is high school cheerleading a sport?

cheer1 · Veteran Member

RE: is high school cheerleading a sport?

OC Mom · GURU

No, I meant that I was agreeing with you. Some people don't talk about these things. Why you wouldn't talk about it is beyond me....

Cheer Parent · Senior Member

Cheer411 wrote:

Cheer Parent wrote:

I know one thing somehow someway we have to figure out how to change the publics perception of cheerleaders. Example: My oldest daughter a junior @ Sac State who is majoring in Psychology went on an interview to intern at a highschool for the mentally ill. During the interview which was going well the prospective employer suddenly noticed my daughter was a cheerleader. The interviewer was appalled that she was a cheerleader and said she was suprised she even made that far in college. She also said that all the cheerleaders at her daughters school were crack heads. I kid you not I was so furious I wanted blood. But my daughter will all the grace said to the interviewer that she obviously had a wrong perception of her and cheerleaders in general and that she was stereo typing and very gracfully declined the interview at that point. In large I still think alot of people think that way whether it be from bad experiences with cheer in general or just a bad stigma that we just cant seem to shake. Its not all about the skirt and popularity its about personal pride and dedication to something that they belive in.

That's a crazy stereotype! I've never heard that one before. And I have to tell you, I've heard of several others.

Hmm, I wonder what high school the interviewer's daughter attended?

I wondered that myself 411, does make you wonder Hmm Oh well we moved on, well my daughter did I had issues with it but she asked me to let it go and she is college educated I never did just the school of hard knocks for me Lol.

CSE DAD · Veteran Member

I may be wrong, this is just a guess, but reading the posts, and the lines and in between the lines, 4jesus, is it possible that your daughter was diswayed from HS cheer due to the fact, as you stated, that she is already on an all star team, and is it possible that in your school district, as it is with so many school districts, that if you are on an all star team, you cannot be on a high school team. just a thought.

And for cheer1 mom, bless you for taking your child to the world of cheer. it is a good thing, both for you and your child. somewhere in this topics post is "jodi", she teaches and leads a special needs cheer team. I do not know where you are located, but somewhere on "you tube" is a video of her teams performance. I read somewhere, just a guess mind you, that there are already over 140 special needs teams across the U.S.A. .good for you and your cheerleader.

Cheer Parent · Senior Member

CSE DAD are you on a major caffine ride? 3:37am! geez Lol

CSE DAD · Veteran Member

it was the night for reading, and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring, just the spoon in my coffee cup,
i said 'whoa nellie' why did i wake up, it wasn`t the smell of
an empty cofee cup, so restless i be, i hit the space bar
that woke up my sleepy pc. I read with a fervor, i read with
a grin, i read with some laughter, i had to put my 2

s in.
you asked , what A.M., so early it be, a coffee high am i in,
am i able to see, nay, those things not, i am, just tired and
restless and sleepy again. daytime for chores, and running around
nightime for sleep oh so sound, a window of time i do keep open,
when i can`t sleep, to read what was written, message boards
are like talking, and so i talk when all are asleep. silently i hit those
keys, through sleepy eyes and mind, one more cup of coffee,
and its off to bed again.

Cheer Parent · Senior Member

Well its only happened a few times to me but I have been there so next time it does happen I'll go for the reader board and type away maybe that bit of advice might help!! Lol

OC Mom · GURU

Ok, CSE DAD made that look too good. You don't want me to even ATTEMPT to do that!!!

Mini Mik · Veteran Member

i must say....we cheerleaders dislike it very much when we are told cheer isnt a sport.at least i dont like.i dont know about the reat of ya.i got made fun of because cheerleaders are know for rah-rah and all that balogna.well its a lot harder than that.which obviously they dont understand.s as much as a lot of people disagree.i say yes HS cheer is a sport.it may be less competative than what we do.but it is cheer non the less.

MIK

LU

SabrinaLovesAP · Veteran Member

I'm doing a short paper on this very topic for PE. (Its my make-up work for cheer campyay! biggrin

) I found an interesting article on about.com (http://cheerleading.about.com/od/skillsandabilities/a/031002a.htm). In the author's opinion, cheerleaders are athletes without a sport. However, I believe this is geared more towards hs cheer; she says, "Their sole purpose is to entertain, motivate and unite spectators of other athletic teams that are competing."
Another clip from the article:
"According to the Women's Sports Foundation the following criteria has to be met to be considered a sport: A physical activity which involves propelling a mass through space or overcoming the resistance of a mass A contest or competition against or with an opponent Is governed by rules which explicitly define the time, space and purpose of the contest and the conditions under which a winner is declared The acknowledged primary purpose of the competition is a comparison of the relative skills of the participants "Do you think we, as competitive cheerleaders, fit the criteria? I think that since many high school teams are competing this will be more and more difficult to debate.

SabrinaLovesAP · Veteran Member

this one is even more interesting! it shows a study of 33 competitive and "sideline" cheerleader's workout capacity, flexibility and lean body mass. the results actually shocked me!

Competitive cheerleaders ranked with "Olympic soccer and gymnastic contenders"... "The competitive cheerleaders ranked very high in their fitness and strength. As a matter of fact, they ranked as well as any top level athlete and showed 'superior athletic fitness.'"

However, sideline cheerleaders were the opposite. "The non competitive Cheerleaders had less interest in training and were even sometimes late in showing up for their lab times. The study was started with 20 competitive cheerleaders and 20 non competitive, but ended with full results on only 13 of the non competitive Cheerleaders. And these results showed that the non competitive Cheerleaders' fitness was not very different from that of an average untrained adolescent girl."

pretty interesting, huh??

(http://cheerleading.about.com/cs/health/a/athletes.htm)

maddiekate · Veteran Member

*shocked* On wikipedia, it lists all cheerleading as an "activity". I changed it, and someone changed it back and added a note not to change it to sport.

OC Mom · GURU

Apparently they don't understand. Sideline cheerleading is not a sport, in my opinion. Competitive cheer is.

cheerwatcher · GURU

I completely agree with OC MOM to a tee, sideline cheer is not a sport (to me) but all stars is.

JillfromAP · Veteran Member

i also agree with OC mom.

mariel · Veteran Member

i do agree with oc mom too..

Cheer Parent · Senior Member

Im totally with Oc Mom one hundred percent sideline cheer is the reason why most the public consider it not a sport and dont even realize the competitive side of it and if they did I'm sure the public opinion would sway. It needs to be an Olympic event I think to change public opinion. smile

CO Rocket · Member

crazy how the poll is about 50/50.

Cheer Parent · Senior Member

I feel that those that do high school cheer are baised and want to be included as a competitive sport but that can only be if they are on their schools competitive squad. Most schools have sideline cheer and competitive squads and sideline cheer is just that nothing wrong with it but just is not a sport its entertainment.

OC Mom · GURU

The only thing that kills me about HS Competition teams is the fact that they do so much on the hard floor. I am really worried about this fact. But I have to remember that I am just used to the spring floors. Uggggggg