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Lisa Welsh
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By Lisa D. Welsh
www.CHEERMaD.com
Tomorrow, June 5 at 4 p.m. EDT, on MTV (check local listings) Jason will appear again as the "MADE Coach" in the appropriately titled Keeping My Cool; Episode No. 1208.
“Hey it’s the MADE Coach!”
We heard that a lot last year after Jason Graham, owner of ProAthletics (where Becky coaches and Rachel cheers) was featured in one of MTV’s most popular MADE episodes. The show was first broadcast Feb. 9, 2011 and repeated in a marathon the week before CHEERSPORT.
In Atlanta, some of the cheer moms and dads from our gym got a kick out of watching athletes from other teams point, whisper and debate about whether or not that was the “MADE Coach.” Sometimes they’d ask us, too nervous to approach Jason themselves and we’d say “yes” that he was the Soccer to Cheer Coach. When Jason walked his teams through the Georgia World Congress Center, he politely smiled yet refrained from photo requests. He’d say he hoped they understood that he was there for his kids and wanted to keep his teams focused on the goals at hand.
Becky and Rachel's teams both won their CHEERSPORT 2011 jackets
And he did a great job of doing that: four ProAthletics teams won their national CHEERSPORT jackets last year and another placed second.
For the uninitiated, the premise of MTV’s MADE, now in Season 12, is to “make” a high schooler into something they aren’t but secretly wish they could be: the quarterback who wants to be “MADE” into a musical theater star, the “Goth” who wants to be “MADE” into a pageant queen, the skateboarder who wants to be “MADE” into prom king.
Season 11; Episode 35 "Soccer to Cheer" was the second most popular episode of last season.
Jason’s episode last year was the first that “MADE” a whole team. when he coached a high school varsity girls soccer team into Allstars. Tomorrow, June 5 at 4 p.m. EDT, on MTV (check local listings) Jason will appear again as the “MADE Coach” in the appropriately titled Keeping My Cool; Episode No. 1208.
You’d think it would be easier the second time around but both Jason and Keeping My Cool production manager Katie Deutsch said this episode was much harder than the first.
“I don’t know too many other people who could have pulled this off,” said Katie. ”They love Jason at MTV.”
Jason "Keeping My Cool" while Arley decides to stop after running a half lap around the track.
Both the episode’s title and Katie’s reference are directed to Jason’s challenge and ability to manage Arley; a troubled, stubborn, city girl from Hartford, Connecticut who transfers to a rural Tennessee high school. Her request is to be MADE into a cheerleader in hopes of fitting in better.
Click Here for MTV’s MADE preview: Keeping My Cool
“Every day was difficult, a new surprise,” said Katie. “Working in reality TV, you can never predict what these kids will do or say and Arley was especially volatile.
“Jason didn’t lose his cool once, his patience was impressive,” she added.
Some scenes from MTV's "Keeping My Cool" -Jason watches Arley run around the football track.
Keeping My Cool will be the last show to feature high schoolers as next season MTV MADE goes in a new direction and focuses on young adults. Although their episode was still based in high school, Jason and Arley were the first to work in this new platform.
“It’s an end of an era but kind of exciting,” Katie explained. “Jason’s was the first to explore the idea of talking things out. It has more of an adult mentality, honest talk, that was real important to us.”
Arley gives up on running halfway around the track.
Jason spent about five weeks at the end of the 2011-2012 season commuting between ProAthletics in Massachusetts and the isolated area of Crossville, Tennessee where more than 100 hours of footage was filmed for the one hour show.
Ironically, he was faced with one of cheer’s biggest issues right now.
“She’s kind of a bully,” Jason said.
“And not only did she try to bully me, she was able to manipulate all the casting directors into being portrayed as one kind of person,” he said. “As soon as she got the green light and got the show, she was a different person.”
Although he’d been down the MTV MADE road before, Jason said this was a much different situation.
It's time to get up, although Arley insists she needs an ambulance.
