Football players, coaches and fans were not the only ones preparing for football season leading up to last Saturday’s game.

The cheerleading squad took advantage of the summer months and the first few weeks of school by practicing long hours, working out two times per week with strength and conditioning coaches, and attending a National Cheerleading Association camp.

Even with a less experienced squad, due to the loss of vital contributors after graduation, coach Harold Trammel said, talent-wise, his athletes are in the same place.

With the inexperience of this year’s squad members and their eagerness to begin the season, Trammel and the Wolfpack cheerleaders used the summer to get up to speed by learning chants, cheers and fight songs. Their camp in Myrtle Beach, S.C. did much more than that.

Trammel said during the summer, the camp not only contributed to preparing the squad for football season but also for Nationals.

“It helps prepare for football season, because we try to outperform other squads, and it provides an extra bit of motivation since performing in front of people is what we do. It helps us prepare for Nationals from the standpoint of working to be competitive,” he said. “It gives us an opportunity to go ahead and set the tone. Then we won’t see the other teams for a while. Eight months later, we will go to competition and strut our stuff.”

Male captain Chris Hartshorn, a senior in aerospace engineering, said he agrees that camp has helped the team get ready for kickoff.

“Football games are a six-hour event for us,” Hartshorn said. “This Saturday we will be there around three [p.m.] and rehearse all the way through everything. At camp we have long days and long nights, which definitely help bring us closer together and get us used to working under stress, which is good preparation for football games and Nationals.”

While football games and Nationals are important aspects of college cheerleading, the team has other objectives in mind. Co-captain Kerri Donnellan, a senior in history, said her biggest contribution is representing the University.

“As far as cheerleading goes, we are representatives of North Carolina State University,” she said. “We try to put our best foot forward and hope that at games we are really good at performing and getting the crowd involved, but we also take pride in doing well in school. We are supposed to be good athletes as well as good students.”

Trammel concurred that the cheerleaders’ main goal is to represent N.C. State.

“Any time there’s a special event or a team function or any special guests visiting, they usually invite us and the mascots,” he said. “We take pride in being the face of the University and being out in front of people and representing N.C. State at the highest level.”