Welcome back everyone!
Today I am going to be detailing everything that happened during my first day of cheer camp with my high school cheer team. My school’s cheer program (all three teams- freshmen, JV (my team!) and varsity attended a three night/four day camp hosted by USA (United Spirit Association) at Knott’s Berry Farm’s resort hotel. Last year we attended USA’s camp at UCSB and stayed in the dorms there, so staying in a hotel was an obvious upgrade. I already posted how I packed/a cheer camp packing list, so if you’re interested in that, go check it out! Here I will be explaining what to expect if you’re going to a USA camp or any form of cheer camp, so keep reading if you want to know how the entire day went!
I had to wake up early (around 6:15) in order to get ready and finish packing the last few items into my cheer bag before driving to school and arriving at the set time of 7:30 am. My carry-on suitcase and overstuffed cheer backpack in tow, I said goodbye to my mom and hello to my teammates that I would be spending the next few days with (between this camp and our normal practices, we have spent a LOT of summer together). We loaded onto the bus and finally departed around 8:15, ready (kind of!) to take on camp!
The bus ride was about two hours; I sat next to one of my close friends and we just chatted the whole time. We arrived at the hotel a little after 10:00, but it took forever to check in since not all of our rooms were clean/ready yet and there were a LOT of us, not to mention the other schools there too. Everyone was stuck waiting in the lobby with our massive cluster of suitcases in the center near the main sitting area. Around 11:00 a few rooms for each team were ready, so EVERYONE on that team was instructed to put their stuff in one of those rooms until later. My entire team also ate our lunches in one room since we had to bring a sack lunch for that day; the first meal the camp was providing was dinner.
The opening ceremony of camp wasn’t until 1:00, so in that window of free time we just waited for the rest of our rooms to be ready. A little before 12:00, everyone else received their room keys. Roommates were determined by our stunt groups within teams, so I was in a room with my flyer (the close friend I mentioned!), backspot, and my other base. We were all ready for camp since we had been wearing the pre-determined clothes and hairstyle for the day since this morning, so we used the time to unpack and get comfortable. Our coach made us all mini-camp survival kits with candy and snacks plus lanyards with our names on it to keep our room keys in- we walked in the room and they were on our beds, so that was adorable! My roomies and I brought a bunch of snacks ourselves, so we organized the stash before leaving our room to meet everyone else in the lobby and head to the opening ceremony.
We walked past the park on our way to the event area/field where the actual camp activities were hosted; we got to walk by a bunch of cute food shops and gift shops and my mouth was definitely watering from all the theme park food. The camp appeared to have a lot less teams than the one we went to last year- there were only about 7-8 schools represented, I would estimate. During the opening ceremony, the camp staff introduced themselves and explained how the camp worked (the different things we would be doing, the material we would learn) and we immediately jumped into learning a few cheers. They taught a general cheer, a defense cheer, and an offense cheer. Once we got those down for the most part, they taught us a band chant that went to the tune of Party In The USA.
Next up was our first stunting workshop- since we attended an Elite level camp from USA versus a regular one, the stunts they showcased were much more difficult. Most people on our team (including my group) were more at an intermediate level, so we went to the Novice/Intermediate section of the workshop rather than the Advanced/Elite. We worked on hitting the stunts we already had learned at practices and just making them more consistent, then trying a few new things. During the workshop, the staff would demonstrate a new stunt every few minutes and explain each person’s part in it, then give us some time to try it out. We stunted for a little while and then it was time to learn a new dance!
All of the teams were split into two categories: JV/Freshmen teams and Varsity teams. The JV and Freshmen teams learned one dance to Sweet but Psycho and the Varsity team learned a dance to 7 Rings. Luckily, ours was taught in a shaded area- it was SO hot out on the field. The dance was cute after we actually picked it up and finished learning the choreography. Everything’s definitely taught at a fast pace at camp, but I eventually caught on. After learning the dance, it was finally time for dinner! They released us and all of our school’s teams walked back to the hotel together. Dinner wasn’t actually provided by the hotel’s restaurant; there was a separate area outside under tents and there were a few buffet lines and then tons of tables set up. We had barbecue chicken with salad/vegetables and a brownie for dessert- it was honestly not the best, but I was glad there was a dessert option for my sweet tooth.
