MORENO VALLEY>> The Vista del Lago cheerleading team is off to a spirited start for the upcoming school year! Recently, a group of mostly first-timers attended a Universal Cheerleading Association camp in Garden Grove and returned to Vista with some hardware! The team spent a week of intense training and learning new techniques. During the week the team earned multiple awards: 1 Red Excellent Ribbon, 3 Blue Superior Ribbons and 5 Gold Superior Ribbons. On championship day, the cheerleaders garnered several more awards: 1st place Superior Trophy, 1st place for Improvement, and a Spirit Stick Award.
As coach Claudia Bueno said, the Spirit Stick was the most important to the team. It was awarded to groups that demonstrated teamwork in classes, adherence to camp rules, timeliness, and more.
“The girls came a long way this weekend and this award was well earned,” Bueno said.
In addition, some individual cheerleaders were given awards. Jasmin Zaky and Valerie Rodriguez took home a “Pin it Forward” pin. The pin signifies strong leadership skills, genuine spirit, commitment, kindness and motivation.
Michelle Bustamante was awarded an All American Cheerleader medallion. She was one of just a few at the camp to receive the honor after trying out in front of the entire camp. It is also an invitation to join the Universal Cheerleading Association in London.
Hopefully the hard work keeps paying off and the girls can keep on having success for the rest of their time on the cheerleading squad and show what hard work and dedication, and team camaraderie can lead you to achieve.