Pop Warner cheer team competes at Nationals
By Ashley Shah
The Scripps Ranch Pop Warner (SRPW) Junior Pee Wee cheer team went to compete in the Pop Warner National cheer tournament on Dec. 12 in Orlando, Florida.
“We are so excited to have our Junior Pee Wee team make it to nationals for Pop Warner this year, since last year we did not have a Junior Pee Wee team,” said Sandra Atkinson, Scripps Ranch Pop Warner public affairs director and secretary of the board of directors.
The Junior Pee Wee team was able to make it to nationals by placing second at the Pop Warner regionals tournament, which took place on Nov. 17 in Long Beach.
“The Junior Pee Wee team was able to make it to regionals by placing second at the local championship at the beginning of October, which is their first competition of the season,” Atkinson said. “We sent all of our cheer teams to the local competition, which includes our flag cheer team and JV cheer team. Our JV team almost made it to regionals, but placed third, which is commendable. The flag cheer teams do not place, they just get ribbons for participating.”
To qualify for any competitions, whether it be regionals or nationals, teams have to place first or second within their division and bracket groups.
“The divisions and brackets are created based on skill level, and number of athletes per team, which is decided by the cheer director and West Coast Conference. Our Junior Pee Wee and JV are division one, medium sized bracket teams,” Atkins said.
While the JV cheer team did not qualify for the Pop Warner regional tournament this season, the squad is competing in the regionals competition for JAMZ, a separate organization from Pop Warner, on Dec. 15 in Anaheim.
“Last year, our JV team actually placed second at JAMZ nationals. We are happy that the JV team will be able to compete at another tournament. It is a fun experience for the athletes to be able to compete out of state with teams outside of San Diego,” Atkinson said.
While the national competitions mark the ending of a season, there was and continues to be lots of dedication and volunteer hours to support this organization.
The organization, Pop Warner Football and Cheer Association, is a non-profit, youth athletic program. The local program was established in Scripps Ranch in 2006.
“This program is a great way for young athletes who are enthusiastic about football and cheer to get involved at the ages 5 to 14. The program allows for these athletes to learn in a safe and welcoming environment so that they can advance to the high school level,” Atkinson said.
There were 174 athletes across the football and cheer teams, with nearly 100 being football players.
“The football teams are based on age and skill level. We can have athletes that play at a higher level, but we cannot have athletes play at a lower level than their age,” Atkinson said.
This fall season the football teams consisted of a flag football team, ages 5-7; and tackle football teams, ages 9-13: 10U, 11U, 12U, and 13U.
“The cheer teams are divided up into larger groups by their age. We pair the cheer teams to cheer for a specific football team on Saturdays so that they can get some more practice time in,” Atkinson said.
This season, the cheer teams consisted of the flag cheer team, ages 5-7; Junior Pee Wee cheer team, ages 8-10, which cheered for the 11U tackle football team; and JV cheer team, ages 11-13, which cheered for the 13U tackle football team.
Each individual football and cheer team has approximately 20 athletes.
“These athletes practiced one to two days a week at the local park. The football teams compete every single Saturday for 10 weeks, then they can advance to playoffs, and then regionals and nationals,” Atkinson said. “Our 10U and 11U teams actually were able to make it to the playoffs this season, but did not advance to regionals.”
With so many players, competitions and volunteers, there are several different fundraising efforts to be able to send these athletes to competitions.
“The Pop Warner West Coast Conference itself held a golf tournament in September open to the public where they raised around $10,000 to be divided up to help support all the teams that are making it to nationals. Additionally, our board has been holding restaurant nights this month. For example, on Dec. 10, the Kebab Shop in Mira Mesa gave 50 percent of the profits made that day back to our organization,” Atkinson said.
“Some of our fundraisers are to support travel costs for nationals and other competitions. However, we do fundraising all year to help offset the many costs of running the organization, such as renting the SRHS football field for Saturday’s games, the uniforms, spirit wear, equipment, training for the coaches, and much more,” she said.
There are several ways to get involved and contribute with helping support the Scripps Ranch Pop Warner organization.
“We will be having an association mixer at the beginning of January, likely at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, for members of the community to come and meet the board, get involved with the board and, hopefully, start to volunteer with us,” Atkinson said. “We always need more volunteers. If we can just have people come out to our football games to help with concessions, or the stopwatch, we always appreciate that. We need coaches, that is our biggest need, people who know and are comfortable with football and cheer.”
There are 15 members on the board who volunteer their time throughout the whole year to help schedule events, run financials, coordinate fundraisers, etc. The board meets every month. There are more than 100 parent volunteers who help to run the local program for the fall season each year.
For more information, visit scrippsranchpopwarner.com.