First Football Game: Cheerleading

Tonight is our high school's first football game and my daughter's first game as a cheerleader. She's very excited. She's wanted to be a cheerleader since she was a little girl. Some years ago, she made outfits for her sister and her and made up cheers when one of my sons was in soccer and they'd cheer at all of his games. She even initiated a cheerleading club at her elementary school. I'm thrilled she's now a cheerleader because she's always wanted to do it. She started practices during the summer. She was sure to ask the coach what days they'd practice when school started so I could make her orthodontist appointment and it wouldn't conflict with practice. The coach said Wednesdays and Thursdays, although that wasn't set in stone. Since our orthodontist lives in Mexico for one week each month, and he's very busy, we have to schedule out appointments 6-8 weeks in advance. I scheduled her appointment (and my older son's) on a Monday as well as a speech therapy evaluation for my youngest son (I like to schedule as much as I can on the same day so I don't have to go to town as often since it's 30 minutes away). What happened? The coach decided to change practices to Mondays and Thursdays. A huge conflict with the orthodontist appointment. My daughter let the coach know she'd miss that practice and why. The coach seemed fine with it. Yesterday, my daughter found out she'll be benched for a quarter tonight because she missed that practice. Color me not happy. I don't think it's fair that she asked in advance about the practice schedule, I scheduled her appointment so it wouldn't conflict, and then the coach changed the practice days and now my daughter will be benched. I'm still very excited about the game, well, not the game exactly, but watching my daughter do her cheers. She wore her uniform to school today and looked so cute. I can't wait to see her tonight.