Over the summer, cheerleaders from all across California spent their time at the Universal Cheerleaders Association cheer camp from July 21-23. There, they got the opportunity to interact with students from other schools, bond with their fellow teammates, and watch and learn other cheer routines.

Ariana Raygoza, a freshman, was interested in doing another sport like cheer before entering high school. Because she only participated in taekwondo as a sport beforehand, trying something new and different was a goal of hers. Since it would also be her first year at a new school, she wanted to be involved and found cheer to be a good way to do so.

Because she was still debating whether or not she was going to try out, she ended up watching YouTube videos, specifically ones from the California Allstars Bullets Smoed competition squad, an elite cheerleading team in Camarillo, California, and was inspired.

“I loved it so much I couldn’t wait until I tried it.”

Seeing everyone being cheery at the camp was weird to her. However, she ended up having a really fun time overall, learning to trust her teammates more in stunts and doing more cheers such as her favorites, sideline dance and extreme dance.

“I feel like I left camp with more courage doing the cheers, stunts, and dances in front of people,” Raygoza said. “We learned cheers and did it in front of other cheerleaders which was scary at first but doing it that weekends helped with being shy.”

At the end of the camp, the cheerleaders participated in a competition, where the freshman team won many awards. The news was surprising to Raygoza, yet she was very happy with it all.

“We were a little surprised because we were freaking out about messing up in front of people but we practiced and practiced and had an amazing result,” Raygoza said. “I’m so proud of my team and myself.”