Thirty-nine Bainbridge High School cheerleaders sporting purple shirts and 29 young girls from fourth to eighth grade wearing gold shirts filled the Coliseum gym Thursday for the fourth annual Bearcat Cheer Clinic.

The three-day clinic served as a warm-up for Bainbridge Middle School tryouts later in May. The high school cheerleaders worked one-on-one with the younger girls to give them tips on improving their motions, jumps, techniques, entrance cheers and basic stunting and tumbling.

“This camp has grown so much over the past 4 years because these young girls look up to the BHS cheerleaders,” said BHS cheer coach Lea Hawkins.

Hawkins said having a fun and supportive atmosphere gives the young cheerleaders encouragement for the real BMS tryouts.

“We try to give them a true tryout experience,” Hawkins said. “As a parent, this is priceless. Everything is less scary the second time around.”

This was just the first of two sessions. The second one will take place May3-5, and will feature many new young faces as well as plenty of cheerleaders who went through the first session, Hawkins said.

The BHS cheerleaders will host another camp for Pre-K through fourth grade July 12-14. All proceeds from hosting the camps go toward paying for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes cheer camp the BHS cheerleaders will attend in July.