adventures of a typical high school student

Welcome back guys!

I will be explaining everything that went down on the third day of the cheer camp that I attended with my high school cheer team at Knott’s Berry Farm. I’ve already posted about the first two days there, so go check out that if you haven’t already! The camp was from July 29th to August 1st, so I’ve just been recollecting my thoughts and returning to posting. Day 3 was definitely a difficult one because we were starting to lose our energy, it was an actual full day (the previous day we ended early to go into the theme park), and it just felt so close to the end yet still so far. However, it was Rally Night and we got to dress up according to the theme (Road Trip USA) so there was still something to look forward to.

Our day started at 6:15am yet again, with me being the first one to hop out of bed right as the alarms went off so I could be first in the bathroom. My roomies and I got dressed and ready for the day, except one of my roommates actually slept in- we tried to wake her and everything, but she wouldn’t budge until 6:50! After she woke up, the rest of us waited for her to finish getting ready so we headed to the breakfast area a little later (around 7:15). There wasn’t much for breakfast besides bagels, so we ate some snacks once we headed back upstairs. We went to the hydration station to fill up our water bottles and then met up with our coaches and everyone else in the lobby at 8:00 to walk to the field together.

On our way to the camp set-up, we took more team pictures. We also had to take team pictures by specific landmarks or in specific poses as part of a camp challenge- whoever took the best picture got spirit points. The actual camp session began with dynamic stretching to music again (a little too quick of a stretch for my liking, but it’s kinda fun how they try to pump you up while doing it). We went through more material review (the camp dance, cheers, etc.) and then it was time for another stunting workshop. My group wasn’t doing as well as we did the day before, but it was still a good practice opportunity. Once that workshop ended, there was another specialty class session. My coach sent me to the hip-hop routine, which was actually pretty fun. It was a super fast-paced dance so I never got it fully down when we did it to music, but I enjoyed learning it. That class lasted about an hour, and then we got into another workshop with our Staff TeamMate.

John (our staff teammate, read my post on Day 2 to find out what that is) was responsible for helping us put together stunts for the end of our dance routine that we would be performing later in the day as an evaluation. It wasn’t a fully open session though because it was kind of another stunt workshop in a way; the staff showed us a few pyramid stunts we could do and inbetween each demonstration we were encouraged to try and insert those in our routine with our staff teammate. We ended up with a pyramid where one stunt group had their flyer doing a backflip and catching her at the top in extension, and two stunt groups (one was mine!) having their flyers brace that flyer and help flip her over. The remaining two stunt groups on our team did straight-up extensions off to the sides. It took us a lot of trial and error to settle on that stunt combo, so we finished around the time that the workshop was over. It was time for lunch!

This day probably had the worst lunch- there was just a bunch of slices of bread and lunch meats laid out so you could make sandwiches, but that was basically it. I made myself a turkey sandwich on some form of egg bread (it was really soft but it wasn’t white bread so I’m assuming) and quickly ate it so I would have more time to relax in my room. Once my roomies and I went back upstairs, I ate an energy bar and a bunch of candy to fill myself up. We went on our phones and freshened up before going back downstairs to meet everyone around 12:45 and walk to the set-up.

Once we got back to the field, it was time to showcase the routines from the specialty classes. I completely forgot the dance but it didn’t matter because it was over quickly, and it was still fun to watch the other classes perform. It was then time for more practice for our evaluation with our staff teammate! We focused on just piecing the dance part with the stunt part and also adding a short jump section in the beginning. At first, all of the parts were hitting only separately and not together, but we just kept drilling it until it all worked. Performance/evaluation time was around 3:00, but before everyone performed there were a few more announcements.

The staff announced the spirit awards (we got one the day before, but not this day), and they announced the Pin-It-Forward recipients. These were people selected by staff members that stuck out as leaders or just people willing to help others around them. They would receive two pins, one for themselves, and one they would pass on to someone from a different school that they found deserving on Day 4. A cheerleader from each of our school’s teams was chosen, so we were all very proud of our teammates! After we had finished celebrating, it was time for evaluations. I was actually nervous since we had basically just put together this routine today and there was a lot of pressure from our coaches to do well. Despite the nerves, it actually went SO well! I messed up a little bit on the dance and it wasn’t my cleanest performance, but it was a solid routine and all of our stunts hit.

