For the sixth year in a row, a rising senior at Union County High School has been named an All-American All-Star Cheerleader.
Ever year since she entered junior high school, Kennedy Brianna Crosby has taken part in the annual Universal Cheerleading Association Camp. She began cheerleading long before then and, according to her mother, Kimberly Crosby, has been a cheerleader almost as long as she’s been a dancer.
“She started dancing first, she started dancing when she was four,” Mrs. Crosby said. “Then she cheered for the first time when she was six for her brother’s Flag Football team and she’s loved it ever since. She continued cheerleading for the Flag Football and then Stinger Football and then she made the Sims Junior High School Cheerleading Team and that was when she first won the All-American All-Star Award. Each year since then at camp she’s won the award.”
Mrs. Crosby said the Universal Cheerleaders Association holds an annual camp at which cheerleaders from throughout South Carolina attend for four days during which they receive instruction on cheerleading, dance, jump, and stunts. On the final day of the camp, the cheerleaders demonstrate what they’ve learned and are graded on a point system with the winner determined based on their performance. Mrs. Crosby said Kennedy, a UCHS Varsity Cheerleader, was the only cheerleader from Union County to receive the award at this year’s camp which was held at Lander University from July 31-Aug. 3.
Winning the award gives the winning cheerleader a chance to travel and perform in a special event. In the seventh and eighth grade, Kennedy won the opportunity to travel to Disneyworld in Orlando, FL. Accompanied by her family she did so in the eighth grade and with cheerleaders from other states took part in Disneyworld’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
This year, Kennedy won the opportunity to travel to London, England as part of the London Cheerleading Tour which Mrs. Crosby said will take part in the city’s New’s Year Day Parade. Unfortunately, Mrs. Crosby said Kennedy will not be making this trip because it is too expensive for them to travel to London.
“I wouldn’t want her to travel to another country without me,” Mrs. Crosby said. “We’re still very proud of her, it’s a great accomplishment.”
This was Kennedy’s last cheerleading camp as she will be graduating in 2013. Mrs. Crosby said her daughter is still trying to decide whether she will continue cheerleading in college.
“She’s still deciding whether she’s going to be on the dance team or the cheerleading team or just concentrate on her dance major,” Mrs. Crosby said. “For her first year she may just concentrate on her dance major.”
Kennedy has been a dance student for 12 years, having taken classes in Tap, Jazz, Clogging and, her favorite, Hip-Hop at The Dance Academy and Ultimate Rhythm in Union. She is currently studying ballet at Ballet Spartanburg.
In February, Kennedy successfully competed against students from across the state to win a spot in the SC Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities Summer Dance Program. On July 20, she took part in the program’s final dance performance of the summer at The Peace Center. She performed with her group three times during the evening, including two Modern Dance routines and one Classical Ballet routine.
After graduating from UCHS in 2013, Kennedy will attend the University of South Carolina where she will major in Dance Education.
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