Hands on our Hips (XX) Smile on our Lips (XX) Spirit in our Hearts (XX) Lets Start. The Valley Heights High School Cheer team travels to Butler CC in El Dorado, KS to participate in their first ever destination cheer camp. Last school year, 2022-23 the Mustang cheerleaders held many fundraisers to save up enough money to pay their way to the first ever, overnight away, cheer camp in cheer history. The camp was hosted by Universal Cheerleaders Association, UCA, where the cheerleaders learned new material to have in their tool box for the upcoming season.
Becoming a cheerleader isn’t as easy as it seems. Sophomore Krista Porter said, “I really enjoyed cheering last year and supporting the Mustangs, so I decided to try out again last year.” After making the cheer team, the cheerleaders were determined to go to an away cheer camp. While the cheerleaders were at their away cheer camp, they had the opportunity to stay in the college dorms with another teammate. Senior, Olivia Skalla said, “My roommate was Haily Stoudt and I absolutely loved DoorDashing McDonalds with her every night of cheer camp.”
As camp was underway freshman, Shaylee Ekstrum said, “I was very nervous because I didn’t have much experience with cheer. I also didn’t know some of the upperclassmen but after cheer camp we all became one small family.” The team was challenged with lots of new material, Junior Tessa Miller said, “Learning the new pyramids was big for us and a huge stepping stone. Accomplishing those tasks gave us motivation to do the harder things that we are very excited to showcase for the community this football and basketball season.” Coming back from cheer camp, these cheerleaders have so much more knowledge and skills to showcase. They worked hard to learn all new things and have very high expectations for this coming cheer season.
Article By: Maggie Toerber and Paige Miller