I am the coach of the high school varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders.
We cheer for the football and basketball seasons and attend cheer competitions.
To be competitive, my squads attend a week-long cheerleading camp. The camp is extremely intensive and beneficial. The girls learn dance routines, cheers and stunts that require a great deal of practice and skill. It is a great way for the team to bond and learn new techniques. We are a much better team because of it. However, the camp is rather expensive. We need to cover the cost of bus transportation as well as the camp fees. Plus, the girls need to dress identical and have a different outfit for each day of camp. We order matching socks, shorts and tank tops for seven separate days, and we outfit approximately thirty girls. It’s rather time-consuming to pick out the style and color of each outfit and we always get the garments printed with our school name. Because our mascot is the panthers, we sometimes use paw prints on the outfits. I work with a local print shop that handles the silk screening. They are wonderful at working with me to keep prices to a minimum. We try to reuse screens from previous years or use the same paw print on a shirt as well as a pair of shorts. We’ve also come up with a good fund-raising idea. We sell sponsorship to local businesses and then create a T-shirt that lists everyone who donated money. The girls wear the T-shirts to local events.