The Pike Liberal Arts junior varsity cheer squad competed at the AISA/UCA Cheer Camp at Huntingdon College in Montgomery this week.

The young Patriots took home plenty of awards including first prize in cheer, sideline and rally routine. They took home second place in the band dance. They won the Gold Ribbon for cheer and Rally and they had had five win All American honors in Dee Allen, Abbi Kay Terry, Ella Cate Gunter, Jaylee Price and Grace Fry.

Fry and Tate Gardner won the Pin It Forward Award. Fry also named the jump off winner.

“We had a great time,” said head coach Katie Scott. “UCA always does a good job teaching good material and having a good competition on the last day.”

The JV Lady Patriots have a total of 13 members on their cheer square. Of the 13, 4 are new the program and for the most part cheerleading.

“Several have watched older sisters and family members compete,” Scott said. “The tradition of cheerleading at Pike has been going for quite some time. There is a pressure, but some of the kids have doe competitive cheer to prepare for this since kindergarten and first grade.”

New members and veterans alike enjoyed the camp in Montgomery.

“Camp is different every year,” Scott said. “I think they all just enjoy getting to participate. We had a great camp this year. It wasn’t stressful at all and there were no intense moments except for the competition itself.”

The junior varsity squad has been working for this camp since the early days of spring. Other than a week off it’s been a daily grind for Scott and the Patriots.

“They started practice in the spring once or twice a week,” Scott said. “We took a couple of weeks. We came back in early June and practiced everyday Monday through Thursday. Two weeks prior to camp we started practicing two times a day. Everybody had the fourth off, but we practiced the day before and the day after.”

With UCA now in the rearview mirror, the JV Patriots will take a week off before prepping for the fall sport season and even homecoming.

“We start back with the varsity working on football and basketball stuff,” Scott said. “We will start working on homecoming stuff.”

The Junior varsity may also compete in a regional competition. The exact date has yet to be released, but Scott believes it will be in late fall.X