Tonight’s practice was spent taping for nationals. Every year, UCA requires each team to send in a tape of every stunt and tumbling pass they will be performing on the mat during competition. Depending on how many stunt groups have mastered each stunt, our coach, Danielle, only ends up taping the solid ones. Overall, tonight was pretty successful and we got the tape done in about two hours. I am still a little nervous about our tumbling. As of right now, we only have three standing tucks which is not good at all. Other then that, each stunt only took about three takes before Danielle accepted it. One more practice, plus a basketball game before we can go home for Thanksgiving!
It’s that time of year again- fundraiser time! Every year, our team thinks of a fundraiser we can hold to help pay for nationals. This year, we decided on Yankee Candle and t-shirts. The Yankee Candle was a big hit with our friends and family, covering our first $50 deposit. Last night, we were informed that our t-shirt designs are in and we can kick off the second half of our fundraiser as soon as possible! There are two designs- a purple, tie die tee and a plain gray. Each cheerleader has her own form to individually fund raise and we will also have a table set up in Denaples next week. Another exciting promotion will take place in the third floor cafe sometime next week where our team will hand out milkshakes to students and faculty!
Tonight was the 2009-2010 men’s basketball season opener! Our team arrived an hour before the game to practice and warm up stunts and cheers. Although the new freshman cheerleaders seemed nervous, their excitement helped them to perform wonderfully in front of all the fans. The stands were relatively full for the first game which made it an even better experience! Best of all…WE WON!!
Here are some pictures of our team cheering at tonight’s game!
As I mentioned in my first post, every year our cheerleading team stays an extra week after finals in December before we are allowed to go home for Christmas break. The reason for our stay is because once we return back to school after New Years Day, we have a minimal amount of time before we travel down to Florida for competition. From a cheerleaders standpoint, this week sometimes seems like the longest week of ones life, hence the name “hell week.” At this time, the school seems like a ghost town. The only other team here is basketball and for the past couple of years they have been dismissed to go home for the holidays earlier then we have, making our team the only students still on campus. Hell week normally consists of 7 a.m. captain’s practices where we tumble and mark our routine over and over again. After practice, we move down to the cardio room for an hour team work out. Usually around 9 a.m. we are free to return back to our homes and spend the day however we wish. Once 5 p.m. rolls around, it’s back to the gym we go! This time, our coach is present so we are allowed to stunt. After running the routine again and again, we are free to go usually around 7 p.m. If our coach feels that we haven’t had a satisfactory practice, we will be given an hour to eat dinner and then asked to return back for more practice later that evening. Depending upon how confident Coach Danielle feels after watching our routine determines when we are finally allowed to go home for Christmas. Although this week is challenging, it all seems to be worth it once that trophy is in our hands!
You may be wondering what exactly goes into a cheerleading routine and how one is judged. A basic UCA cheerleading routine is made up of stunts, a short dance, jumps, cheer portion and tumbling. Although I am not sure of the exact point value given to every portion, I can tell you that most are on a scale either ranging from 1-10 or 1-5, all combined together to formulate one large number. The University of Scranton cheer team’s weakest area is always tumbling. Because we do not recruit girls to our team, it is difficult to find college aged women who have the ability to tumble. Tumbling is one of those skills that in order for it to work today, one must have learned and trained her body to perform the skill at a very young age. A 21-year-old woman is not going to learn to tumble overnight. It’s just not going to happen! Time, patience and the willingness to fall on your head quite a number of times is a necessity. Understanding that tumbling is our weak spot, our team takes tumbling lessons at a gym about 10 minutes from the university every Friday afternoon. Although many of our girls have never tumbled in their lives, they push themselves very hard to at least try the skills with an instructors help. I am very confident that once January hits, our team will have developed more progress in their tumbling then we started with back in August.
Below I have linked you to the UCA homepage. Here you can find details on the College National Competition set to take place in January. Also, feel free to watch some of the featured videos of last years competition!
It is now the month of November and in the world of competitive cheerleading that means one thing- crunch time! Spirits were lowered after our coach, Danielle, announced our four alternates for this years competition team. However, our alternate cheerleaders continue to work hard in the event that one of the other girls becomes injured before competition. This year, I was asked to choreograph the dance portion of our routine. After dedicating several hours of the weekend to watching old cheer videos for ideas, the end result was a huge hit with the team! As of right now, we have selected our stunt choices and memorized the three eight counts of the dance portion. I hope our music will be put together over Thanksgiving break. After tonights practice, Scranton cheerleading looks like a definite threat to those competing in division two, “all girl!”
Last night, the student body gathered to kick off and celebrate the 2009-2010 basketball season. Despite the fact that game one of the world series was scheduled to take place at the same time, the Midnight Madness turnout was quite impressive! University of Scranton fans decked out in purple and white filled the bleachers sporting their free t-shirt given to them upon admission. Although some of our freshman girls were slightly intimidated by the crowd, we stuck our routine, making a fabulous first impression. If you were not able to make our performance, take a look at the video!
Every year, the cheerleading team performs a short routine during the annual Midnight Madness. Midnight Madness is one of the most school spirited events held at the University of Scranton. The student body gathers on this special night to get excited for the upcoming basketball season. After it was brought to our attention that Midnight Madness was scheduled for Wednesday night, we had to put a routine together, fast! Because six of our girls have been sick and one has a broken hand, it was a real challenge to get everyone to push themselves and focus. We decided to use our music from last year’s nationals and throw in the stunts we are most confident will stick. By the end of the practice we had successfully put together an acceptable routine. Now our only worry is that people will be watching the first World Series game rather than sitting in the bleachers the night of Midnight Madness! I guess we’ll find out!
The University of Scranton holds the second largest college cheerleading camp in the United States. Because the camp was held at our school the past two years, UCA wanted to thank us by sending two staff members to help choreograph our nationals routine. Nick and Nicole spent Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. -4:00 p.m. teaching us new stunts and skills. One bloody nose, dozens of bruises, tons of bloody knuckles and two extremely hard hits in the head later, our team members walked away exhausted, yet incredibly proud of themselves. Check out some of the pictures from Sunday’s practice!
It is officially 87 days until our national competition! Although this may seem very far away, you would be surprised how fast a competition can spring up on you. Like every sport, hours beyond hours go into practicing for the big day. However, what sets cheerleading apart from other sports is that most teams practice for several games but we only get one chance to perform a two and a half minute routine. We only get one shot! It’s either we “stick it” or we don’t make it to finals. Because this is my first post, I’d like to give you a little background information on our team. The University of Scranton is a division three school, however, the UCA national college competition does not offer division three so we compete division two, “all girl.” Our team is made up of 24 girls, four of those ladies being alternates. In case of injury, we have an alternate girl for every stunt position- backspot, flyer and bases. We can’t take any chances! We practice three days a week not including mandatory individual workouts and team lifting twice a week. Once November hits, we have 24 hour rules where we can’t go out the night before games which are usually every Saturday and Sunday. While most students go home after finals in December, our team stays on campus usually up until Dec. 21. to prepare ourselves for nationals as soon as we return back to school after New Years. We were lucky enough to get some talented freshman in this year, and I am very confident with the way practices have been running.
