursday is typically a regular practice day for us, and we go over everything we are going to do at the game. This Thursday was a little different. We were instructed by our coach to meet at the stadium fully dressed in our uniforms. It was absolutely freezing that night and all we had on were skirts- not a good combination. After standing outside the stadium for about 10 minutes waiting for my coach to arrive, he finally walked up and gave us further instructions.

As I am sure you have heard, Penn State is being premiered on the HBO show coming up this fall and little did we know we were about to be a part of it. Nittany-Ville is a tradition at Penn State where people stay in tents for a week outside of the stadium in order to have the chance to sit first row at the football game. The HBO team wanted to film the cheerleaders and football players at Nittany-Ville surprising the students with pizza and music. When we ran over, energy was soaring, as people were so excited to receive free food- as any right-minded college student would be. The HBO crew wanted a show, and boy did they get one, as it started pouring down freezing rain. For some reason, this only added to the excitement and chaos that this event turned out to be, and HBO must’ve gotten great shots of students dancing in the freezing rain eating pizza- a true representation of the Penn State school spirit.

After the music had stopped and the pizza was all gone, us cheerleaders made our way to practice soaking wet. The mixture of the cold and the rain would provide all of us with obstacles regarding our health later on in the weekend.

The next day, we had our second major homecoming event- the parade. All sniffling and still cold from the night before, we reported to the Natatorium to walk in yet another event that we were ill-prepared for regarding our attire. Since we were the end of the parade, we waited for as little as 2 hours to begin actually walking in the parade. In the meantime, we warmed up, ate some dinner, and did some team bonding as we stood waiting for our turn. Once it was finally our turn, we walked all through campus, stopping periodically to stunt. This was by far my favorite event of homecoming weekend. One of the things I enjoy most about cheering for a large university is the crowd involvement. We got to take pictures with kids and say cheers with the crowd.

When the parade finally came to an end, we all rushed home to get as much sleep as possible, as kickoff tomorrow was at 12:30, meaning our assignments began at 8:30, and we were all as sick as can be from the night before.

Usually on gamedays I get assigned to team arrival, but this game I got assigned Presidents Tailgate. After getting picked up by a mysterious man driving a white van, my 5 teammates and I were driven out past all of the tailgating fields to a building I had never heard of before. We were welcomed by men and women formally dressed and taken to a room full of food. After going through the buffet line, we returned to our table with plates full of delicious fruit, pastries, and other breakfast foods (You may be sensing a theme by now, yes, we get free food a lot). After scarfing down everything we could possibly hold, we were welcomed to the stage to perform. A quick 10-minute performance and we were out the door on the way to the game.

While the game itself was very similar in respect to what we do and how we do it, it was also very different because there was approximately 500 additional people (alumni) on the field for the game. We continued to do everything usually did, but with half the space and double the sound.

Overall, homecoming weekend was a blast and I love going to new events and experiencing new things as a team. While many people (including myself until now) may think we do the same things over and over each gameday, they are all a little different and a little special in their own way.

After talking about my first home game cheering on the field, I started to brainstorm what I was going to write about next, and while many other home games have passed between now and then, they have all rendered very similar thus far. One experience that was actually one of the most interesting and exciting events I have partaken in thus far has actually been my trip to the University of Maryland for the first away game of the season. For away games, only a few males and females are assigned, usually around six to eight, and I was lucky enough to be assigned to this game, as it occurred on a Friday and 8pm.

Since the Game was on a Friday and the University of Maryland is only about four-hour drive, we left at 10am, and we were permitted to be excused from our classes for the day. As the 8 of us boarded the bus, we were given bags by our coach, full of snacks for the ride down. While it was early in the morning, being the typical college students that we are, we all expected to get on that bus and take a four-hour nap. My coach, on the other hand, had other plans for our journey. For the whole bus ride, we continued to play many team bonding games, one right after another, and honestly, it was a blast.

Once we got to Maryland, we went straight to the hotel to get ready for the game, and the events leading up to the game. After what felt like 30 seconds, we were required to be downstairs in the lobby, ready to get on the bus. After taking the bus directly to the University, we were dropped off at what was coincidentally, a big University of Maryland tailgating location. I was very unprepared for what was about to happen.

Getting off the bus, with all of our Penn State Uniforms and flags and bags, many University of Maryland fans started shouting at us! It was a sight I will never forget. Some of the fans were very nice, making jokes about how the game was going to go, or commenting on the irony of us getting dropped off at this location. Unfortunately, many other fans did not show us this same courtesy. As we walked to the Alumni Event, many people would yell things at us as we walked by and it was honestly a very strange experience for me.

Once we found ourselves in the building of the Alumni event, the entire mood changed. We went from walking around people who hated us, to seeing so many people that seemed so excited to see us. I personally love going to different events, such as Alumni events, because they will always give you amazing food. Being away from home and living in a dorm does not give you much opportunity to have well-cooked meals, however every time we go to an Alumni event, we are fed the most amazing food until we cannot eat anymore. In exchange for the loads of food we are given, the cheerleaders and the blue band, as usual, put on a performance for all of the alumni.

After the event was over, we said our goodbyes and took many, many, pictures. When we were about to leave, our coach made us get into a special formation, a formation I had no idea would be necessary. With the girls in the center and the boys making a circle around us, we headed off to the stadium entrance on the other side. This this was my first away game, so I had little knowledge about what the walk entailed. As we walked through campus, we were cursed at and yelled at, and I was shocked. While many people just walked right past us without notice, it was hard to ignore those who did notice us and said things to us. Although I was shocked by how people could be rude to us without even knowing us, many other members of the team told us stories of people throwing food at them. I was both shocked and lucky to have that not happen to me.

After we finally go to the field, things started moving quickly. As we worked through and eventually finished warm-ups, the stadium started filling up. The Penn State section seemed as if it overtook the rest of the stadium. By halftime, the entire Maryland student section which, at the beginning of the game was completely packed, was now reduced to what seemed like 100 people.

As Penn State’s lead increased, the game only became more fun for me. We got to do tricks we never got to do before, and we were in direct contact with the crowd as we were much closer than at home. I really enjoyed cheering at this game and I had felt a completely new connection with the crowd. After the game was over, we boarded the bus with no problems, as many of the Maryland fans had already went home.

Even though this was a quick trip to Maryland, it is probably the most amazing experience I have had so far as a Penn State Cheerleader. It’s so amazing how the Penn State community is so large, no matter where you go you feel the presence.