This past weekend was the 2018 Hotshots camp, which brought together seven programs from around the country to work on skills, bonding, and—most importantly—sportsmanship.

The camp originally started in 2000 with just Top Gun, World Cup, and Georgia All-stars as a way to promote sportsmanship amongst competitors in the industry. 

“We felt the best way to get this started was to lead by example." -Kristen Rosario.

World Cup, Brandon, Ice, Top Gun, Twist & Shout, Cheer Athletics, and Ace Tribe were among the programs that brought their level 5 teams to train at the three-day camp this year. 

Throughout the camp, the kids get to work stunts, baskets, tumbling, pyramids, and other skills while doing bonding activities as a team and learning how to get "competition-ready" with Rock Your Hair representatives.

Not only do the kids get to train with different coaches on each of the various skill rotations, but they also get to bond with kids from other teams and programs in the grade-level competition.

The grade-level competition is when the camp gets split up by grades, regardless of their program and coaches collaborate to make one giant routine. Each grade then performs their routine in the competition on the last day of camp, because what would cheerleading be without some friendly competition?

We saw some solid performances from the teams attending this weekend and it's looking like this season will be filled with some incredibly talented teams. 

Who's ready to start their countdown until the first competition of the season? 

By Jordan Hearn