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Pictured above are some of the students and cheerleaders who participated in the mini cheer camp this year. Here, some of the participants just finished their half-time performance at Friday’s football game between Chase County and Chadron. (Johnson Publications photo)

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From left, kindergartners Cruz Kimble, Lyla Chandler and Danyelle Martin practice their routines in preparation for the half-time show that evening. (Johnson Publications photo)

Mini cheer camp students deliver entertaining half-time show

    Last Friday’s football half-time show was provided by this year’s mini cheer camp.
    The cheer camp was made up of 54 students in grades K-4 at Chase County Schools.
    Earlier that same day, nine CCS high school cheerleaders divided up the students by grade to teach them cheer routines for that evening’s performances.
    During practice that day, head cheerleading coach Amanda Kimble said they began the mini cheer camp by giving the students a brief history lesson about cheerleading.
    Kimble said the first cheerleader was a man named Johnny Campbell. Nov. 2, 1898 was the official birthday of organized cheerleading with a six-man yell squad at the University of Minnesota.
    Cheer squads were always made up of men in the beginning. It was 25 years later, in 1923, before women joined the cheer squads, and they would be called cheerleaders.
    Some famous people, including several U.S. Presidents, were cheerleaders in their high school and college days.
    Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were cheerleaders. Other well-known people who were cheerleaders include Mitt Romney, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Stewart, Steve Martin, Aaron Spelling and Kirk and Michael Douglas, to name a few.
    Kimble said the students got a kick out of hearing about famous people who were once cheerleaders.

 

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