At the first football game in October, the crowd might have noticed some extra bodies and voices on the track interspersed between the cheerleaders. With a total of 65 campers all dressed in their best Chieftain gear, the Yutan High School cheer team put on a fun-filled camp for K-6 students to enjoy.
“I really want the cheer team to have a presence in the community,” cheer coach Megan Callahan said. “So I thought a cheer camp would be a really good way to do that and to build a future program of cheer.”
Because the camp hasn’t been held for several years, Callahan took on the challenge of creating the plans from scratch. After using Google to figure out what all goes into a cheer camp, she also used her past experiences to plan the rest.
“I have a camp counselor and director background, so I just used what I know about taking breaks, making it fun and switching activities every so often into a working schedule,” Callahan said.
The first fun activity for the elementary students was getting picked up by the cheerleaders and then walked back over to the high school. The cheerleaders then split the campers into three groups while they taught main skills used in cheerleading, such as how to do a proper kick and how to stand in between cheers.
“It was really cool to see girls of all different ages learn how to use specific skills properly,” senior spirit leader Reagan Wilson said. “They all put their best effort into it, so that was awesome to see.”
Along with teaching cheers and different skills, the campers were also fed dinner and then added extra cheer touches like big bows and sparkly eye shadow.
“Helping everyone get ready reminded me of when I was little and attended the cheer camps,” Wilson said. “It made me feel special because I used to look up to the cheerleaders when I was young and now the younger girls are looking up to me.”
After four hours of practice, it was time to take the campers to cheer at the football game.
“My favorite part was seeing the enjoyment on the kids’ faces when they found out that they got to cheer with us during the game,” junior Lexi Bisaillon said.
Together, the cheerleaders and campers used the cheers they learned at camp to rally up the crowd during the first quarter of the game. Because of the busy afternoon of fun, the campers were soon ready to be done.
“Even though they were tired and ready to go home by the end, I think that they had fun being out there on the track with the big kids in front of the whole school,” Callahan said.
Not only did the campers have a great time, but so did the cheerleaders who led the event.
“Being little, you always looked up to the cheerleaders, and now being the older one and having the little girls look up to you was really special,” senior captain Maura Tichota said.
Along with providing individual memories for the cheerleaders, it also benefited the team.
“I think that it was a really good experience team-bonding wise for the cheerleaders because they actually had to work together in order for it to be successful,” Callahan said.
Overall, the successful event made the work of putting the camp on worth it.
“The elementary students look up to the girls so much, and then to see all of the cheerleaders step up to make the camp good for the campers was awesome,” Callahan said.
