"New Coach" by Lauren Sides

In "New Coach" by Lauren Sides, Kaylee, a competitive cheerleader in high school, tries her hardest to succeed in her sport to attain a scholarship. Unfortunately for her, the new coach's standards are extremely high -- they're just close enough to impossible for her to tear her ACL attempting to please him. This only leads to higher conflict between Kaylee and the coach as she goes through months of physical therapy. Finally, Kaylee lets go of her dream of a cheerleading scholarship in favor of keeping herself safe and healthy.

The beginning of the piece was very strong as an interest grabber. Nothing quite gets the attention of a reader like unexplained pain. The nature of the conflict, especially after learning that Kaylee had not been sold on chearleading as a sport in the beginning is also interesting. The stereotype of vapid cheerleaders doing anything they can to get ahead in a social scene generally overshadows the fact that the sport is a very dangerous one, requiring high levels of strength, coordination, and concentration; when looking at what is needed to succeed, the reader is more likely to believe that Kaylee would get lost in her drive to succeed, at any cost.

I think the story would be stronger, however, if the last scene -- where Kaylee makes the decision to put her health above her dream of a scholarship -- was drawn out a bit more. As it is, the scene is very abrupt, short, and doesn't make much sense. It seems as though Kaylee had no conflict in herself over the decision, but she should have. She invested years, and her ACL, to cheerleading, and she was banking on that to take her all the way to college, so I think a reflection on these things would make the decision seem more real, and more emotional. Another issue I had with this story is the technical language. I'm not familiar with cheerleading or gymnastics, so I don't know what the different types of "tumbling passes" are, let alone what a "full" is supposed to look like. This makes visualizing the situation difficult, creating distance between the story and any reader unfamiliar with the subject matter. Lastly, though the concept of pain draws the reader in in the beginning of the story, it's abstract - is the physical pain shooting, sharp, throbbing? Emotional pain is named, but not really relatable.