CHEERLEADING!!!
WE DON'T SWEAT, WE SPARKLE
SPECIAL EVENTS
STRIPES OPENING
FOOTBALL GAME
PEP-RALLY
ATHLETES LIFT WEIGHTS, CHEERLEADERS LIFT PEOPLE
From another person’s perspective one may see brainless and beautiful robots, which scream and perform neat tricks. That is not the case from the inside of a cheerleader’s mind; cheerleading is so much more than that to them.
There’s a few people that still don’t think that cheerleading is a sport. The battle over whether cheerleading is a sport or not has surged over decades.
Cheerleaders are considered athletes because like football players, and some other sports they do physical activities as well. They also participate in competitions, they do things like shout out special songs or chants to encourage the team and entertain the crowd during a game. Cheerleaders have always been athletes, but we often mistake them as just girls who scream and look pretty when actually being a cheerleader is more than that. Being a cheerleader is having hope when all the student body is falling apart, is having to lift a person’s life in their hands, and having the ability to convince a crowd that their team is the best and that their hard work payed off.
COMPETITIONS
REDLINE COMPETITION
THIS IS NOT A TEAM, THIS IS A FAMILY
CHEERLEADERS ARE THE ONLY HUMANS THAT CAN FLY
Requirements to be in cheerleading
A cheerleader is defined as a member of a team that performs organized cheering, chanting, and dancing in support of a sport team. To be labeled as a successful cheerleader you must go by a variety of rules. If not followed it can result in some serious consequences. These rules are to be in effect for all practices, games, competitions, and other performances.
•All cheerleaders should receive proper training before attempting to perform any kind of cheerleading gymnastics.
•must be passing all of your classes
•must have your toe touch down
•must have at least some experience with tumbling (ex. cartwheel)
•must always be smiling and have a positive attitude on
•must be as loud as you can during performances
Coach Mrs. Venegas
What is your definition of a cheerleader?
“An athlete that supports the student body with spirit, an athlete that is committed to the school.”
What do you think are the most important things that make a team successful?
“Teamwork, working together”
What was your biggest challenge as a coach?
“As a coach, the hardest challenge is to be completely fair to everyone, different situations, call to different ways to dealing with it and sometimes parents and students don’t understand that you need to be fair and fairness for one person doesn’t mean fairness for another. We have to take to consideration the different types of situations that occur.”
What do you think your team’s biggest strengths are?
“They have a lot of strengths, one of their biggest strengths are is that they are versatile, I can be able to put them in a position and they work and they work hard to complete the task that they were given.”Cheer Captain
What do you like about cheerleading?
“Tumbling and Stunting, it gives me a lot of energy.”
How do you feel before performing?
“Before performing, everytime, even if we practice really hard and we have everything perfect, I still get nervous.”
Would you consider cheerleading a sport, if so, why or why not?
“Yes, I do think cheerleading is a sport because like every other sport we train, condition and work out all year around.”
Cheer Co-Captain
What do you like about cheerleading?
“What I like about cheerleading is all the friendships we made, the girls that we’ve been with since freshman year, it’s fun getting to go through all these games and pep-rallies together and I also like stunting because it has really build up my strength.”
How do you feel before performing?
“Before a performance I definitely feel nervous and my stomach begins to hurts, but then once I get on stage, I know that I am confident, I know what I am going to do and I feel great after.
Would you consider cheerleading a sport? if so, why or why not?
“Cheerleading is definitely a sport and not just because I’am a cheerleader. I consider it a sport because we definitely train like athletes especially during the summer, we lift like athletes and cheerleading involves all of your body strength.”The History of Cheerleading
Crowds have been cheering since the advent of sports, but it wasn’t until the late 1800’s that organized cheering came to be. In 1883, Great Britain started the trend of cheering and chanting in unison at sports games, but the first official cheer wasn’t performed until 1884 at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey.
One member of that Princeton audience, Mark Peebles, brought cheerleading with him to the University of Minnesota and created a specific set of cheers for each different game. Peebles took it upon himself to lead the UOM crowd during football games, but another University of Minnesota student, named Johnny Campbell, took organized cheering even further by coordinating an entire team to the lead the crowd. From that day—November 2, 1898—forward, Campbell was known as the world’s first official cheerleader.
A MAN'S SPORT
When most people hear the word cheerleading, they think of girls in short skirts. But in fact, the sport was started by men, for men. In 1903, the University of Minnesota created a “Yell Squad” composed of six males, which in turn led to a male cheer fraternity called Gamma Sigma. Texas A&M joined the bandwagon in 1905 when they created “The Cheerleading State,” a group of males who led the crowd at football and basketball games.
Women finally joined cheerleading in 1923 and began to dominate the sport during World War II when most of the men left to fight. They were not yet allowed to compete in collegiate sports, but were permitted to join cheering squads. Once women took over, cheerleading began to incorporate tumbling, stunting and props like the megaphone, and members of the squad were usually voted in by their classmates, which downplayed the importance of earning one’s spot through skill.
The first women’s uniforms were a far cry from the short skirts that are worn today—the cheerleaders wore ankle-length skirts and varsity sweaters.