During the summer, the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) held their annual camp for cheerleaders. Pleasant Valley cheerleaders have been attending this camp for many years. The main focus of the camp is to improve the team’s cheer skills for the upcoming season. While at the camp, the team took dance classes, jump classes, leadership classes, and much more.
At the camp, each cheer team worked on a performance that they performed at the very end to display all the hard work and improvement from the four days of classes they took. At the very end, there is also an awards ceremony. There is one award in particular that Pleasant Valley has won for a few years in a row. All the cheerleaders vote for a team which they believe has the best team spirit, and the Pleasant Valley squad always has the most votes.
At the camp, UCA also held tryouts to be an All-American cheerleader. If a cheerleader makes the cut, then they are invited to walk in the News Years Day parade in London. For many years, the tradition for an All-American cheerleader is to walk in the parade in the covenant All-American uniform that UCA gives the athletes, something that is an honor for many cheerleaders. Pleasant Valley cheerleader Victoria Parejko stated that “getting the All- American uniform and walking in the Parade is something that many cheerleader strive for.”
The tryout consisted of many components; athletes had to face off in a jumping portion, to show off their best jumps, learn the All-American cheer, and female athletes performed a rally routine dance while male athletes performed a stunt.
Six cheerleaders from each team are picked by their coaches, usually seniors, but any teammate from any grade can be chosen to try out for the team. A total of 60 people tried out at the camp this year and only 25 athletes make it. The cheerleaders selected on The Pleasant Valley cheer team was senior Parejko, senior Gibson Yost, junior Megan Gropel, junior Julia Necker, junior Courtney Mohr, and Freshman Ava Kwak. Out of the six that tried out, Parejko, Yost, Gropel, Necker, and Mohr made the cut which means an amazing five out of six made the all american team.
Parejko has been cheering for around 12 years and has a love for the sport of cheerleading. “I love cheerleading because it’s given me so many experiences just like the trip to london. UCA has created an itinerary for our week that we are there and I can’t wait to experience all the tours!”
Gropel is very excited to tour London with other cheerleaders around the country and meet new people. Gropel stated that she is “very honored to be selected and that she’ll do her best to represent the Spartan Cheerleaders in the parade.”
Being selected to be on the All-American cheer team is a high honor, Gropel stated, “I am incredibly honored that my hard work has paid off and that I’ll be able to do what I love in a completely different country with my friends.”
Victoria Parejko • Nov 8, 2018 at 3:59 pm
I’m super excited to go over to London with Megan!! Thank you so much for writing this article. Cheerleading is often looked over so it’s cool to see us get some recognition.
Hannah • Oct 25, 2018 at 8:40 am
I’m glad students have gotten an opportunity of the lifetime to walk the New Years parade in London
kenzy wild • Oct 24, 2018 at 12:20 pm
Considering I had attended this years cheer camp in the summer and watched all of this happen i believe it is such a great opportunity as well as exciting. We all work hard to get where we are and the fact that 5/6 girls who tried out from Pleasant Valley got accepted is amazing. The spirit award was well deserved!