Junior High Cheer: Big Sis/Little Sis + UCA Cheer Camp & All-American Tryouts

This last week & next are the most important for junior high cheer: it’s their preparation for the entire year!

Monday was all playtime: their Big Sis/Little Sis reveal celebration! Annelise’s big sis snuck in her bedroom while she was still sleeping (obviously I knew they were coming & let them in the house!) & jumped in bed with her before kidnapping her away to breakfast with everyone. :-D Then on to a pool & pizza party (with a fondant pom cake I made! yes, everyone loved! yes, Annelise helped make: I told her it was for cheer camp, so she didn’t know about big/little! ;-))
They also had their backpack reveal where they all got their complete uniforms, 5 practice wear shirts, 2 shorts, 3 bows, & jacket - they all tried their unis on immediately. (The designs are COMPLETELY NEW *every* year; if you remember my old youth cheer program - look here and here - can you BELIEVE Annelise’s 7th grade design?! #classicforareason #goodtaste #3rdtimesamestyle :-D)

UCA Cheer Camp began Tuesday, and our school won the spirit award (UCA Top Banana) out of ALL 15 of the junior highs here! (Yes, we have *15* junior highs in our city!!!) Our 7th & 8th grade squads worked together for all of Camp:

UCA Cheer Camp Day 2 - our sweet girls brought balloon gifts for the other squads. ❤️ Annelise had 12 HOURS of nonstop cheer that Wednesday: UCA 8:45 AM until 5 PM, extra junior high practice right after UCA, and then her competition team, Rage, practice until 9 PM = she was starving (I brought lots of food in b/t :-P) but in cheer heaven!

UCA Cheer Camp Day 3 - UCA held official All-American tryouts during the day. What’s that process?

YES: Annelise made *ALL-AMERICAN*!!!!! Super proud of her for stepping up to earn this extra special honor. ❤️ Since she made it, she’s invited to march in Disney World’s Thanksgiving parade! (Since we just did Summit (& are praying to get back there, again, next May!) I doubt even just Annelise & I will go = $$$!!! But it’s still such an honor!!!)

“The individuals invited to perform in the parade are part of a select group of cheerleaders chosen as All-Americans during Varsity Spirit summer camps across the country. All-Americans are selected via tryout based on superior cheerleading skills at camps operated by UCA. Only the top 10% of the cheerleaders from Varsity Spirit camps earn the chance to march in a holiday parade of this caliber.”

The UCA Showcase Thursday evening for friends & family highlighting everything all of the squads accomplished at camp was sweet on multiple levels: not only did Annelise & her squad look good, but we had SOOO MANY competition friends *AND* quite a few girls who came up through my youth rec cheer program there! I’m so proud that we properly prepared them for this, that everyone did well, and that - did I mention? - ANNELISE IS AN ALL-AMERICAN!!!

With friends from our competition gym:

Dinner after:

First morning off :-D

Now her specific junior high cheer camp is next week, where it’s just the 7th & 8th graders from her school working together on their specific cheers, routines, & spirit stuff for their school with their name & mascot in/on everything. Her 2 hyper-intense cheer weeks conclude next weekend with her choreography camp for Rage, this year’s new allstar competition team. #cheerlife

Comments

  1. Wow - so much cheer :) but I know y'all are loving it!! Huge congratulations to Annelise on being All-American!!!

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    1. Thank you!!! We are SOOO PROUD of her for stepping up in front of hundreds of girls - her peers - and trying out! There are a number of other really talented girls on our squad, but they were honestly just too scared to try out in front of everyone. I’m so proud of her courage!

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  2. Wow! Your pictures look like so much fun! And congratulations to Annelise for making the parade!

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    1. Thank you!!! I so wish we could go! 😢 This is the first year that they haven’t had a Houston parade option. In years past, Midwest and Northeast would go to Philadelphia, Southeast to Orlando, and the entire West would come to Houston for our Thanksgiving Day parade. I can’t believe this is the first year that Houston isn’t an option - they’re only doing Philadelphia in Orlando. Maybe if her competition team doesn’t make Summit this May, and she makes All-American again next year, we could make it back to Disney Thanksgiving 2019?

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