It was my first chance to take in a cheerleading championship and, yes, I learned some things on Saturday.
I was fortunate enough to sit by Jackie Sullivan, who is only one of the gurus in the state when it comes to cheerleading, and she taught me a few things as the Eastern Connecticut Conference cheerleading championships progressed.
Like, what the difference is between a stunt group and a pyramid. The answer, a pyramid has to have all of it's members joined together in some fashion, a stunt group does not.
She pointed out to me that the Plainfield Panthers (and others) were all wearing fake hairpieces so as to look more uniform to the judges.
I had to ask Plainfield coach Terry Foss if she was just happy that none of them fell out.
"This is the first year that we've had them (the hairpieces) and every second they're out there, I'm praying," Foss said.
If a hairpiece were to fall out and someone stepped on it (a safety hazard) points would be deducted. Points would also be deducted in a sign was stepped on, it can stay on the mat and it's OK, as long as no one steps on it.
You also have to be pretty good on your timing. The cheerleaders have 2 1/2 minutes to perform, go over that and pay the price. One ECC team went 23 seconds over and lost 10 points.
Two and a half minutes may not seem like much but talk to some of the cheerleaders afterwards who were trying to catch their breath or worse after their routine.
The Wheeler Lions and Woodstock Centaurs successfully defended their ECC titles, Wheeler for a fourth time, while Montville won the Medium Division for the first time since 2003.