A hop, skip, and a jump

Tonight's cheerleading video - the Kings Firecrackers cheerleading squad performs at the U.S. Naval Academy during halftime:




Impressive, huh? Here's an article on the team:

LEXINGTON - Deep within the bowels of massive Rupp Arena, two dozen girls warm up in a chilly, colorless receiving area, largely ignoring the muffled applause and cheers above them.

This team of grade school and junior high girls has traveled more than 100 miles from their Warren County homes in the Kings Local School District to the 23,000-seat college basketball mecca at the University of Kentucky. They are here to do once more what they have done in dozens of high school, college and professional basketball arenas, as well as in two Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades and on The Late Show with David Letterman.

They will jump rope.

These girls are the Kings Firecrackers, and they jump as few others have. Team jump-roping is growing in popularity, supported by organizations such as USA Jump Rope and AAU jump rope, with hundreds of competitive teams, some in the Tristate.

But the Firecrackers don't compete, they perform. ...