Home from Camp . . . Now What?

Home from Camp . . . Now What?

Camp was a lot of hard work and a whole lot of fun! Now that you are back home, keep that focused mindset and start counting down the days to your back to school rally and first football game. It could feel a little overwhelming. Have no fear! You have built a strong foundation at camp and are ready for another amazing year. We’ve put together a quick checklist of things you can do to prep now before things speed up too quickly. Read on!

You’ve written out your game day script. Now it’s time to put it into action!

• Pull the song list from the band and set the new camp sideline routines and crowd getters to your own music and drum cadences. You’ll be surprised at how easily you can make the camp material your own!
• Set the timeout cheer formations on the actual sideline to make sure you have room to do all the awesome skills and visual formation changes you planned.
• Set your sideline lines with ALL of the spirit programs that will be sharing the space – cheer, song/pom, mascots and pep flags.

Get comfortable on the sideline and on the field for halftime routines.

• Practice all the game-actions© with your signs, poms and megs. It should get to the point where all of that is second nature and not something you have to stress about on Friday nights!
• Remember that you have a much larger space for your halftime routine and are performing for a really spread out crowd. Are you utilizing the space and making big, visual formation changes? Can the crowd in the back feel the routine you are performing? Make sure everything is big, clean and dynamic!

Expect the unexpected.

• Practice all the situations you reviewed in your game day prep class. What do you do if a player gets injured? How do you engage your crowd in certain situations? Is everyone working the fight song with all the incorporations?

Fall is the best time of year with football games, new classes and making new friends! With all the excitement coming your way, getting prepped and making sure the new members feel comfortable now is key. Take all the goals, technique, unity and game day training you learned at #usacamps and bring them to life at home. No matter what, work together and focus on being STRONG AS ONE!

Want to show off all you’ve been working on? Check out USA’s Game Time divisions being offered at many of our one day events! Step into the spotlight by taking your existing timeout cheer or timeout dance to the competition floor! Visit the Game Time page on usa.varsity.com! Online registration is open now. You’ve got this!

Photos courtesy of Lou Collazo