You Might Want To Sit Down For This: Five Reasons Cheerleading Is A Sport
If someone spending six hours a day being tossed in the air and flip-twirling (or perhaps twirl-flipping) called themselves a gymnast-athlete, you’d not likely bat an eyelash (or perhaps flip-twirl an eyelash?) at this label. But what if someone who did these same activities called themselves a cheerleader-athlete? Would that change anything? Would you accept the “athlete” portion of the cheerleader’s claim?
More now than ever, universities are considering cheerleading a competitive sport, if for no other reason than to appease the Title IX federal law insistent upon schools having an equal number of sports for men and woman.
Before we continue, let’s get a few things straight. Indians are called Native Americans American Indians, midgets are called dwarves lilliputians wee folk little people and cheerleaders are called the easiest girls in school synchronized rooting enthusiasts.
“We don’t even use that word (cheerleader) anymore,” said Tori Maynard, a senior on the University of Oregon’s competitive cheer team. “It’s a stereotype. People don’t understand what competitive cheerleading is.”
Got it? Ready? Okay.
Under the outlined criteria of Title XI, activities only become sport as long as coaches are involved, the season is defined and there is a governing organization. Additionally, competition must be the sport’s main objective. This is where the argument over cheerleading gets interesting. Is the main objective of a cheer squad to win its yearly competitions or to distract the athletes playing in other sports by gyrating suggestively while clapping and rhyming?
It really depends on how individual schools phrase the cheer squad’s team guidelines. No one at the collegiate level has petitioned for the NCAA to consider cheerleading a sport.
“Most of the participants are sideline cheerleaders,” said Bill Boggs, who runs the NCAA collegiate national championships. “The thing about cheerleading at the collegiate level is that it is so random as far as what they are considered, who they report to. Some of them are under athletics, some are under activities, some are under club sports, some of them even report to the band.”
And some others just work around the definition of sports instead of aligning themselves to be a part of it. Not us. In addition to the above listed Title XI criteria, the Sidelines Blog has compiled a list of Five Definitive Rules That Define Sports (Or Really Ought To). We’ve submitted these items to the NCAA and expect a response shortly… right after they take care of the BCS system. Commence holding breath…now.
- People must cheer for or against your performance Although the idea of people cheering for people who are cheering seems decidedly dumb.
- Winning and losing must be possible The word “possible” only comes into play because of soccer, which can end in a tie. As much as I’d like to discount soccer as a sport, the other six continents (and Mexico) would throw a hissyfit.
- Athletes or teams must be able to gain and lose their positions Fighters win belts, golfers miss cuts, NASCAR drivers shift points and no matter how sassy the East Compton’s Clovers are, eventually someone’s gonna bring it to them too! (You couldn’t possibly have thought we were getting through this blog without a “Bring It On” reference. Frankly, I’m shocked it took this long).
- The sport must not serve any purpose other than to entertain Cooking contests, mass skinny dipping for a Guinness record or building houses for charity are examples of contests that offer something to society besides the activity itself. I know, I know: Soccer isn’t entertaining. I agree. But there isn’t any tangible good or service that soccer produces either.
- The sport reasonably forces its players to risk possible physical injury This is otherwise known as the “Hell No, Chess Ain’t A Sport” rule. Contestants play games without injury. Athletes play sports and get hurt. Check out the figures. Then check out this cheerleader. Now tell me they ain’t athletes.
Now I ask you, are there any of these categories that cheer squads in competitions fail to meet?
The only thing stopping cheerleading from being a sport are the tournament opportunities, not the activity itself. If we can get the WNBA a summer schedule filled with games, surely something can be done about cheering.
More on the collegiate Title XI issue from the AP via Yahoo!.
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