BHS hosts cheer camp for various schools

Bernalillo High School hosted the Spirit Xpress West cheer camp July 22-24, which included eight teams: Bernalillo High School, Espanola Valley High School, West Las Vegas High School (varsity and JV), Cliff High School, McCurdy High School and Volcano Vista’s JV team.

This is the fifth year that BHS has hosted a Spirit Xpress West cheer camp.

“They have a staff that comes out here, with their owner Patty Aguilar, and they invite teams — in-state and out-of-state. They come out and teach new cheers, skill safety, stunting, stunts that you might need for state competition. And, basically, it's an introduction to the season,” head coach Jennifer Jaramillo said. Jaramillo has been the head coach for BHS for 10 years.

The BHS cheer team ended the camp as the camp dance champions, won the “Above and Beyond” award, and two of their cheerleaders were named All-Americans.

“We worked on stunts and more difficult stunts in a stunt pyramid. We competed against each other, working on our jumps and other skills that go into cheer. Also, we won a ton of awards, which is always exciting,” junior Mariah Sedillo said.

The BHS All-Americans were junior Briana Sotelo and senior Aliyah Lucero.

“I’ve learned how to do new things with my team and communicate more efficiently with my team. And how to uplift the team without being rude about it,” Sotelo, a flyer for BHS, said.

All-Americans are invited to the Spirit of America Productions and celebrated in New York City in conjunction with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The BHS cheer has been a force in the 2020s and have been the state runners-up in three out of the last four years, including two straight years of being state runner-ups.

Besides this camp, BHS also found success at a UCA camp in Colorado Springs. Some off-season work has the Spartans' confidence sky high and ready for the upcoming season.

“This team is really strong. We’ve defiantly grown. We got 22 on our team this year. They are hungry, ready to work and get that Blue trophy,” Jaramillo said.

For any information about Spirit Xpress West, visit spiritxpresswest.com/competition/