(Editor's Note: Maggie Pepitone is a student in the Island Trees School District and a cheerleader on the JV Cheerleading team).

The Island Trees JV Cheerleading team recently attended an intense four-day session of fun and hard work at the Pine Forest Cheerleading Camp, located in Greeley, PA. The girls were privately instructed by the 2002 members of UCA (Universal Cheerleading Association) team on a day-to-day basis, learning two dances and six cheers in total. The team introduced us to a few fun games, such as "The Booty Drop," "The Banana Salute" and of course, the camp favorite, "Peanut Butter and Jelly."

Our daily schedule started off with an early and healthy breakfast, followed by a cheer/dance class, private instruction, lunch, cheer/dance evaluation, dinner, distribution of the spirit stick, then we'd head back to our cabins for a good night's rest.

Some of the electives we were able to take were stunt classes, where we learned how to correctly put up elevators, extensions, liberties and do pop cradles. We could also take a material review class, jump class, and for those who wanted to try out for the "All Star Team," an all star review class to help you get ready to perform for the tryouts.

To become an all star, the cheerleaders would have to perform one jump, a cheer and the extreme dance routine we learned the first day of arrival. The JV team is proud to have a handful of varsity cheerleaders from our school make it on the All Star team.

Another highlight of the camp was the presentation of awards to the deserving teams on the final day of camp. Island Trees HS JV is proud of our accomplishments. We were presented with the Camp Champ Award for best dance brought from home and performed at camp. We also are the camp champs for performing a cheer learned at camp, the best in the JV division. We were last rewarded with an improvement award. We received a trophy and ribbon for each award.

Our squad came home from camp sore, tired, bruised, some sick and barely any voices left, but our efforts paid off and we are hoping to display our three trophies and nine ribbons (2 camp champs, 1 improvement, 5 superior from cheer evaluation and 1 excellent from cheer evaluation) in our school showcase. More importantly than bringing home our awards, we learned a great deal about our sport and we're not only a better performing team, but also became a closer team. Good job girls on all your hard work at camp. Let's keep it up throughout our season together.