Every time Kaley Dickerson, varsity cheerleader and junior, hears someone say cheerleading is not a sport, she said it makes her frustrated.
“Competition cheer is a sport. We practice just as much as any other sport in the school, we put in a lot of effort and it does take a lot of physical skill that a lot of people don’t have,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson said when many people think of cheerleading, they think of girls wearing short skirts and waving pompoms. However, she said, not many people think of cheerleading as a sport with real dangers that takes great skill.
According to Abbey Foster, head varsity winter cheerleading coach, there is a lot more to cheerleading than most people think.
“The people who say cheerleading isn’t a sport are people who aren’t familiar with the athleticism and overall skill set that is required to be a part of the cheer team. Cheerleading requires strength, dexterity, coordination and sacrificing personal interests for the betterment of the team and program. Those attributes translate to any other sport that Carmel offers.”
Every Monday through Wednesday during football season and every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday during basketball season, the cheerleading teams go to work. The exercises cheerleaders do during practice vary greatly, from doing flips to running a mile.
“Our practices are actually very rigorous. We run a mile every day, every single week. Our mile has to be under seven minutes or else we don’t get to cheer a quarter on the game on Friday night, and then our routines are like two and a half minutes of cardio, like throwing people up in the air and holding them there, flipping yourself around,” Dickerson said.
The New York Times states that cheerleading is one of the fastest growing sports, but more than half of Americans still don’t believe that it’s a sport. On one hand, sideline cheerleading that simply entertains the crowd may not be considered a sport, but competitive cheerleading is. In fact, on June 9 2014, the American Medical Association officially recognized cheerleading as a sport due to its risks and rigors.
This year the CHS competitive cheerleading team earned first place in the “Varsity A” competitive cheerleading division State championship.
“We get (to the competition) usually an hour before you get on the competition mat, and they have warm-up rooms, and so we’ll go on those mats and warm up,” Dickerson said. “After that, we’ll go and compete in front of everyone else, in front of the judges. There is a judges’ table with usually around seven judges (who watch) our routine, and then we wait until awards at the end of the day.”
Just like any other sport, the cheerleading team competitively competes against other teams and schools, and according to Kate Elisha, varsity cheerleader and junior, the cheerleaders face the same pressures and hopes as any other team during a competition.
“When we get up on the mat in competition, obviously it’s very scary, but it’s fun being out there with the same group of girls you’ve worked with so long and so hard. I think it’s more exciting and fun, even though it is nerve-racking, but in the end it’s all we’ve worked towards,” Elisha said.
Cheerleaders are uncommon athletes. One noticeable difference is they are the people cheering on others rather than being cheered for. According to Dickerson, being judged based on your spirit and ability makes the competition difficult.
When describing how she feels before getting on the mat and performing, Dickerson said, “It’s so nerve-racking, you stand at the back of the mat for probably a solid two minutes having everyone watch you, and all the nerves start to come in because you know you’re about to be judged on it. You hope everything hits, that you’ve just worked so hard for, so once they say that you can take the mat it’s just so nerve-racking. Everyone’s watching you, the judges, the parents, other teams, but it’s all worth it. Like when a roller coaster is climbing up, it’s that feeling that you know it’s coming, butterflies in your stomach, but I love it. It’s awesome, I love that feeling.”
When the team got to the awards at the end of the day at the State competition, the atmosphere was very fun according to Dickerson.
“The best part is awards. They always play a bunch of fun dance music at awards, and all the girls from different teams are on the floor and everyone stands up and dances with their team. It’s just really fun,” Dickerson said.
According to Elisha, when the CHS cheerleading team was declared the winner in their division, the feeling of accomplishment was overwhelming.
“They called up our name and we were all so excited and the coaches were so happy for us. The feeling was just indescribable,” Elisha said.
Dickerson said she believes cheerleading has all the elements that require it to be a sport. Though many students see the cheerleaders do their routines during games on Friday nights, Dickerson said, not many come out and see the competitive aspect.
“We have competitions that aren’t that far away, but every year we do something at the school called Share the Spirit, and we show our competition routines for our State competition, and that would be a great time people could see what we do since it’s at the school,” she said.
According to Foster, because of all the athleticism and skill displayed by the cheerleading team, she does not think these uncommon athletes seem that uncommon anymore.
“I don’t see cheerleaders as being uncommon athletes. I think athletes are athletes across the board,” Foster said. “The athletes on the cheer team have made the decision to promote their athleticism through training for the skills and discipline that cheerleading requires.”