Hello everyone!

Today I am going to be writing about my experience on the second day of cheer camp. I already posted about the first day of the four day/three night camp at Knott’s Berry Farm I attended with my high school cheer team, so go check that out if you haven’t already! I’m glad to be home and formulating posts again- I apologize that it’s been taking me a while to get these up. I’m still recovering from the tiring adventure and there’s a lot going on in my life since school is starting up again in just a few short weeks, as well as my fifteenth birthday! Regardless, I’m ready to share the rest of what happened at cheer camp (before I forget it all). Day 2 was probably the most fun day because even though it was a full day, camp ended early so we could enter Knott’s Berry Farm for a few hours at night.

The day started at 6:15am as my phone alarm went off in synchronization with my roommates’ alarms. The four of us ended up staying in bed and catching up on social media (we hadn’t really been on our phones since the bus ride the day before) until 6:30. I was the first to get out of bed and start getting dressed/ready for the day. We all got into our matching team outfits (a white tank top with our school logo and blue shorts plus cheer shoes and our bows) and packed our bags for the day, finally wandering down to the meal area around 7:10. There were scrambled eggs, bacon, and muffins for breakfast- it was actually one of the best selections they had out of all the camp. We sat with the rest of our teammates and it only took us about fifteen minutes to wolf everything down.

We didn’t have to meet our coaches in the lobby and head over to the camp set-up until 8:00, so everyone headed back up to their rooms to relax and mentally prepare for the day a bit more. We were all kind of zombies anyways; I just laid on the bed until it was time to head downstairs again. Our coaches had us check in with our “big sisters” and take team pictures before we got all sweaty, and then we walked to the field. The USA staff opened up the camp with having everyone circle up and get pumped up while they played some music. We did dynamic stretching to music, went into some review of the material we learned the day before, and then it was time for another stunting workshop.

It was basically just a practice to prepare for the Stunt Challenge that followed right after; my group made it through the Stunt Challenge in the novice/intermediate division so we got ribbons that got us into the final round for day 4! We were super excited because we had actually switched flyers for the day and weren’t expecting to be hitting all the stunts. After the challenge, it was time for the first specialty workshop of camp. When it’s specialty workshop time, it’s basically where they hold a bunch of mini-classes (some examples were a basket class for stunting, a hip-hop routine class for dancing, etc.) and before you choose where to go they showcase what you’ll learn in each one. My coach sent me to the sideline routine and cheer class where we learned another band chant and general cheer, and it took us a little over an hour to perfect it.

It was around 11:30 when the specialty class finished up- finally lunch time! Lunch was not the best; they had pizza and salad with chips so I was excited at first, but the pizza had a strange aftertaste. No one felt like eating outside so I actually brought my plate upstairs to the rooms and ate with a bunch of other girls. We hung out for a while and I eventually went back to my room to freshen up and redo my hair before meeting back in the lobby. We had to head downstairs again at 12:45 and we began walking to the set-up again.

The next thing in store for us was meeting our Staff Teammate. A staff teammate is a member of the USA staff that gets paired with your team to help design/perfect your routines and learned material for the Halftime Evaluation on Day 3 of camp and the Game Day Evaluation on Day 4 of camp. My team got paired with a staff member named John and he was super nice! We started working on formations for the halftime evaluation and warming up stunts, then we practiced the dance (the Sweet but Psycho one all the freshmen and JV teams learned on day 1). We had a few water breaks inbetween but it was really just a bunch of practice for the next day. Once the staff teammate workshop ended, it was time for the Spirit Star semi-finals.

They didn’t do Spirit Star at camp last year, but basically a few people that showed lots of spirit and were helping others/picking up material quickly were given ribbons by camp staff members. This ribbon was their ticket into the Spirit Star semi-finals where they would perform a cheer, jump, and tumbling pass to compete for a spot in the top 10/finals. 3 freshmen and 3 varsity cheerleaders from our school had gotten these ribbons, so the rest of us cheered them on as they performed. Everyone was so amazing (from the other schools too!) and it was INCREDIBLE to see the tumbling people were throwing, even on the bumpy grass! One of our varsity cheerleaders was called back to be a part of the top 10/finals on Day 4, so we were very excited about that.

