Toward the end of the four-day Trails End Cheerleading Camp last month, the team captains of each of the roughly 40 teams in attendance were asked a question:
If you couldn’t be on your own team, and you could choose another team to join, which team would you choose?
“Poughkeepsie got the most votes,” Poughkeepsie High School’s cheerleading coach, Lynnece Edmond, said proudly while sitting in her classroom in front of the camp’s “Leadership Award,” which her squad earned by virtue of that vote.
“It’s the most prestigious award they give out at the end of camp,” she said. “I was really excited about that – almost in tears. This is our second year going to the camp and it’s great to see the other teams see the progress in the program.”
The cheer squad spent part of its preseason at the camp, held Aug. 27-30 in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, where it earned a slew of honors while obtaining valuable skills and training for the year ahead. Four individual Poughkeepsie students earned “All-American” status, qualifying them to take part in prestigious Universal Cheerleaders Association exhibitions around the world.
The UCA organizes the camp and provides teams instruction not only on techniques but in how to maximize their scoring potential in competitions.
Edmond, a Poughkeepsie Middle School teacher, said the team had time to bond, living together in their own dedicated cabin, worked on specific skills, learned position-specific conditioning exercises and left with an entire competition routine worked out.
“It was a lot of fun,” senior Allysha Anderson said. “You learn about these new cheers and new dances, new stunts, new everything. And then you take it home and make it your own. We add a little Pioneer Pride to it.”
Teams went head-to-head on the final day of the camp, showing off those routines. Poughkeepsie earned two second- and two third-place trophies in their division, which included nearly 15 teams.
In addition, individual cheerleaders were invited to try out for UCA’s All-American level by displaying various skills. While no Poughkeepsie athlete qualified last year, four – seniors Anderson and Azelia David, and juniors Tiffany Walters and Jurnee Smith – made the grade this time, amid a field of roughly 500 trying out.
While the cheerleaders who are invited to take part in the UCA exhibitions in places like Hawaii, London and Rome, among others, have to pay their own way, it’s an honor, they said, to have that option. Anderson and Walters, at least, are strongly considering performing in Disney World for Thanksgiving.
“I guarantee it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Anderson said.
Walters attributed Poughkeepsie’s success at the camp to familiarity and preparation. Knowing what to expect after their first trip there last year, the Pioneers worked on their skills through the summer months.
“We knew what to expect,” she said. “We learned the stuff before we went there, so we could learn new stuff while at camp.”
The Pioneers cheerleaders did win one other award on the second night of camp: The Banana.
“It’s the most prestigious award when it comes to spiriting. We had the spirit,” Edmond said. “They would tell you to get there five minutes before, we would get there 10 minutes before. It was awesome. They did a great job.”
Edmond doesn’t know why an enormous Banana is awarded for such a high honor – just one team received it each night – but she said, it’s revered in the cheer world. In fact, while the Pioneers own their plaque for winning the Leadership Award, The Banana couldn’t make the trip back to Poughkeepsie.
“Each team that had the banana signed it or put a message on it. And then, the camp keeps it,” the coach said. “No team walks away with the banana. That’s how important the banana is. The banana stays in camp.”