I also loved evaluation time just because I enjoyed watching the other schools and teams perform. Our varsity team CRUSHED their performance, and the freshmen had a clean dance but unfortunately their pyramid stunt didn’t go up. The USA staff played music and gave us a mini dance party while they deliberating on the evaluation decisions- this time, we wouldn’t have to wait a whole day to get our results, and we would get ribbons! Once they were ready, they had each team circle up as a staff member came to reveal their results and give them their ribbons. Our team got a superior, which we were thrilled about!! We all immediately attached the beautiful blue ribbon to our cheer backpacks. 🙂

The last actual workshop of the night before dinner was just material review on the cheers and the band chant that we would have to perform the next day at the Game Day evaluation. They would call out a situation that could occur at a game and we would have to decide what type of cheer to call (defense vs offense vs general) and then each team would perform the band chant. This went by quickly and then there was a short period of time where captain candidates had to go over the goals we set on Night 1 but other than that, we were basically free for the night!

Dinner was once again not the greatest- they served fried chicken with biscuits and nothing was too flavorful. However, the apple pie they had for dessert was very good, and that’s coming from someone who’s not the biggest fan of apple pie! After eating, my roomies and I headed up to get ready for the theme rally party. The theme was USA road trip destinations, so our team chose to dress up as stereotypical Beverly Hills moms/housewives as a joke. The freshmen team dressed up as Area 51 aliens and the varsity team dressed up in different college gear, so there was definitely a variety of costumes out there. I wore a tank top, a tennis skirt, and a preppy green sweater tied around my neck with oversize sunglasses and a low ponytail. Lots of my teammates wore visors and pearl necklaces as well- it ended up being both a cute and funny look.

We met in the lobby around 6:45 and headed to the field to start the rally off. It was divided into sections by grade level- my whole team (JV) is sophomores, so we all headed to the sophomores section and sat down. There were lots of games played in order to determine which grade level was the most spirited and the ultimate champion of the rally; seniors won (they won at camp last year, and seniors always win at our school rallies.. it’s just a senior thing) but it was still fun to participate and yell out the sophomore chants. Next came the famous dance party! They played all the typical songs that play at these functions like the cha cha slide, the cupid shuffle, and more, plus a mix of popular songs that were current and that were throwbacks. After the DJ played the last song, it was a little before 9:00. We could stay on the field and take pictures, but we also needed to practice.

The coaches took team pictures of us and then we had to review the material for the game day evaluation really quickly. The last thing we had to do before leaving the field was the coaches needed to select who would be participating in the Jump-Off and Tumble-Off the next day. There could only be two people from each team, so our coaches had anyone who wanted to be in it do their jumps in front of them in a variety of different combos. After our coach made her choices, we were free to walk back to the hotel. We got back a little after 9:00, which was actually the earliest that we had gotten back out of all the nights so far. Since we had so much time, most of my team went into one room and played a card game that someone brought (it was like Cards Against Humanity but for girls specifically, I forget the name) while we gorged on everyone’s junk food snacks. We got bored of the game quickly, so my roomies and I went back in our room and DoorDashed ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

After devouring our ice cream- I got mint chip and it really hit the spot- we started getting ready for bed. I showered first this time which was nice, and then I laid out all my stuff that I would need for the last day/rest of camp and packed everything else up since we were leaving tomorrow! While my roomies showered and got ready for bed, I started to clean up the rest of the room and throw away trash. Once most of our stuff was packed up, we hung out with our adjoined-room-roomies for a little bit. Our coaches sent us a text instructing us to give the gifts we assembled before camp to our “big sisters” at this time, so we all split up in order to find our bigs and do so. When we returned to our room, there was one last thing we had to do: take a survey and vote on our captains!

This year, our coaches decided to choose captains after camp instead of before so they could spend most of camp observing the candidates. Anyone who was running gave their speech at our last practice before camp, and now it was time for us to give our feedback and vote. We went in the room connected to ours and filled it out in the company of all the people in there, but we were pretty much silent and keeping our answers confidential regardless. The deadline for the surveys was 11:00pm aka lights out, so as soon as we all turned them in we went to bed. My roomies and I set our alarms and thanked the universe that we were almost done with this crazy camp!

I hope you guys enjoyed learning more about my experience at cheer camp; it might seem boring or like not that much actually went on, but in the moment it was extremely hectic and tiring! Let me know if you guys have any requests for content as always. I’ll be posting about the final day of camp tomorrow and then new content will be coming from there.

-Brooke