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The Lamar University Cheerleading Team brought home seven awards from the Universal Cheerleaders Association College Camp in San Marcos this month. The Lamar team included 19 women, seven men and two mascots. The UCA camp lasted four days. Each day was spent learning material, which was evaluated every evening.

Lamar competed against more than 25 teams from different conferences and earned first place in Cheer, third place in Sideline, fifth place in Fight Song, the Most Collegiate Team award, the Most Improved Program award and the Best Game Day Plan award. The LU mascots also earned first place in their Home Skit, which they prepared before the camp.

Kristyn Henderson, Lamar cheer and mascot coordinator, said the mascots come up with a theme for their skit and put it together themselves. “They get a little help from the instructors there on how to get the crowd more involved,” she said. “Then they get to perform it for all of the other mascots and get scored on their performance.”

Henderson said the goal of the UCA is to make sure teams are game focused and are doing what they are supposed to for the school and are properly representing the school in the community.

“It is not really a competition-based organization,” she said. “They want to get you game ready and want you to look elite like the big division one schools. They want to make sure you always look professional and you are getting the crowd involved to hopefully change the atmosphere of a game.”

The Lamar cheerleading team has made more than 100 community appearances this year. With tryouts beginning in May, practice in June, camp in July and then football and basketball season extending through April, cheerleading is a year-long commitment, Henderson said. “This is only our second year, and we are really taking on a collegiate look and attitude of how cheerleading is supposed to be.”

Pictured from the LU cheer team are: bottom Row from left, Travis Briggs of Fannett, Wade Hendrix of Sour Lake, Anthony Moore of Beaumont, Adrain Webb of Dallas and DeQuane Bennett of Beaumont. Top row: Brittany Colvin of Silsbee, Kalee Garcia of Lufkin, Kelsi Kolb of Nederland, Maddison Marchand of Nederland and Brooks Levingston of Fannett.