ROCKLIN, CA (MPG) - Fifty-three athletes, four grueling days and a trophy case that is about to get a little more crowded. That is the story of the Galt High School cheer squad’s trip to Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) camp at Jessup University in Rocklin last week, where the Warriors’ combined varsity and junior varsity contingent came home laden with hardware and a fistful of individual honors.

Head Coach Barbara Welch took 53 varsity and JV cheerleaders to the residential camp, a noticeable jump from the 39 athletes who made the trip a year ago. The growth of the roster is matched only by the growth in results, and the Warriors made sure everyone in the gym knew it.

“It is an exhausting time,” was a sentiment echoed by parents and coaches alike, and the official UCA four-day schedule backs that up. The days at a traditional overnight camp run from breakfast through bedtime, packed with stunt classes, game-day classes, pyramid work, private coaching sessions, safety awareness training and material review. Athletes break only for meals. The idea is to pack as much learning as possible into the limited window so the squad can carry a fresh playbook of cheers, stunts and dances back to campus for the season ahead. For Galt, the investment paid off in nearly every category the camp judges.

The final day of camp is when the season’s work is put on the mat. Schools compete head-to-head in the Camp Routine Championship and the Game Day Championships, the culmination of everything the athletes have absorbed over the previous three days. Competing against roughly 10 other high schools in attendance, Galt’s varsity squad claimed first place in the Large Varsity Camp Routine, the marquee team event of the week. The junior varsity squad matched the energy, taking first place in the Medium JV Sideline Chant and second place in the JV Spirit Routine overall. Add in several other camp awards noted by Welch, and the Warriors’ haul was one of the deepest of any program at camp.

“Taking 53 athletes to camp and watching them grow in confidence, leadership and teamwork was an incredible experience,” Welch said. “Earning first place in the Large Varsity Camp Routine, along with second-place finishes and several other camp awards, is a testament to the hard work and dedication these athletes have shown all summer. They represented Galt High School with pride, and this is just the beginning of what I know they can accomplish this season.”

But for all the team trophies now destined for the display case in Warrior Gym, the achievement that tends to resonate longest with the athletes themselves is the individual honor: selection to the UCA All-American team. Each year, campers have the chance to try out for All-American, an invitation extended to those whose coaches believe they have the sharpest, cleanest skills and the strongest jumps. To qualify, each cheerleader must learn an additional routine – beyond the regular camp material – and perform it in front of the entire camp, judged by UCA staff members. According to UCA’s official tryout format, candidates perform a jump of choice, the All-American cheer and the camp dance, typically on the third day of camp, with results announced before the close of the week.

This year, seven of Galt’s best earned the distinction. Congratulations to: Camila Ramirez, JJ Arlet, Emery Winch, Melanie Flores, Rylie Lamb, Isla Brum and Izzy Brum.

All-American honorees are invited to perform at Varsity Spirit special events across the country: opportunities that in past years have included Thanksgiving parades at Disney World and Philadelphia, the Pearl Harbor Memorial parade in Hawaii, a New Year’s Day parade in Rome, and halftime performances at college bowl games. For seven Galt cheerleaders, the summer just opened a door that extends well past the school year.

Flores’ repeat appearance on the All-American list is worth noting; she earned the honor a year ago as part of Galt’s first group of winners under the new coaching staff, a sign of the continuity and rising standard Welch has instilled in the program in a short time.

For the program as a whole, the annual pilgrimage to UCA camp has become something of a reset button: a chance to refresh the squad, absorb new material and rebuild the team’s collective identity before the lights of Friday night return. Stunts get taller, cheers get sharper, dances get tighter and the athletes return to Galt carrying a season’s worth of new material they will deploy from the sidelines of Warrior Stadium through basketball season and into the spring.

If the trophy cabinet in Warrior Gym is feeling a little tight these days, that is a problem the Galt High community will likely welcome. With a first-place Large Varsity Camp Routine, a first-place JV Sideline Chant, a second-place JV Spirit Routine, a pile of additional camp awards and seven All-Americans, the Warriors sent a clear message at Jessup University last week: The bar in Galt has been raised, and the rest of the section will have to deal with it.