Cheerleaders

MONT ALTO, Pa. - The voices of 50 young cheerleaders resonated Sunday against the concrete gymnasium walls of Penn State Mont Alto's Multipurpose Activities Center. "B-A-S-K-E-T, Lions Basket!" the girls cheered. For the last four years, the Mont Alto cheerleading squad has welcomed young cheerleaders to campus each winter for a one-day clinic. Designed by Penn State Mont Alto Cheerleading coach Christina Yoder as an annual fundraiser, the clinic trains cheerleaders ages 4 to 18 in cheers, dances and stunts.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - Banks, government, developers and others are teaming up to build a new youth football field in Ranson, W.Va., that also could be used for other events like soccer or "mini concerts," a spokesman for the project said Thursday. The football field, which will be built behind the Potomac Marketplace shopping center along the Charles Town Bypass, will be the new home for the Jefferson County Youth Football and Cheerleaders, those involved in the project said. The football league has been squeezed for space to have its games and uses fields like one at Charles Town Middle School, officials said.

HAGERSTOWN - A Hagerstown cheerleading group founder who was convicted in 2004 for writing bad checks from the group's account has been charged with violating probation for allegedly altering the writing on a check in December, according to court documents. Hagerstown Heat All-Stars founder Anna Lois Miles, 33, was released on personal recognizance Monday from the Washington County Detention Center, where she had been held without bond since Aug. 17 on three violation of probation charges, according to court records.

The Outlaw Allstars Reload Cheerleaders, sponsored by the Hagerstown Area Police Athletic Leagues, recently donated $500 to the American Cancer Society. The money was raised by making and selling beaded cancer bracelets. A portion of the profits from each bracelet was donated to the agency.

HALFWAY tammyb@herald-mail.com They say Labor Day marks the end of summer, but nothing says fall like football. So it's fitting that Labor Day and the season opener for the Washington County Junior Football League coincide. Martin L. "Marty" Snook Memorial Park in Halfway was the place to be Monday morning as young players and cheerleaders assembled for the first day of play. All of the teams, even the ones that weren't on Monday's game schedule, lined up in their uniforms ?

pepperb@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - A cheerleading coach sentenced in August 2004 for stealing money from Hagerstown Heat All-Stars did not violate her probation by resurrecting the group and having others handle the finances, Washington County Circuit Judge W. Kennedy Boone III ruled Monday. Anna Lois Miles, 32, who was sentenced to serve six months in August 2004 after she pleaded guilty to writing $24,000 in bad checks drawn on the Hagerstown Heat All-Stars cheerleading group's account in late 2003 and early 2004, was in Circuit Court Monday on a charge she violated probation.

bonnieb@herald-mail.com MONT ALTO, Pa. - Christina Green has been the captain of every cheerleading squad she's been on in her 12 years of cheering, and now she is passing along her knowledge and skills to younger girls. A junior at Penn State Mont Alto, Green started a cheerleading clinic for area youngsters last year to help the college squad raise money to attend a competition, and it turned out to be "more fun than just raising money," she said Sunday afternoon at the second annual event.

Editor's note: This is one in a series of occasional stories examining "Lifescapes" - scenes from everyday life that help define the character of where we live. julieg@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - It's nearing 2:30 p.m. on Friday at School Stadium at South Hagerstown High School. School still is in session as several students stream onto the football field - girls dressed in T-shirts bearing handwritten messages to boost school spirit and boys dressed in drag as cheerleaders.

Somehow, I don't think this is the way it's supposed to be. I don't understand how in the name of Bear Bryant anyone who loves football can get wrapped up in something like this. I was kicked back for an intimate 12-course meal at the Dargan Diner and Deer Weighing Station with my girlfriend LuSydna to celebrate another magnificent prognostication column. LuSydna was yammering about something while I was elbow deep in my yam, ham, lamb and Spam entree when I sort of faded out trying to imagine all of this.