“My first MADE was about a whole team that really wanted to be MADE into cheerleaders but this new one is a single individual who said she wanted to be MADE into a cheerleader but she didn’t want to put the work into it.”
“In this situation, we were forced to work with each other, although she tried to dismiss me,” he chuckled. “For three days, I didn’t want to work with her and she didn’t want to work with me.”
“The interesting thing about reality TV is they can put whatever spin on it that they want,” the two-time MADE Coach said. “I’m very interested to see how this one turns out because there was a lot of drama.”
As production manager, Katie has been involved in the episode from start to finish and says it has a great outcome.
“Jason had a real impact on Arley although she was really stubborn in the beginning and they had to find their footing,” she said.
But it took more than the camera to keep things rolling between Arley and Jason.
“Jason kept telling Arley ‘A lot of this is mental. It takes mental strength more than physical strength to push through so many things that happen in life,’” Katie said. “Arley was thankful in the end that she stuck with it. It was more than becoming a cheerleader; she recognized that she did want to change.”
NOTE: Jason Graham will be a featured coach attending next month’s Cheer Cruise and Beach Blast Camp in Miami, Florida and the Bahamas:
July 25–27 The Beach Camp will take place at the Eden Roc, Miami Beach and will offer: training sessions with featured coaches, parent seminars, supervised activities for cheerleaders and siblings, spa specials, exclusive Pool Party and Beach Bash.
July 27–30 The Cheer Cruise will offer unique cheer related activities on board the Norwegian Sky and exclusive shore excursions hosted by elite coaches from around the country. For important information please visit: The Cheer Cruise
CHEERMaD will be there too!
Use Promo Code: CHEERMaD when booking your Cheer Cruise and Beach Camp, you’ll receive a CHEERMaD Cruisin’ Gear Package worth $100 of free CHEERMaD items including: t-shirt, Tote bag, poster and great CHEERMaD endorsed products (one package per cabin or per hotel room//two packages for registering for both Cheer Cruise and Beach Camp for value of $200).
For details visit The Cheer Cruise and Beach Camp page on CHEERMaD’s website.
By Lisa D. Welsh
www.CHEERMaD.com
Tomorrow, June 5 at 4 p.m. EDT, on MTV (check local listings) Jason will appear again as the "MADE Coach" in the appropriately titled Keeping My Cool; Episode No. 1208.
“Hey it’s the MADE Coach!”
We heard that a lot last year after Jason Graham, owner of ProAthletics (where Becky coaches and Rachel cheers) was featured in one of MTV’s most popular MADE episodes. The show was first broadcast Feb. 9, 2011 and repeated in a marathon the week before CHEERSPORT.
In Atlanta, some of the cheer moms and dads from our gym got a kick out of watching athletes from other teams point, whisper and debate about whether or not that was the “MADE Coach.” Sometimes they’d ask us, too nervous to approach Jason themselves and we’d say “yes” that he was the Soccer to Cheer Coach. When Jason walked his teams through the Georgia World Congress Center, he politely smiled yet refrained from photo requests. He’d say he hoped they understood that he was there for his kids and wanted to keep his teams focused on the goals at hand.
Becky and Rachel's teams both won their CHEERSPORT 2011 jackets
And he did a great job of doing that: four ProAthletics teams won their national CHEERSPORT jackets last year and another placed second.
For the uninitiated, the premise of MTV’s MADE, now in Season 12, is to “make” a high schooler into something they aren’t but secretly wish they could be: the quarterback who wants to be “MADE” into a musical theater star, the “Goth” who wants to be “MADE” into a pageant queen, the skateboarder who wants to be “MADE” into prom king.
Season 11; Episode 35 "Soccer to Cheer" was the second most popular episode of last season.
Jason’s episode last year was the first that “MADE” a whole team. when he coached a high school varsity girls soccer team into Allstars. Tomorrow, June 5 at 4 p.m. EDT, on MTV (check local listings) Jason will appear again as the “MADE Coach” in the appropriately titled Keeping My Cool; Episode No. 1208.
