BRISTOL, Connecticut, U.S.A. — Every summer millions of kids go to camp. From sports to religion, there’s pretty much a camp for anything you want — including cheerleading.
Many people think cheerleading doesn’t take much effort. It’s just a bunch of girls jumping around and screaming, right? Wrong! Cheerleading is one of the hardest sports known to man.
You need stamina, discipline, dedication, teamwork, strength and desire, not to mention a lot of money, because cheerleading can get pretty expensive.
In cheerleading you literally hold someone else’s life in your hands. Cheerleaders can die from falling a wrong way. Also,we need to jump a few feet in the air while being stiff, pointing our toes and hitting motions.
You definitely need to be able to multi-task. Balance is a key ingredient to being a cheerleader. Try standing on one foot, high in the air, while pulling a heal-stretch or scorpion.
The stereotype of cheerleaders couldn’t be further from the truth. Cheerleaders are hardcore athletes — football players aren’t the only ones who practice three hours a day.
Just like any other sports camp, you cheer all day. You wake up early, eat breakfast and go practice stunts and cheers. After a few rigorous hours of that, you go eat lunch and then cheer some more until dinner.
You’re exhausted by then, and just crash until bed time.
Then you get up the very next morning to do it all over again.
In cheerleading camp we learned new dances, cheers and stunts to use in the upcoming seasons.
It’s a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. You can break a sweat within the first five minutes.
Bristol Eastern High School cheerleaders attended BEST Cheerleading Camp at the University of Connecticut with cheerleaders from other schools around Connecticut and two girls from New York.
It was a fun four days.
“Stunting class was my favorite,” said Kara Doolittle, a varsity cheerleader from Eastern. “I’d go back next year just to learn new and more advanced stunts.”
Personally I loved the camp and I can’t wait to go back next year. I learned a lot and can’t wait to show it off at school.
Cheerleading camp is something every squad should experience and I highly recommend it to other teams. All in all, it is something I will never forget, and it was a great bonding experience for our team.
Erin Foster is a Reporter for Youth Journalism International.
