Fame Cheerleaders show they’re one of the best in the Nation

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: June 6, 2019

Fame and fortune.

After a very regular season of perrformance the successful season for two local Fame cheerleading groups have packed their bags and heading to Florida.

Their destination?

Two chances to capture a National recognition and a possible title at the Summit Chsmpionships at Orlando, Florida on May 2nd through the 6th.

They competed at the ESPN Wild World of Sports Complex.

The two groups were Junior restrictive Level five which are ages 9-14. They also brought their Senior restrictive Level five team which had the talents of ages 12-18.

The performance season goes all year round according to Coach Skip Headings.

“We go all year round. We have a break in May of a week or two but then they start up and get back at it again. So it’s a full year commitment,” said Headings. “They practice 5-or-6 hours a week with tumbling and team practices.

Commitment is one thing each Fame competitors possess as they practice on Monday’s and Wednesday’s two hours a week and then come in for tumbling practice.

According to Headings they go 5-6 hours a week and sometimes even more.

“Sometimes when schools are off and we have holidays sometimes we will have a 4 or 5 hour block practice where they are here all day,” Headings said. “We have team building things for them as well as lunch during the practice.”

The group has accumulated some hardware during this season en route to the trip to Nationals.

“The junior team won the American Championships in Baltimore. The senior team won an NCAA National Association Cheerleading Competition in Maryland and got best tumbling and grand champion,” Headings said. “So we’ve gone to a lot of tough cheerleading competitions this year and done really well so we’re excited. We did Reach for the Beach in Ocean City, Maryland. The junior team got the bid to the Summit at a Reading Competition. It was a Beach Blast competition in Reading. The senior got their bid at a Millersburg Competition in a Beach Blast Competition.”

“So when they got the bid, it’s Division 1 so they give it to the top score from the whole tournament. They say that they are giving out three spots and you have to be one of the top three to get a bid so we were one of the top teams to get a bid.”

The length of the performance can two minutes and thirty seconds for the Fame group, Headings said.

“We only have two and a half minutes but a lot goes on in that time frame. It’s stunting, tumbling and dancing choreography,” Headings said. “ It’s two minutes and thirty seconds of jam packed of what we can get in like pyramids and stuff like that.”

Heading’s sees his team’s strong point coming in tumbling.

“We won one of the competitions by winning the tumbling awards for best Level five tumbling. I think our tumbling is strong and I think overall that their performance-wise and showmanship are strong.”

Another added plus to the Fame organization is their Special Needs group of athletes.

“We have a Special Needs group called the Angels. They are learning Supports kids that come together and practice 1 to 2 hours a week and they go to competitions,” Headings said. “They are in a division called the Cheer Abilities. This year when we made the team a lot of the Cheer Ability teams are assisted. They have people helping them with the routine. We wanted our girls not to be assisted so they do all the cheerleading competition by themselves. I’ve always wanted to have a team like that. So it was really special for us to have that team and they go to competitions too.”

They Fame Cheerleading group has three locations for athletes to join and show off their skills.

“Fame Pa. is three gyms. We have locations in Pleasant Gap, Lewistown and a gym in Lancaster. So what we do with Elite teams is that we try to take the best girls together and we’ll practice in the middle like at Lewistown,” said Headings. “We try make sure that the travel is evened out. It works out really well. There are some long Sundays.”

But practice makes perfect and as the two local groups have shown is that they earned the reputation of being one of the best in the nation.