Burgin cheerleaders bring home UCA banana and more awards
Arpan Dixit
Herald Staff
sports@harrodsburgherald.com
Pictured from L to R with their trophies: Jamie Isaacs, Lily Essex, Bayleigh Moore and Keyleigh Owens. (Photo Submitted)
Four Burgin middle school cheerleaders competed and brought home some awards at an out of state camp at Indiana University from July 12-16. Lily Essex, Bayleigh Moore, Keyleigh Owens and Jamie Isaacs attended United Cheer Association (UCA) camp where a total of 16 teams were in attendance, five of those being middle school teams.
Essex, Moore, Owens and Isaacs took home second place in the Xtreme routine, Game Day championship, overall performance and the most prestigious award there is at UCA camp, the giant inflatable banana. Essex and Moore also received the title of UCA All-American as well. The inflatable banana is given to the team with non-stop spirit. Winning this amongst 16 teams, with just four cheerleaders, is an impressive feat.
Head Coach Amanda Rulon talked about how satisfying it was as a coach to see her athletes succeed. “It feels really good. I try to coach like I teach,” said Rulon. “A student athlete must know what they don’t know, be honest with themselves about weaknesses and how to work to improve those areas and have passion in what they’ve chosen to do.”
Rulon said the athletes set goals for themselves throughout camp and they trust Rulon to help them achieve those goals.
She said watching the athletes go out and try their hardest was a great thing to see. “The charisma and personality they had while they delivered one more final triumph for their confidence goal, was emotionally overwhelming. You couldn’t help but scream,” said Rulon.
Rulon talked about the experience for her girls. “Upon arriving, we were very intimidated by the size of some of the other middle school teams,” said Rulon. “The largest team we competed against had 29 athletes. One team did consist of 10 athletes which made us feel a little less out of place, but we were the smallest team who competed.”
To learn more, check out this week’s issue of The Harrodsburg Herald.
