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The Lowell

The Student News Site of Lowell High School

The Lowell

The Student News Site of Lowell High School

The Lowell

Cartwheels, pyramids, herkies: Cheerleading is a sport

Originally published on May 26, 2016

The cheer team performs their routine at the 2015 Fall Spirit Rally on October 9. Photo by Leonard Caoili

“L, H, S!” the cheerleaders shout from the sidelines. From football and basketball games to spirit rallies, cheerleaders perform their herkies, a jump with one leg bent and the other straight, and stunts. These cheers and routines that are seen at school events, but most of what students see are only a fraction of what cheerleaders do. What students do not see are all the blood, sweat and tears that cheerleaders put into perfecting their sport and the hard work necessary to become a cheerleader.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary has defined cheerleading as “a person who is a member of a group (typically a group of young women) who shout out special songs or chants to encourage the team and entertain the crowd during a game in sports like American football and basketball.” Yet, being a cheerleader is more than yelling and waving for another sports team. Cheerleading itself is a sport of its own.

Being a cheerleader is more than yelling and waving for another sports team.

Since October 2015, a new bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown made cheerleading an official high school sport in California, joining nine other states in the path to recognition. The new bill requires the Department of Education to write guidelines and safety procedures that correspond with the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) rules by July 2017. This bill allows for cheaper competitions, as teams previously had to pay to enter privately-funded competitions, in addition to respect and better safety measures.

As a sport, cheerleading requires a great deal of teamwork in order to be successful. In stunts that involve the flyer being launched into the air, a great deal of trust must be built in order for things to run smoothly, according to senior Hina Iwata. This calls for everyone to be on the same page at all times. “We’re like a family,” sophomore Beverly Chang said. “We all work together to get to one main goal, we all have to work the same amount to hit whatever we want.”

Trust is a main component for many cheerleading teams as a reliable and trusting environment is imperative for successful stunts. “If you’re a flyer you have to trust the team,” Iwata said. “ You have to trust each other. You have to be able to throw people up in the air, [and] that’s kind of difficult.”

“We all work together to get to one main goal, we all have to work the same amount to hit whatever we want.”

With all the teamwork and skills required in cheerleading, the sport is also very time consuming, as it is a year-round sport. Practices are held to prepare for games, rallies and competitions. These practices are usually from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every Monday and Wednesday during the whole year. If there is a cheerleading competition coming up, they usually focus on practicing the routines that they have to do for that specific competition during the school year. During the summer, they mostly focus on doing new stunts and conditioning. Cheerleaders only have three months off the entire year.

A lot of this practice time is taken to perfect stunts and routines. Stunts are risky and one of the most difficult aspects of cheerleading to master, according to senior Virginia Van Zandt. The risk factor involved makes it ranked second in catastrophic, sports-related injuries, according to research done by the United States Sports Academy in 2011. Cheerleader falls from gymnastic-type stunts have been reported to have a greater impact than a football tackle, according to the report.

All the effort and time that is put into cheerleading tends to be overlooked by many people, according to Iwata. “Cheerleading itself does not get taken seriously,” she said. “People don’t take it as serious. For cheer, the only time we show our cheerleading abilities is at rallies, Battle of the Birds and at games sometimes. Say if one stunt falls at rally then [people say], ‘Oh cheer’s hella bad….’”

Many of the routines the student body actually sees at rallies and different sporting events are not reflective of everything the cheer team does, according to senior Emily Lee. “People think that all we do is shout and wave pom poms on the sidelines of football and basketball games,” she said. “People think we practice cheering the same 40 sideline cheers at practice which is completely false. We stunt, dance, tumble, jump and cheer.”

“We sweat as much. We get injured as much. I just feel like society thinks cheer is not a sport, but we work just as hard.”

All these cheers and routines were finally showcased at the annual United Spirit Association Spirit Nationals in Anaheim, California on March 19. The Lowell cheerleaders placed sixth in their division. Nationals has proven to be a great experience for them, despite how they finished. “Nationals has shown me that our hard work pays off, that every fall and injury and days of feeling sore after a single practice was worth it,” Lee said. “It’s a reminder that we worked as a team to get to a common goal.”

Cheerleaders do cheer for other sports teams, but people tend to overlook that cheerleading is just like any other sport. Cheer teams don’t just cheer. They give encouragement and support for the other teams. “We’re the ones that cheer for the other sports, but we do as much as they do,” Iwata said. “We sweat as much. We get injured as much. I just feel like society thinks cheer is not a sport, but we work just as hard.”

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Cartwheels, pyramids, herkies: Cheerleading is a sport