Sweat poured down the scorched faces of the cheerleaders at the 20th annual Fellowship of Christian Cheerleaders (FCC) cheer camp, July 9-12. As they cheered on the baseball field of Azusa Pacific University, they performed their closing routine to win the spirit award, recognizing the best overall performance.

“I was really anxious to see who won,” Shelby Decker, ’11, said, “especially since the second night they didn’t call our name for the spirit stick (the daily award for most spirited) right away. I just really wanted to win.”

While the girls waited in a circle for the final results of the 2008 FCC spirit award, many held hands in hopes to hear their high school announced.

The shrill of 25 screaming cheerleaders echoed across the field when the speaker announced Fresno Christian. After four days of work in the July heat, the cheerleaders won the spirit award for the fourth consecutive year.

“One of my favorite memories of camp this year was wining the Spirit Stick on the second night,” coach Katie Mendenhall said. “We thought we did really good, then they didn’t call our name. But later they did a skit and gave it to us then because they had so much spirit.”

For four days, the girls worked from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. with few breaks.

“Camp is a time when the girls can bond,” Mendenhall said. “We bond by having to work really hard together as a team, live in the dorms together and prime time (the camp’s evening worship time) helps them bond as well.”

As a returning cheerleader, captain Holly Savage, ’10, must help the group work together.

“I like being captain because you get to call ‘ready’ to start a cheer,” Savage said, “and I get ‘captain’ embroidered on my sweatshirt. But other times I don’t like it because I have to be mean to keep their sprits high and not complain; that’s my least favorite part.”

Although four cheerleaders graduated, 19 returned and six new members joined the squad.

At the camp, the girls competed against 10 other schools and approximately 125 other cheerleaders at the elite camp. In previous years, the cheerleaders attended the regular cheer camp; for the second year, they attended elite camp and performed as well as before.

Although they had over 20 dances, stunts and cheer routines to learn and perfect, the cheerleaders found time to hang out with each other in their dorms.

“One of my favorite memories of camp was in the dorms one night,” Decker said, “when there were tube lights in mine and Mary’s (Reynolds, ’11) room. We would play music and the lights would flash with the music. Chelsea (Kitahara, ’11), Mary and I would turn the lights off, run around and throw candy at each other. It was so much fun.”

The first competition of the season will be at *Clovis North Educational Center, Nov. 8. They will also compete at five others, and March attend the United Spirit Association (USA) nationals, which they won last year, if they qualify.

For more information, visit the FC cheer home page or e-mail Katie Mendenhall.

*Editor’s Note: the Nov. 8 competition location was corrected from Clovis East High School to Clovis North Educational Center after publication.