High School Competition Squad of the Week

North Laurel Middle School 2011 Competition Squad

I know that I usually look at high school squads, but what would a good high school squad be without an amazing junior high program. Well North Laurel has an amazing middle school squad. This group of 12 to 14 year olds are pulling off stunts and tumbling passes that most high school squads can't master. With this routine they were named the 2011 UCA Large Junior High National Champions. This win was their third consecutive NHSCC Large Junior High National Championship.

American Diets Not Working? Try One From France

As obesity becomes more and more of a problem in America, many people are setting out to live a healthier life. And with that healthier life style, Americans are also hoping to shed a few pounds along the way. Well a French diet that has been around for almost 70 years maybe be the solution.

Pierre Dukan has been called the Dr. Atkins of France. Well over a million people there have tried the 69-year-old doctor’s program, a method that promises — like countless diets before and since — no hunger, no calorie counting, instant weight loss and lifelong weight maintenance. The original Dukan diet book sold 3.5 million copies in French and has been translated into 14 languages. Next month, the diet will make its American debut when Crown Publishing rolls out the North American edition of “The Dukan Diet,” its cover featuring a plate with two Eiffel Towers and the words, “The Real Reason the French Stay Thin.”

The diet’s high-protein, low-fat approach is organized into four phases, the first of which encourages dieters to eat as much as they want of non-fatty, protein-rich foods, including oat bran — a key component — washed down with oceans of water. The second stage introduces vegetables, but no fruit; the third brings with it two slices of bread, a serving of cheese and fruit and two servings of carbohydrates a day, with two weekly “celebration” meals with wine and dessert (the diet is French, after all); and the final stage — six days a week of “anything goes” and one day of reversion to strict stage one.

To learn more, read the full report, “Warmed-Over Atkins? Don’t Tell the French,”. However, if you want to know the secrets and specifics behind this diet you're going to have to wait a month to read the book. Maybe you should call Barns&Nobles and pre-order it now, before they're all sold out.

New to the UCA Summer Camp

As a high school cheerleader, one of my favorite events of the season is going away to summer camp. Since my parents don't like to travel, camp was always sort of a vacation for me. Now that spring is approaching and it's time to say goodbye to an old squad and hello to a new one. Because I'm graduating I will no longer be going to summer camp but for all the underclassmen on my old squad, this year at camp will be a little different.

New this summer, UCA will be offering new programs at camp including a new and improved UCA Game Time and Fan Frenzy Day, Champions on the Field and UCA Summer Nights.

Our new and improved UCA Game Time & Fan Frenzy Day includes pre-game ideas, cheers, and choreography to keep pep rallies and school traditions fresh and energized. Squads will also learn offense, defense, and general sidelines with fun contests and optional Fight Song. For attending camp, each squad will take home a play-by-play booklet and planning worksheets.
During the review relay on the final day, UCA will introduce a new program called "Champions on the Field." This is your time to showcase what you’ve learned at summer camp. Squads will collect ribbons for knowledge and speed of performing stunts and material. All squad members participate in this fun activity.

Also new this year, there will a Beach Bash Pep Rally on the second night of camp! Enjoy UCA staff and coach performances, team relay races, hula hoop contest, limbo, staff lip sync, and more! Rally ends with a Beach Club Dance Party!

For more information on UCA camps visit the Camp page. To search or register for a UCA Summer Camp visit the Online Camp Search page.

 
 

High School Competition Squad of the Week

Choctaw High School Yellow Jackets Varsity Competition Squad

This high school cheerleading squad from a small town competed against 125 teams for the title NCA Grand Champion. With a final score of 96.20 they claimed their first Grand Champion title. I chose this squad in the honor of my own, because they too won their first grand championship. Now, this squad has way more difficulty in their routine than ours but none the less we're both grand champions. I really enjoy this squad’s use of transitions and effects in their dance; it really makes the routine visually interesting.

Out With a Bang!

