SANTA ROSA — Danny Aguilar walked his daughter Aliannah Jaye into the school gymnasium and watched her learn to cheer at the first cheerleading camp she has ever attended.
He was not the only father or family member there to root for their young up-and-coming future school cheerleaders at the annual mini cheer camp organized by the Santa Rosa High School cheerleaders and team sponsors.
The campers started their first day learning dances, cheers and chants.
And by the end of the day, some were learning stunts and cheering from the top of cheering pyramids.
“She is excited to be here,” Aguilar said about his daughter Aliannah, a kindergartener. “Hopefully, she takes this as a good learning experience, and she learns a lot.”
He said during the sports season she enjoyed wearing her Santa Rosa cheerleading outfit and taking pom-poms to the home games to cheer for the Warriors.
“It’s very rewarding for the team because we get to come out and teach the little girls cheers, dances and how to have fun,” Mariah Nikole Contreras, Santa Rosa High cheerleading captain, said about the camp.
She said the camp took a lot of planning and determination to organize this year.
“The coaches were a big part of putting everything together; we just show up to teach the girls,” Contreras said.
More girls continued to arrive and sign up on site before the start of camp.
The camp runs from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is held at the high school Jose “Chepe” de la Fuente gymnasium.
“We doubled what we had last year,” said Marcy Prado-Cuevas, cheerleading camp co-director. “We have kids from different schools, not only Santa Rosa this year.”
This year, 90 campers signed up to learn from the high school cheerleaders.
She said some of the campers came from La Feria, Harlingen, Mercedes and as far as Brownsville to participate in the three-day cheerleading camp.
“We wanted to get the community involved so we got the girls excited and they went out and advertised this for all these girls to come and participate,” Cuevas said.
“The campers are learning things so they can take back to their schools and have spirit for their teams.
“The girls are teaching the campers how to have fun and showing them how fun the sport of cheerleading can be,” Cuevas said.
