My Jump Jam Idol Journey
Jump Jam, where do I start to describe my incredible journey which lead to Jump Jam Idol and starring in the latest Jump Jam 16 DVD? Lets start at the beginning.
I was born on the 7th of August 2001 in Tauranga Hospital, wait a minute, just kidding. My real Jump Jam journey began when I was a Year 6 student at Omanu School. Jump Jam was huge at Omanu because we did a lot of it for fitness and fun. I thought that I was pretty good so I decided to give the competitions a go. I went to the trials like all of the other kids and was the only boy to make it into the team. Back then, Jump Jam was mostly popular with the girls but this didn’t put me off. I wanted to show all of those ‘too cool for school’ boys that Jump Jam rocks!
After a term of practising in the team, one of our coaches, Mrs Laing (my teacher at the time) asked me if I wanted to do Jump Jam Idol. I thought to myself ‘Should I stand out
on my own and really show those boys’? I decided to go for it!! Mrs Laing let me lead my class in Jump Jam for P.E. She tested different songs for me until she found it, the song that she thought stood out for me. . . Proud Mary.
Everyone thought that I was good at it so I went with it. I kept practicing at home and at school until filming the entry came about in Term 3. Mrs Laing got the results a couple of weeks later and she
read mine first – 3rd! I was really happy with that. Even though I didn’t come first, I still qualified as one to beat. The Jump Jam Idol Competition was in mid November at a school in Taupo. I collected a t-shirt from the judges desk and I made my way to the side of the stage. I found out that the 2 boys that came ahead of me were both from Hilltop School and they were Omanu’s main competition. We went in reverse order from the video entry so 6th went first and 1st went last so that meant that I was in the middle.
While I was sitting there waiting, I could hear the Hilltop boys talking to each other about how they are going to win and that motivated me even more. It was my turn to go up, I had a nervous knot in my stomach and wasn’t sure if it was good or bad thing. I gave it my all and I couldn’t have done any more, I was exhausted after my routine.
The results were finalized and it came down to the 2 Hilltop boys and me. 3rd place was read out and I survived to be in the top 2 or should I say 1. That’s right, I had won the Jump Jam Idol Year 4-6 boys category and achieved the 2nd highest score overall for that year.
If someone asked me what I’d gained from the Idol experience, I would say more confidence in myself and my ability to commit and work towards achieving my goals. This is something I will take with me as I move forward in life, working as always towards new goals. Something I’m really proud of is the way I have inspired other boys to get involved in Jump Jam at Omanu School.
The year after I won Idol so many boys wanted to do Jump Jam, Omanu had enough to have an all boys team that made it all the way to nationals. Once again this year, Omanu have another all boys team, GO THE BOYS!!!
Idol is a positive adventure. I really recommend that you give it a go, you never know where it may lead . . . see my next testimonial about filming the Jump Jam 16 DVD.
Jordan