Jennifer Gonzalez is a born and bred Portage Indian. She was raised to educate, empower, and inspire excellence in the children of her Pop Warner community, the way her teachers and coaches did for her.
Athletics took the bench when Gonzalez graduated high school. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice at Indiana University Northwest, and decided not to continue volleyball and softball as she had in her childhood. In fact, she did not intend a career in sports at all.
However, Gonzalez was drawn back into the world of athletics when her children became involved.
Raising three kids was Gonzalez’s career for over a decade. She wanted to be close to her family while they were young, and when she did add another job, becoming the health assistant at Crisman Elementary School, to her schedule it was at a school, so she did not have to sacrifice any of their time together. Her eldest son signed up for Pop Warner Football at six years old, influencing her to become involved in the organization as well. She began cheering as a team mom, while her husband coached.
“I love the atmosphere of academics,” she says, “The competition, the teamwork. All of the values that Pop Warner stands for. We don’t hold try outs, so every child is welcome and we train everyone the same way. Everyone is given the same opportunities. Regardless of ability, they are all included in the team.”
Gonzalez stayed with Pop Warner over the years as her son graduated to new levels and her daughter joined. She became a board member in 2010, and then an official coach when her daughter joined the Cheer program. Soon Gonzalez had taken responsibility for the Cheer and Dance portion of the organization and today she is the Vice President of Portage Pop Warner.
“It’s tough,” she said, of learning how to balance the many hours devoted to the kids of the team. “I try not to coach [my daughter] and let my other coaches coach her, because it’s tough when you’re a parent coaching your own child.”
It is worth it to have that extra time with her daughter, and to be able to bond over athletics. Everything in Gonzalez’s life is about her kids. Her free time is spent hanging out with her family or driving them to other practices and meets, including the practices and matches for her son’s traveling baseball team. Overall, they like to keep busy.
Most of Gonzalez’s evenings, though are devoted to Pop Warner.
She spends 10 hours on planning, and another 10 on coaching, she guessed. The season starts August 1st and slows a bit when school starts in September. It ends after Nationals on January 1st.
“We are getting more popular and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that our teams are doing very well in the competitive aspect of Pop Warner Cheer,” she said. “In the last three years, we have had two years that we made it to Nationals. This year two teams, my only two competitive teams, advanced to Nationals. That was fantastic.”
Pop Warner coaches take training courses that will qualify them as leaders in the organization. Gonzalez took it a step further, getting personal training in the sport of cheer and dance, in addition to enrolling in additional classes. Pop Warner prides itself not just on molding brilliant athletes, but on maintaining an academic standard with its students and its staff.
According to Gonzalez the coaches of the team are always aiming to do a bit better.
Gonzalez is already working on that. Her goal for next season: to establish a dance team.
“Portage Pop Warner has never had a National Dance team. Pop Warner National has had Cheer and Football for years, but in our town, a town this size, it’s just strange that we’ve never been able to put a dance team together. This year I plan to have that option available to athletes,” she said.
Check out the Pop Warner website to learn more and get your own kids interested in sports, http://portagepopwarner.com/.