Cheer-tastrophe

– By Tami Bridges –

Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and tennis. These activities have different names for a reason; they have different roles and different purposes for the game. Although they all do have something in common: they are sports. What defines a sport though? Athletic ability, competition, even a chance to show off skills are all reasons people play. This brings people to the question, “Is cheerleading a sport?”

Three out of four of the people at NHS  believe it is. In fact, our very own librarian, Mrs.Noble says, “Cheerleading is challenging in many ways and more students should be open to the idea of doing it to get the experience of what cheerleaders do.” Coltin Worley, one male cheerleader at NHS says, “Many people don’t think that cheerleading is a sport because all they see is us standing there yelling random cheers, but what they’re missing is the real work behind the scenes. Like the 200 cheers you have to memorize,the dances we learn in three days, and the workouts the boys do to be able to lift. We constantly learn new cheers and claps, practicing on switching from offense to defense cheers.” This sport is combined with confidence, beauty, flexibility, and mentality. These are key aspects that get cheerleaders through every game.

While fans are sitting in the stands enjoying their snacks or refreshments and getting comfortable, the cheerleaders are standing the entire time performing and looking their best through both the boys and girls varsity games. With hardly any time during halftime to eat or sit down, the cheerleaders quickly practice stunts/cheers for the next time out.

On the other hand, Gage Anderson says, “Cheerleading is allowing a group of people to cheer on an actual sport and there is no competition, so therefore, it’s not a sport.” And when Rene Peters was asked why she thinks cheerleading isn’t a sport, she replied with, “When you think about it, cheerleaders just stand on the sidelines and don’t really compete in anything so there is no game going on.”

Asking ten boys their opinion, four of them stated that cheerleading isn’t a sport, while six said that  it is indeed a sport. Nine out of ten girls say cheer falls under the sports category whereas one girl, Tasha Rohrer, replied with a, “Heck no,” as she doesn’t believe that cheerleading is a sport.

So, the question remains in the air. Is or isn’t cheerleading a sport? Combined with physical activity, mental competition, and a number of skills that are used at every game, should cheerleading get the privilege of being called a sport?

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