THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SARA BAKER, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
IT IS 11:30 a.m. Saturday and some of the Catholic High School cheerleaders have already had an action-packed day. It started with a field hockey game, and now they are warming up for a three-hour cheering practice.
While running around the gym wearing T-shirts and sweat pants emblazoned with Catholic High, one girl remarks to the captain, ``You really are trying to prove that cheerleaders are athletes!''
A new age of high school cheering has emerged. Today's cheerleaders are doing more complex stunts, dances and cheers. But the question remains: ``Are cheerleaders athletes?''
``All the conditioning, running, tumbling, and weight training we do, why not consider us athletes?'' said Catholic squad captain Emily Castillo, 17, a senior at the Virginia Beach school.
Cheerleading requires muscular strength, athleticism and coordination. In addition, one needs to have an outgoing and cheerful personality, and of course, lots of school spirit. A cheerleader has to have the energy to execute endless cartwheels and backflips, the balance and strength to build human pyramids and the technique to make it all look easy.
Despite the requirements, most cheerleaders interviewed for this story feel unappreciated by the athletes they cheer for and by the student body at large. Emily, for example, believes that cheerleaders are taken for granted.
``Most of the athletes we cheer for will ask us why we haven't decorated their locker, or why we haven't done this for them,'' said Shannon Harty, 16, a junior and a cheerleader at Catholic.
Other cheerleaders agree.
``They don't appreciate us when we cheer, but they like to see us in our uniforms,'' said Kristin Weaver, 17, a senior at Windsor High in Windsor.
``They would miss us if we were gone,'' agreed Emily Hobbs, 15, a sophomore cheerleader at Windsor. She added that a lot of people still stereotype cheerleaders as airheads, despite the changes in cheering that make it much more difficult than it has ever been.
``People are still stuck in the airhead mindset,'' she said.
Ann J. Whitley, a cheering sponsor at Windsor, believes that the student body as a whole does not think that cheerleaders are airheads, but she says a few students will always disparage what cheerleaders do. Whitley, who also sponsored girls basketball, said coaching both sports was similar, meaning team members had to practice, have athletic ability and be in good shape.
But William A. Boggs, the National Cheerleaders Association Collegiate coordinator, does not necessarily agree that cheering is a sport.
``Cheering is more of an athletic activity in the sense that it supports a sport that centers around competition,'' he said. ``Cheering does not center around competition.''
More colleges are offering scholarships to cheerleaders. American Cheerleading Magazine reports that 98 colleges offer money to cheerleaders.
And locally, a new ``cheering school'' is now in business. Linda L. Turner, Old Dominion University's cheering coach, owns Cheer Dynamics in Virginia Beach. At classes held at ODU, male and female cheerleaders can learn the essentials of cheering.
Cheering has developed into a complex team effort involving both girls and boys. So are cheerleaders athletes? Go to a local football game or basketball or wrestling match and watch the cheerleaders and decide for yourself. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot
Norfolk Catholic cheerleaders practice a routine.
Sue Baker is a sophomore at Windsor High.
by CNB