Submitted by Denair High School

Robyn Hilton could not be more proud of her Denair High School cheerleading squad. In late June, the 22-member team attended a prestigious camp at UC Davis and came away with the top award, beating out 14 other schools from all over Northern California.

The Leadership Award is presented on the final day of the three-day camp. It is voted on by all the camp goers and represents the team they would most like to join because of its spirit, its willingness to learn new stunts and dance steps, and its work ethic.

It was quite a kickoff for the 2016-17 group, which features incoming eight freshmen as well as two sophomores, six juniors and six seniors.

“We definitely showed school pride and spirit. I am extremely proud of our team,” said Hilton, adding that winning the Leadership Award has been a goal for at least the past four years.

“It’s an award that reflects character. That’s even more important than the cheerleading skills,” she said. “We all went through those three days together. They pushed themselves to be in the front, to start games, to meet people, to get out the box and to really have fun.”

The camp is run by the United Cheerleading Association. There is a full schedule each day starting at 8:30 a.m. and going until about 8 p.m. Each team is taught the same set of stunts, but develops its own routine to feature them.

“It’s nice to have so many who are experienced. The seniors really help to support the underclassmen. We had practiced every week leading up to camp, but camp is a lot of hard work,” Hilton said. “There were lots of bumps and bruises and tumbles.”

Denair’s team features five flyers (the members at the top of the pyramids who are caught by others), 10 bases, five back spotters and two front spotters. Continue reading “Denair Cheerleaders Excel at Camp, Win Top Award” »