Putting a routine together…

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!

Cheers!

UCA weekend…

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!

UCA staff members, Nicole and Nick

Almost there!

Solid!

Great job ladies!

Sometimes cheerleading hurts….

Getting taped up…

October Practices…

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.

Cheers!

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