Cheer squad holds camp

The Trojans cheerleaders had a successful mini-camp last week from Aug. 7-9. It was a combined camp with Rosemary Clarke Middle School. In attendance were 17 cheerleaders from RCMS and 13 from PVHS.

Head Cheer Coach Tyann James was excited about meeting all the goals.

The camp was conducted by Professional Cheer Service of Las Vegas (PCS), who provided three instructors.

“What we wanted to accomplish is the stunting. This is really important to me this year. We are also working on tumbling, new cheers and new dances as well. I also want the girls to understand safety while they are stunting. That is what PCS stresses.

“I also wanted to do some team building between the high school and the middle school. I want the girls at the middle school to be learning what the girls at the high school are doing so they could step right in and go to the next level right away,” she said.

James feels the summer in general was very successful. Prior to the camp she was able to meet with the girls and work on team building.

“We have seen huge increases in the camaraderie at the high school level since we started summer workouts,” James said.

Assistant Coach Heather Battaglia attended camp to support the team. She teamed with James to bring stunting back to the squad.

“The girls really want to get back into stunting,” Battaglia said. “They did not do any during basketball and they miss that. Many of the girls came out this year because they knew we were going to get back into stunting. My daughter actually encouraged me to do this. I know these are her high school years. I didn’t want to force her. Our plan is to stick with this for the next couple of years.”

Sophomore Alyssa Desmoni came to cheer camp to learn stunting and tumbling and some kicks. She said the camp was going well, “I have been training for five years now. I have been cheering since sixth grade up until now. This is a great experience.”

James said there will be other changes she hopes to bring to the team.

“My goal is to increase the size of the squad. I would like to have 12 varsity and 12 JV cheerleaders for football. Also, I want to do something new for basketball. I want to get with Chris Brockman and possibly change where we cheer from.

“I don’t want the girls cheering in front of the bleachers. College girls cheer from the ends. The college girls also cheer from their knees. I want to prepare the girls for college for those who want to go on. They have to reach a certain level. Some of these girls are good and some of them want that,” James said.

Another goal is new equipment. She hopes through aggressive fundraising to raise money to buy new mats for basketball season.

“The rules have changed for stunting. We need to buy special mats if we want to stunt at basketball games. We will hopefully be able to get some fundraising going for these new mats. What I really want is people to come to football games and to support the athletic department. The gate fee for the games also goes to cheer,” she said.