Cheer screams for recognition

By KAYSI COELHO

Is cheerleading an activity that leads spectators in cheer or is it a sport?
I say it’s both.

In July 2004, the University of Maryland became the first Division I-A school to recognize competitive cheerleading as a varsity sport, counting it toward its Title IX requirements.

At the college level, cheerleading has become as much about competing against other cheerleading squads in national competition as it is about the team you’re representing.

In my case, it’s the Fresno State Bulldogs.

People don’t take cheerleading seriously, yet there is not much difference between it and any other sport at Fresno State.

According to Webster’s dictionary, a sport is defined as being a number of competitive athletic events played according to established rules and often requiring certain physical activities.

I can honestly say that we as cheerleaders have cheered and performed at more sporting events than the games any athlete has played during his or her season. I know this because not only are we cheering at the volleyball and football games, we are also cheering at the men’s and women’s basketball games.

That’s not to say we “do” more than the athletic teams by any means. Being a three-lettered athlete throughout high school I know what it takes to be an athlete—waking up for morning workouts, practicing everyday, and traveling to away games.

The point I want to make here is that each sport has its season. Football and volleyball are in the fall, basketball, softball, and tennis are in the spring. Training for any collegiate sport, however, doesn’t stop once the season ends, it goes year round.

Think of cheerleading the same way. We practice during the summer to get ready for the season just like the volleyball team does.

However, our games do not end when theirs do. They end once the basketball teams play their last game in the WAC tournament in the spring. In the mean time, we practice daily getting ready for national cheer competitions.

Although we go through two seasons of sports, practice does not stop for cheerleading. Just like it does not stop for any other collegiate athlete. Cheerleaders get three weeks off to finish up the semester before tryouts start all over again.

So what is the difference you ask?

Spending four years in high school playing volleyball, basketball and softball would be enough to label me an athlete. Not being taken seriously as a collegiate athlete simply because, to everyone else, cheerleading is not a sport is ridiculous.

It seems to me that it takes an athlete to become a collegiate cheerleader.