Over the weekend of Oct. 19 and 20, the SUNY New Paltz cheerleading team was hard at work on the blue mat-padded floors of the Athletic and Wellness Center (AWC). They participated in a National Cheerleading Association (NCA) camp, intending to obtain a bid that would allow them to compete in next year’s NCA College Nationals. The Nationals are traditionally held in Daytona Beach, FL in April, allowing the cheerleaders to take advantage of the idyllic spring temperatures to cheer in.
On the first day of camp, the gym doors were opened, allowing any passing outsider a glimpse into the training process. Saturday’s camp hours extended from noon to 5 p.m., while Sunday’s hours differed slightly, with later hours from 1-7 p.m. To the team, this was a fitting amount of time dedicated to nationals in addition to the two days of practice they utilize during the week for standard cheer routines. The cheerleaders often compete out of their home state, partaking in special training camps like this one to prepare themselves for cheer performance at a collegiate level.
Third-year student and club president, Sophia Babinsky said, “Being that we’re a club, we’re not recognized as an athletic team; we’re recognized as a club sport. We only get two days in the gym per week, and we only get four hours per week of practice time.” That being said, camp is an amazing opportunity to practice while having the hands-on guidance of NCA instructors on the mat, “Having such experienced people teach us what they know gives us some new perspective, and we can learn things from a different lens, rather than just hearing it from the coaches,” said Babinsky, on the effectiveness of instructors working with coaches.
Using the mat reserved for cheer practice, the cheerleaders assembled into five groups, containing about four people each. Within the groups, three cheerleaders known as the side bases and the back, held up one flyer — the person being hoisted into the air during stunts — by the ankles and feet, allowing the flyer to be seen high above the ground, holding a pose called “the liberty.” These poses are then appraised by an NCA instructor.
One instructor encouraged a flyer to fold in their body rather than jut out their chest, while another closely watched the grip that the base cheerleaders were executing to support the flyers. The instructors passed around the groups, making corrections occasionally as they completed their collective stunts.
In front of the team’s groups, a white table was bordered with chairs in which the cheer coaches, Brittany King, Cheyanne Edwards and Jessica Merten, sat. Coach King — often referred to as “Brit” by the cheerleaders passing by the table — was busy at a computer, viewing available merchandise for a NCA Nationals fundraiser. Alternating between the varying colors which the ‘Hugo Shirts’ came in and keeping an eye on the front group attempting a liberty, Coach King explained the structure of the NCA camp and how the practice schedule works.
“You have to get a bid to go to nationals, you can’t just sign up and go,” King said. Bids for nationals are in accordance with the type of camps that the cheerleaders attend, such as collegiate camps, competitive camps or stay-away camps, thus earning teams gold, silver or bronze bids.
“This is an elite home camp, where they come to us, but they also have camps where there are multiple teams there — a stay-away camp, and those are cool, but we prefer this, because it’s one-on-one instruction, so you get their full undivided attention for two days,” Coach King continued, referring to the two NCA instructors on the mat who had flown in from Florida and Nevada to coach the Hawks Cheerleaders for the weekend.
This year’s camp featured a familiar face from the New Paltz cheerleading team’s history. NCA camp instructor Matt DeJesus is one half of the instructor duo who visited campus, and he’d worked with the team two years prior for nationals. “He was our camp instructor and then he ended up being one of the spotters in Daytona,” said Coach King, speaking of the group of people who oversee the safety of cheerleaders during their stunt routines.
Having this familiar face back at camp has benefited the cheerleaders as well as the coaches. Not only is DeJesus working with them for the weekend, “he’s moving to Yonkers,” said King.
This is a highly advantageous aspect of preparation for Nationals, because King intends for DeJesus to be the team’s choreographer. She continued to say that he is a perfect fit for the team, as he is already working with them one-on-one to assess their skill levels on stunts, providing ample information with which to create choreography.
The main focal points of NCA camp goals are localized to stunts, prioritizing group chemistry and an important aspect of cheer that Coach King called “body awareness.” She stated, “Earlier, they were a lot quieter — you can just see the nerves. And I can see their confidence growing.”
“From practice last week to today, we have improved so much,” said second-year base Ava Tokar. “We’re already doing, so, so much better and everything looks so much cleaner.”
Club president Babinsky acknowledged the public aspects of the team’s existence as a hard-working athletic unit working toward Nationals. “We’re the — I believe — only club or sports team that competes at a national level, and I feel that’s important to sort of shed light on. We want people to know we exist and we care, and that we’re around!”