A typical award is usually a trophy or a medal; but, for the cheer team, their best award this summer was a large banana. Deemed the banana award, this giant inflatable banana was the epitome of spirit, including the signatures of its recipients to be passed down for years to come.

From dancing to tumbling to chants, the varsity cheer team learned new transitions and tumbling tricks, and won three distinct camp awards.

The varsity cheer team headed to Camp Champs from July 14 – 16 at UCF near the CFE arena along with 25 other teams from across the state.

Camp Champs had a distinct focus on spirit and transitional techniques. Through the camp, the team cheered for other teams as they did stunts for evaluations and competed in other spirit activities, like “Betsy,” an introductory game much like duck duck goose.

The cheer team was placed in the elite skill level with a private coach and put together a routine that included dancing, standing back tucks, and a pyramid; the team also learned to advance their transitions throughout practice. Much unlike other competitions, this one did not focus on the scores.

The team won the division award for large varsity, along with two other awards: the banana award and the leadership award.

“We won the banana award on the second day. It was a blow up inflatable banana, which we all got to sign but we couldn’t keep it,” senior Amanda Moberg said.

The leadership award, which was awarded by other schools, meant that if the cheerleaders were not on their own team, they would choose to be on  Hagerty’s team.

“After such a successful year, it will be hard to top that this season,” Coach Kim Hackman said. “But I think the team definitely improved at the camp from all the hard workers on the team.”