The Cedartown Middle School football-competition cheerleaders once again came out as big winners at the recent University of Georgia UCA cheerleading camp. Sixty teams and 800 cheerleaders competed in the annual camp that begin on Sunday, July 13.

The cheerleaders, along with coaches Nancy Timmons and Erin Walters had a successful four days at camp. On the very first night the CMS cheerleading squad won the “Top Banana” award given to the most outstanding team.

During the four day camp the cheerleaders learned new cheers, sideline chants, dances, and a few stunts for the upcoming year. The CMS squad collected several awards at the camp. During the award ceremony they won first place in their dance, they won first place in the extreme dance that they learned at camp, and the squad also claimed second place in the extreme cheer competition.

Their biggest honor, however, was winning the “Leadership Award.” This award is voted on by the cheerleading teams at the camp as is given to the team that showed the best leadership and the team that they would most like to be a member of. Mrs. Timmons, the CMS coach, said that this award was what she was most proud of.

“With 54 high school teams and six middle school teams at camp, it is hard to believe a middle school would win this award,” Timmons said. The team was also invited to perform in the Capital One Bowl game in Orlando this December and they get to stay at the Walt Disney World Resort.

“It was a great experience and so much fun for all 18 girls and their coaches,” Timmons added.

Two of the girls from the CMS team were chosen as all-star cheerleaders by the UCA staff. They were Jessica Worthy (eighth grader), and Kara Smith (sixth grader).

“The girls worked very hard preparing for camp,” Timmons added. “They met after school about three days a week during April and May. During the summer they met once a week and met the whole week before camp to work on their dance and stunts.”

A day at camp would start with breakfast around 7 a.m. and continue until about 9 p.m., Timmons said. “It was a tough four days trying to learn as much material as possible for the upcoming year,” Timmons added.

“On the final day of the event they had to show that they had learned the cheers, chants, dance, and stunts that was taught to them during the week,” Timmons said, “The girls learned all the material and were awarded the top ribbons for every category.” The CMS cheerleaders will begin practicing again on August 4.