Universal Cheerleaders Association

By Jacklyn Little

Overview
The Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) is a company that is a source
of cheerleading education for college and high school levels. The Staff members run
camps and clinics throughout the summer, in order to teach cheerleaders how to
perform competitive stunts, how to pump up the crowd, and how to cheer on sports
teams at games. UCA has grown over the years to be a very large company that
many high school and college teams depend on to learn new skills, safety
information, and rules. UCA provides competitions for high schools, colleges, and All
Star cheer teams to show off the skills that they have learned, and to do what they
love. One of UCAs main goals is to get cheerleaders to support their school athletic
programs, and build up school spirit. UCA believes that the primary purpose of a
cheerleader is to support athletic programs and lead the crowd before and during
games. (1)

Table of Contents
1. History
2. Staff
a. Try Outs
b. Training
3. Competitions
4. Rules
5. Safety
6. References

History
Jeff Webb founded UCA in 1974. He ran the company out of his apartment in
Memphis, Tennessee until it expanded over the years while the reputation of UCA
grew. Staff members were first recruited from college cheer teams, and during the
summer of 1975, four thousand people attended the twenty-four camps held in the
Midwest and South. UCA was founded to provide high quality educational training
for college and high school cheerleaders through summer camps and clinics on
college campuses. (2).

Staff:
Try Outs:
Current cheerleaders are asked to be a UCA
Instructor during camps. Current instructors keep an
eye out for those who seem to have the potential to
be a staff member. They look for a combination of
advanced cheerleading skills and leadership skills.
Thousands of applications are given out every
summer; however, only four hundred to five
hundred new cheerleaders will be chosen to be
instructors (3).
 Try outs begin in the spring and the process of the try out is different in every
part of the United States. Overall, applicants are evaluated on a cheer, a dance,
jumps, standing tumbling, running tumbling, stunts, and an interview. Judges look
for technique, energy, and confidence (3).
During the interview portion of the try out, the judges will ask what they feel
is necessary. It is important to be yourself, dress UCA Staff members laugh and enjoy
appropriately with minimal make up, know your their time at camp (4).
goals, interests, and abilities, and be confident.
These are the qualities that the judges are looking for in a UCA staff member (3).

Training:
After a series of interviews and try outs, one thousand five hundred
instructors are selected to be summer camp staff based on skills, personality, and
their ability to teach (5). There are six
official training sessions for new staff
members in Alabama, Texas, Wisconsin,
South Carolina, California, and
Pennsylvania. (6).
At these training sessions, the new
recruits learn a variety of cheers and
dances that they will teach the
cheerleaders at summer camps. They
also learn how to coach, and how to stunt
with good technique. UCA staff
instructors are educated in the best
safety practices, which is why all of the
UCA Staff is AACCA certified, Level 2
background checked, and knowledgeable
about concussions. Practice begins with
Safety Education! (7). Staff members are
trained to look professional at all times, to always have sharp motions and to have
good timing with the other instructors. It is important to drill these techniques so
that they can be a good example to the people attending the camps, and know how
to properly teach them the cheers and dances (8). The UCA staff is knowledgeable
of new technique, legal liability issues, medical responsibilities, nutrition and
hydration, environmental safety and many other topics relative to the practice and
performances of cheerleading skills.
UCA Staff members show off their
skills at camp (9)

Competitions
UCA runs many competitions across the United States throughout the year
including regional competitions, and national competitions. The competitions are
held over 50 dates and locations for local cheerleading and all star competitions
(10). Regional and State competitions are held from the end of fall until the end of
winter. There are different competitive levels/categories: All Star, High School, and
College. The biggest UCA competitions for these categories are the International All
Star Championship, the National High School Cheerleading Championship, and the
College Nationals, all of which are in Walt Disney World.
 In these competitions, there are different divisions that teams can compete in
based on the size of their team. There are also different rules at the different types
of competitions to ensure the safety of all of the cheerleaders. The judges at each
level of competition look for different items in a routine than the others. For
example, in the All Star division, there is not a cheer or crowd leading portion of the
routine, so the judges do not look for that, unlike in the college and high school
routines in which the cheer portion of the routine takes up a large amount of points
during scoring. This means that there are different score sheets for every type of
competition (11).

Rules
UCA focuses a lot on following specific rules during competitions and games
in order to ensure safety. They use rules listed by AACCA. More information about
specific rules for each division can be found on cheerrules.org. The purpose of this
site is to help cheerleaders, coaches, parents, administrators, and rules
interpreters understand the current cheerleading safety rules for school and college
cheerleading. All of the rules on this website are interpreted and approved by an
organization called NFHS, or by AACCA (12).

Safety
UCA is a big advocate for safety. Staff members are AACCA certified to ensure
safety, and they make sure to implement safe practices onto evert team that they
instruct. There are specific precautions to take while cheering, and if they are not
followed, people can be seriously injured. More information about the training
process and some of the safety requirements can be found on cheersafe.org
CheerSafes mission is to educate parents, cheerleaders and administrators to the
facts of cheerleading safety at every level school, college and all starand to
promote and improve cheerleading safety through the involvement of a wide
spectrum of organizations in the cheerleading community. We have the latest
research that shows cheerleading is one of the safest activities for young athletes,
and getting safer all the time (13).
AACCA is one of the many companies in charge of training cheerleaders and
coaches on how to ensure safety in cheerleading. UCA is trained and certified by
AACCA to keep everyone safe, and coaches of teams that go to UCA camps and
competitions also have to be AACCA certified. Cheerleading safety rules have been
in place in the United States since 1984.Combined with proper supervision,
performer readiness, skill progressions, and adherence to the safety rules is key to
providing a safe environment. it is important that coaches, cheerleaders, parents,
and administrators recognize the individual, group, and team ability levels and
remain within those levels in addition to following the allowed skills under the
rules. (14).

References
1. UCA History and Philosophy. Varsity. N.p., n.d. Web 9 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/About/About+
2. UCA History and Philosophy. Varsity. N.p., n.d. Web 9 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/About/About+
3. Becoming a UCA Instructor. Varsity. N.p. n.d. Web 9 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/About/Becoming-a-UCA-Instructor
4. Instagram. Amber. 14 Feb. 2017. Web 16 Feb. 2017.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQf3ZiejcYS/
5. UCA Staff. Varsity. N.p. n.d. Web 8 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/About/Staff
6. UCA Staff. Varsity. N.p. n.d. Web 8 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/About/Staff
7. Cheer Safe. N.p. n.d. Web 8 Feb. 2017. https://cheersafe.org/
8. Staff Training. Varsity. N.p. n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/About/Sataff-Training
9. Instagram. Deija James. 1 June 2016. Web 16 Feb. 2017.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGIqxLqOrHT/
10. UCA Competitions. Varsity. N.p. n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/Competitions/Competitions
11.UCA Competitions. Varsity. N.p. n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017.
https://uca.varsity.com/Competitions/Competitions
12.Cheer Rules Cheerleading Rules for Coaches. Cheer Rules. N.p., n.d. Web
9 Feb. 2017. https://cheerrules.org/
13.Cheer Safe. N.p. n.d. Web 8 Feb. 2017. https://cheersafe.org/
14.Cheerleading Safety from AACCA, the American Association of Cheerleading
Coaches and Administrators. Cheerleading Safety from AACCA the American
Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators. N.p. n.d. Web 8 Feb.
2017. https://aacca.org/