After cheering for 13 years and competing for 10, yesterday was the last time I competed with my high school varsity squad. We went into the competition knowing that it was also the last one for our coach, who us seniors have cheered under for the last 6 years. Being it was her last competition coaching the varsity squad, we were determined to do our best and make her proud. The emotional day started at 7:00 A.M., bright and early as usual, and the tears started flowing in warm-ups. After seeing our assistant coach break down and cry in warm-ups it gave us that extra motivation to go for gold. Our routine hit perfectly and then we just had to wait for awards. I knew we had done our best, but I wasn't sure if it would be good enough to get us that first place finish we wanted so bad. But then awards came and we ended up placing first out of the four varsity squads. And the biggest shock of all: we received grandchampions in the school division, beating out two college squads for the title. Our coaches were ecstatic and it seems like we spent forever taking pictures and basking in our victory. I do plan to continue cheering in college, but the university I'm attending does not compete. So after all my years of competing, it was great to end it with this last win.




Varsity, Junior High, and Coaches

 

Is There Something in the Water?



 I know about four sets of twins, and I can guess that everyone else knows about that many, too. But what if you lived in a town where about 20% of the people you knew had a twin? According to a report in The New York Times, in the small village of São Pedro this is the case.

For years, so many twins have been born in the small southern Brazilian town of Cândido Godói that residents wonder whether something mysterious lurks in the water, or even if Josef Mengele, the Nazi physician known as the Angel of Death, conducted experiments on the women there.

But a group of scientists now says it can rule out such long-rumored possibilities. Ursula Matte, a geneticist in Porto Alegre, Brazil, said a series of DNA tests conducted on about 30 families since 2009 found that a specific gene in the population of Cândido Godói appears more frequently in mothers of twins than in those without.

The phenomenon is compounded by a high level of inbreeding among the population, which is composed almost entirely of German-speaking immigrants, she said. “We analyzed six genes and found one gene that confirms, in this population, a predisposition to the birth of twins,” Dr. Matte said.

In biology class, you learn that genes control everything from hair color to diseases you may have. They also control your offspring, including if you are prone to having twins or not. But to find this gene in so many women in a small community raises the question of whether it was inbreeding or maybe a dominant or linked gene that caused this spike in twins? The scientists in this article credit the increased twin birth rate with inbreeding, but this has been going on for almost a hundred years. I feel like this gene would have died out or mutated by now; which would lead me to believe that the gene may be dominant or link to a dominate trait.

It was especially high in São Pedro, a village of about 350 residents that is part of Cândido Godói. Dr. Matte found that from 1990 to 1994, 10 percent of the births in São Pedro were twins, compared with less than 1 percent for Brazil as a whole.

The high concentration of twins has stirred outlandish theories.  An Argentine journalist suggested in a 2008 book that Mengele conducted experiments on women in Cândido Godói that resulted in a baby boom of twins, many of whom have blond hair and light-colored eyes. But the study led by Dr. Matte analyzed 6,615 baptism certificates dating back 80 years in the predominantly Roman Catholic town and found that the twins phenomenon existed in the 1930s, “long before Mengele’s period,” she said.

Her team of 20 researchers also analyzed the town’s water supply — residents believe a mysterious mineral may be responsible for the high rate of twin births — and uncovered no abnormalities.

While studying the baptism certificates, the scientists confirmed that the highest concentration of twins has been in São Pedro, with 33 pairs out of 436 births from 1959 to 2008, all living in a one-and-a-half-square-mile area. “With a small population of about 80 families, it was a challenge to find women that did not have twins within a first-degree relation,” Dr. Matte said. The scientists believe that a small number of immigrant families living in São Pedro may have brought the variant gene to the region. 

Even though this village now has this information, I do not think it will change their way of life. The twin population in São Pedro will most likely continue to grow. Maybe one day the village of São Pedro will be in the record books for village with the greatest population of twins.

High School Competition Squad of the Week

Fairport Varsity Cheerleading Nationals 2011, Baltimore, MD

I like this video because of the way it goes through and shows the routine and then the results and the squads reaction. I also like how during the routine you can hear the girl's parents yelling with them. I don't think many people realize how big of a commitment cheerleading is and how involved most parents are in their childs squad. This squad seems to have it all; great tumbling, amazing stunts, perfect jumps, energy, and spirit. However, even thought I feel like I say this a lot, this squads stunts are superior to any varsity squad I have seen before. That opening stunt sequence, was flawless and amazingly difficult. But all in all, this is another amazing squad that works had and has a great team every year.