During the fall, their peppy cheers sound across the field. But when the football season ended, the girls? varsity cheer team was just getting started.

The campus cheer squad will compete in the Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders National competition in Orlando, FL, for the first time in six years on Jan. 5-7. The team will compete for the first time outside of California since 1990 when they competed in Dallas, TX.

?When I watch them in practice they hit their stunts every time,? Katie Mendenhall cheer coach said. ?Their only real mountain will be their nerves. But if they perform like they did at the last competition, where they placed 5th overall, they?ll do very well.?

Beyond the mountain of nerves lay the mountain of cost. The team worked for three months to raise the $8,000 fee for the trip. Beginning in the fall semester they sold Gold Canyon candles, held a cheer clinic for future cheerleaders and relied on sponsors to make this trip a possibility.

?Last competition we were really nervous, it was kind of like a practice,? Christie Belden, ?06, varsity cheer captain, said. ?We hope to place in the top five because then we get to go back the next day and compete again for a National title.?

The competition begins Jan. 6 where schools from Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Georgia and Tennessee will be stunting their stuff. FC will compete for the first time at 10:30 A.M. The top six teams for each category will go on to compete in the finals on Jan. 7.

For more information about The Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders, go online at www.cheerfcc.org.