El Cajon Braves Pop Warner Cheerleaders 11.21.93 San Diego Conference Championships at Sea World

This is the first of my videos of El Cajon Braves Pop Warner Cheerleaders. It contains footage of three different age divisions. Sorry it skips, bounces, and cuts off in the middle of a routine, but it was difficult capturing what I could because the VHS tape is over 32-years old. I wouldn’t necessarily post such poor-quality video, but these pieces of videos are the first videos showing my own daughters as young cheerleaders. This was before they moved on to Bostonia Elementary, Greenfield Middle School and Granite Hills High School cheerleading. Hopefully, the fun of you all seeing this old footage will make up for the poor quality and incomplete footage. For those unfamiliar with Pop Warner, it is a volunteer-driven football program designed around age and weight classifications, or age-based, football play. No tryouts are allowed for football or cheerleading, but certain physical abilities are required. The ages are 5 through 15 with rosters carried from July through December 31 of each year. The academic requirement for participation was a minimum 2.0 GPA or 70%. The cheerleading divisions formally began in the mid-70s. At the time of these recordings (1993) The divisions were Tiny Mite, Mitey Mite, Jr. Pee Wee, Pee Wee, Jr. Midget, and Midget. Pop Warner Cheerleaders are not allowed to participate in all-star / non-Pop Warner cheerleading activities from July through December, but there are some obvious cheaters that get to the national level every year for every one of their age group (like TR, NJ). You hear about them practicing and competing year-round with a different all-star, or non-Pop Warner name (but keeping their Pop Warner squad intact). You can also tell they violate this rule based on their physical abilities and cheer skills. It is also obvious that some squads excluded girls based on their physicality – not what Pop Warner intended. (Sorry, I got off on a tangent.) Anyway, the Pop Warner national organization is divided into eight (8) regions in the United States. The Pop Warner organization structure starts at the (local) league level, then conference level, then regional levels. Each of the eight regions sends its top two football teams from every age division to the National Super Bowl each year. Cheerleaders can accompany their parallel age group football teams to the National Pop Warner Super Bowl and cheer for them, but competing for the National Pop Warner Cheerleading Championship is a separate track. Cheerleaders may compete to reach the national championship level without their football teams, and vice versa. To compete in the National Pop Warner Championships, cheerleaders must win at the league level, then the conference level, then the regional level. Just like football, the top two winners (1st and 2nd place) from each age group, of each of the eight regions, are invited to compete at the National Pop Warner Cheerleading Competition, so getting there is a big deal. El Cajon Braves cheerleaders made it to the national competition twice during my daughters' time, in 1994 and 1995. Those videos, and a few more, are forthcoming.