We had some time to go back up to our rooms and chill before heading back to the field for a couple more hours of camp, so I freshened up and re-did my high ponytail. I also ate some candy to make up for the lack of fullness from dinner. Our team had to meet back in the lobby around 6:00 and we walked to the field once again. It was time for our first evaluation of camp- the Fight Song evaluation. We had perfected our routine back at home so we weren’t too worried about it; it was just our school’s fight song except for the last section of it instead of doing the motions, we would be doing stunts. I was kind of nervous to actually perform but it went well and all of our stunts hit. Watching all of the other teams was fun too; our varsity and freshmen teams did amazing, and it was fun to get a glimpse of the other schools’ talent.
As it started to get dark, we moved into the Lagoon area that was adjacent to the field. The staff started teaching the official camp dance of the year (you’re encouraged to learn it before camp since there are instructional videos online which we did, but they still review it at camp) which was easy since I already knew it. Most of the other teams there had already learned it as well, so we didn’t spend too much time going over the counts; we started practicing it to music almost right away.
The last camp festivities of the night were related to team-building/bonding, which was a nice break from all of the normal active stuff. All teams circled up and went through their short-term and long-term goals for the season (mine is to get my back handspring on the floor!). Once the captains/representative of each team wrote down everyone’s goals, we could participate in some team building games. My favorite was one where we had to pair up and go on each other’s backs; the person on your back had to cover your eyes and guide you through a bunch of obstacles. We finished all the games and soon it was completely dark outside. There was a short closing ceremony for the day that included going over the hotel’s rules, our required times for being in your room/lights out, and our schedule for the morning.
We arrived back at the hotel a little after 9:00 and everyone was extremely tired. However, it wasn’t time to shower and go to bed yet- we had sophomore and junior bonding! Every sophomore was paired with a junior to be their “big sister” and because of this, we had planned to do bonding with all of the sophomore/junior cheerleaders in general until we had to be in our rooms. There were too many of us to comfortably fit in any one room, so we all met up as soon as we got back to the hotel in this gazebo area in the courtyard towards the back of the grounds. Our big sisters gave us gifts- mine gave me a bunch of my favorite candies and a Starbucks gift card that I can’t wait to use. 🙂 We played some games together like Never Have I Ever and just random things like that until our coaches pulled us into the lobby for a meeting at 9:45. They told us we would have to wake up in the 6:00 hour to get to breakfast around 7:00 and just some other various announcements for the day, plus congratulating us on how our fight song evaluations went well.
From there, we had to go back in our rooms since it was now 10:00. My roomies and I decided the shower order; I was going second. We laid out our outfits for the next day and started getting ready for bed. Our hotel room was connected with another stunt group from our team/four of our other teammates, so we could go into their room/hang out with them after 10 just because it technically wasn’t leaving our room. Once the four of us had showered and were ready for bed, we just chatted with our technically-still-roomies until about 11:30. At that point we were all ready for bed; we turned the lights out and I fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the pillow.
I hope you guys enjoyed this camp day in my life type of post- it definitely gives some insight on what it’s like to actually attend cheer camp. It’s definitely a crazy and extremely tiring experience, but it’s a tradition and always brings our team closer together. I wrote about my days at yearbook camp in a similar manner about a week ago (I can’t believe it’s only been that long), so check those out if you like this type of post! I will be posting similarly for each of the other three days and those will be up soon, so be on the lookout! I actually just got home yesterday, and being in my own bed has never felt better. As always, let me know if you have any requests (cheer-related or otherwise), and stay tuned for more content!
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 