You’d think it would be easier the second time around but both Jason and Keeping My Cool production manager Katie Deutsch said this episode was much harder than the first.
“I don’t know too many other people who could have pulled this off,” said Katie. ”They love Jason at MTV.”
Jason "Keeping My Cool" while Arley decides to stop after running a half lap around the track.
Both the episode’s title and Katie’s reference are directed to Jason’s challenge and ability to manage Arley; a troubled, stubborn, city girl from Hartford, Connecticut who transfers to a rural Tennessee high school. Her request is to be MADE into a cheerleader in hopes of fitting in better.
Click Here for MTV’s MADE preview: Keeping My Cool
“Every day was difficult, a new surprise,” said Katie. “Working in reality TV, you can never predict what these kids will do or say and Arley was especially volatile.
“Jason didn’t lose his cool once, his patience was impressive,” she added.
Some scenes from MTV's "Keeping My Cool" -Jason watches Arley run around the football track.
Keeping My Cool will be the last show to feature high schoolers as next season MTV MADE goes in a new direction and focuses on young adults. Although their episode was still based in high school, Jason and Arley were the first to work in this new platform.
“It’s an end of an era but kind of exciting,” Katie explained. “Jason’s was the first to explore the idea of talking things out. It has more of an adult mentality, honest talk, that was real important to us.”
Arley gives up on running halfway around the track.
Jason spent about five weeks at the end of the 2011-2012 season commuting between ProAthletics in Massachusetts and the isolated area of Crossville, Tennessee where more than 100 hours of footage was filmed for the one hour show.
Ironically, he was faced with one of cheer’s biggest issues right now.
“She’s kind of a bully,” Jason said.
“And not only did she try to bully me, she was able to manipulate all the casting directors into being portrayed as one kind of person,” he said. “As soon as she got the green light and got the show, she was a different person.”
Although he’d been down the MTV MADE road before, Jason said this was a much different situation.
It's time to get up, although Arley insists she needs an ambulance.
“My first MADE was about a whole team that really wanted to be MADE into cheerleaders but this new one is a single individual who said she wanted to be MADE into a cheerleader but she didn’t want to put the work into it.”
“In this situation, we were forced to work with each other, although she tried to dismiss me,” he chuckled. “For three days, I didn’t want to work with her and she didn’t want to work with me.”
“The interesting thing about reality TV is they can put whatever spin on it that they want,” the two-time MADE Coach said. “I’m very interested to see how this one turns out because there was a lot of drama.”
As production manager, Katie has been involved in the episode from start to finish and says it has a great outcome.
“Jason had a real impact on Arley although she was really stubborn in the beginning and they had to find their footing,” she said.
But it took more than the camera to keep things rolling between Arley and Jason.
“Jason kept telling Arley ‘A lot of this is mental. It takes mental strength more than physical strength to push through so many things that happen in life,’” Katie said. “Arley was thankful in the end that she stuck with it. It was more than becoming a cheerleader; she recognized that she did want to change.”
NOTE: Jason Graham will be a featured coach attending next month’s Cheer Cruise and Beach Blast Camp in Miami, Florida and the Bahamas:July 25–27 The Beach Camp will take place at the Eden Roc, Miami Beach and will offer: training sessions with featured coaches, parent seminars, supervised activities for cheerleaders and siblings, spa specials, exclusive Pool Party and Beach Bash.
July 27–30 The Cheer Cruise will offer unique cheer related activities on board the Norwegian Sky and exclusive shore excursions hosted by elite coaches from around the country. For important information please visit: The Cheer Cruise
CHEERMaD will be there too!
Use Promo Code: CHEERMaD when booking your Cheer Cruise and Beach Camp, you’ll receive a CHEERMaD Cruisin’ Gear Package worth $100 of free CHEERMaD items including: t-shirt, Tote bag, poster and great CHEERMaD endorsed products (one package per cabin or per hotel room//two packages for registering for both Cheer Cruise and Beach Camp for value of $200).
For details visit The Cheer Cruise and Beach Camp page on CHEERMaD’s website.