Since the Spirit Star performances had just occurred, what better time to do a showcase of the routines everyone learned at the specialty workshops earlier? For people that were in some form of dance/sideline class, we had to go up and perform the routines that we learned. It was kind of embarrassing since I messed up quite a few times, but no one was really paying too close of attention. It was almost time to end the session for the day so we could get dinner and go to the theme park, but there were two last reveals: which schools had gotten a Day 1 Spirit Award, and what rankings we had gotten on our Day 1 fight song evaluations! There were six awards to go around so most schools got one, but it was still so exciting when the staff member ran up and gave us one of the famous spirit sticks. They also gave our coaches the certificates with our rankings, and all of my school’s teams got Superior (the highest ranking!). Our coaches were pleased so we ended the day of camp on a good note as we headed to dinner.

It was taco night (as I’m writing I’m just realizing it was Taco Tuesday) so there was a bunch of different toppings with the standard taco meat and shells, and there was still salad as well. The dessert of the night was some form of strawberry tart thing. The tacos were okay, but the dessert was actually WAY better than I was expecting. As always, we ate quickly and headed back up to our rooms. Since it was the night that we could enter the park, we could change out of our matching school clothes and into a comfortable outfit. We still were kind of matching though, because we were instructed to wear t-shirts that our “big sisters” had decorated for us. I put on my t-shirt (it was tie-dyed our school colors and had my name and graduation year on it) and black leggings and an outfit had never felt better. My roomies and I ate some snacks in the room and finished getting ready before meeting everyone else in the lobby around 6:30.

We were surprised to find a Costco cake waiting for us downstairs; apparently it was a varsity cheerleader’s and a freshman cheerleader’s birthday, so one of their parents brought a cake. I was happy as a clam since chocolate cake is probably my favorite thing ever- everyone sang and ate until it was time to go. Our coaches gave us our Knott’s tickets and we walked into the park together. We were allowed to roam free as long as we didn’t go off alone, and we had from 7:00 until 10:00, where we would meet back at the entrance/exit. I had never been to Knott’s Berry Farm, so it was definitely a super fun experience! For reference, I enjoy roller coasters and theme parks, but I’m not the BIGGEST daredevil- the craziest ride I’ve ever been on is probably just the giant loop that I can’t remember the name of at Six Flags Magic Mountain. I wasn’t really craving a big thrill because of all the cake I had eaten, so I mainly went on smaller rides.

I stuck with one of my roomies/my close friend and we met up with more people along the way. Eventually she split off with a few other girls since they wanted to go on one of the bigger roller coasters that had a super long line, whereas me and the other people we were with didn’t want to wait in line or go on a huge ride. Instead, we went on smaller rides/whatever had a short line, and stopped for Dippin Dots. It was actually a really fun night and the park was a lot cooler looking than I expected. We went on the water rapids ride, a smaller roller coaster, a roller coaster where the entrance was some sort of temple, a spinny-type ride (I’m horrible at explaining things!), and repeated a couple of those. We met back up with everyone else around 9:45 and walked back to the entrance together.

Our coaches did a head count and then led us back to the hotel. It was already after 10:00 when we got back which meant there was no time to hang out in other people’s rooms- my roomies and I went straight to our room and started the showering/getting ready for bed process. I went third and ate some more snacks while I waited. After we were all done, we hung out with our adjoining-room roomies for a while and watched Big Brother on TV. Our coach came around 10:30 to give us bottled water and do room checks for everyone, and I think it was around 11:30 (the official lights out time) when we decided to go to bed. We set our alarms for 6:15 again and fell asleep, satisfied that we were officially halfway done with camp!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about another day at cheer camp; this day was probably the most interesting since we got to actually go to Knott’s Berry Farm. I feel like walking around the park and going on rides (the screaming on rides and thrills is always a bonding experience) together was probably the best unintentional bonding experience we had the entire camp. Posts covering the last two days of camp will be up very soon, and then I’ll be coming up with more back to school content! Let me know if you guys have any requests and tell me when you start school- I start August 21st 🙂 It’s coming up way too soon!!

-Brooke

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