Before the school year even starts, Panther cheer and dance is racking up hardware.
On the week of July 28, the team traveled to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord for its annual Universal Cheerleaders Association team camp, attracting squads from across the Southeast for four days of intensive training. There Franklin took home a wide range of different awards, including a camp championship.
“On the final day of camp all the teams come together, and you perform your material that you’ve learned,” said head coach Lynn Baker. “It’s judged by the UCA staff just like a competition, and they came in first.”
With the top performance in their division, including second place in the Game Day category, the Panthers took home a Camp Champion award. In addition to their work on the mat, they also earned the most prestigious prize of all.
“Some of it’s Small, Medium and Large [divisions], but this for example, they gave out one of these bad boys for the entire camp,” said Baker of the Top Banana award, which Franklin also won last year. “It’s [given to] the team that had the most hard work, the most spirit and the most overall excellence at camp.”
Despite being the camp’s smallest team by membership, Franklin made an outsized impression, gaining notice for their character as well as their performance. In several small acts of kindness throughout the week, Panther seniors said the team made a big impact.
“I feel like we just went above and beyond with everything we did, even if it was the little things,” said Mckinzy Carver, who was named a UCA All-American at the camp. “We would stay after and clean up, and just do things that that aren’t required – just common decency.”
“Even when we were walking through the hotel hallways we would talk to people that weren’t even with the camp, and we would just try to make an impact on everyone while we were there,” said Mariam Sanders, who was also named an All-American along with Madeline Bishop, Valerie Perez and Melany Sanchez-Ramirez.
With a Camp Championship, the Top Banana, and more than a dozen other awards, Franklin left Concord as the week’s most decorated team. Upon returning home they dove straight into the competition season, planning a marathon session with their choreographer Aug. 9.
“We’re going to do the bones of our choreography all in one day, since she has to fly in from Wisconsin,” said Baker. “We actually work with Coach Cortney [Erxleben], who used to be a coach here – I coached with her when we had the separate competition team many, many years ago. … Choreography can be expensive, and because she loves us, we work together. She and I do it together, so we cut the rate by like a quarter of the cost.”
In a jam-packed session with Erxleben, the team hopes to lay the groundwork for their competitive routine, which they’ll perform at various competitions this winter. But with a different configuration than they’ve had in the past, their path to Nationals will look a bit different.
“We do have a boy on our team this year, so we’ll be changing divisions when we compete,” said Baker of junior Tyler Bishop, who also competes for Panther track and field. “We will be competing co-ed this year, so even though we only have one guy, they’re still going to expect us to compete at a co-ed level. Some of our girls are going to be stepping up to start showing off and helping build those co-ed skills.”
Coming off the most successful three-year run in program history, including three straight trips to UCA Nationals, the team hopes to earn another trip to Orlando this winter despite changing divisions. While the new judging criteria presents a challenge, the team believes they have what it takes to go the distance.
“I feel like it’s changed – our team is a lot different this year,” said Carver.
“Usually it takes until the end of the season to get a super-good bond with your team, but this year we’re already really close,” said Sanders.