Cheerleading: Sport or Activity

[ksgovols]

I'm all for sanctioning cheerleading as a sport at the high school and college levels. Take those numbers off the Title IX restrictions. Shoot, sanction tumbling, dancing and twirling too while you're at it. All of those activities should be sanctioned by the TSSAA and the NCAA as athletic events.

[fbfan51]

How do you think high school cheerleaders are benefitting from Title IX? I'd be interested to hear what you think vs. the reality.

[ksgovols]

The reality at the college level is that for every athletic scholarship awarded to men's athletics, one has to be awarded to women's athletics more or less. The ratio has to be the same percentage of total students. That's ok for soccer to soccer, baseball to softball and basketball to basketball comparisions, but the 85 football scholarships are harder to offset, so men's soccer, baseball etc... get partial scholarships. Wrestling programs get axed. All state men's soccer players have a hard time getting a look at the next level while all district women's soccer players don't have any problem at all. What's more, the money makers like football and men's basketball subsidize all of the women's programs and the men's minor sports.

 

I'm not against female athletes getting athletic scholarships. It just shouldn't be at the expense of the men's sports. Do you think the ratio of female athletes in society equals the ratio of male athletes in society? I don't. Why should the athletic scholarship opportunities be skewed in such a way?

 

 

"As a review, the Title IX proportionality provision of the three-part athletics opportunities test was contested by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, since some colleges are choosing to drop men's teams as a way of complying with Title IX, instead of adding women's teams."

 

And from the Daily Princetonian

 

"While not many people would deny that Title IX has positively changed the face of women's sports, its effect on men's sports is a much more controversial subject.

 

As a means of satisfying the proportionality requirement of Title IX, many schools have simply cut back on their men's programs rather than trim other parts of the budget to create funds for new women's teams. Many accomplished programs have been dropped, prompting alumni outrage. Such programs include baseball at Providence College and men's swimming at University of California, Los Angeles. Boston University made headlines when it dropped its football team in 1997.

 

One sport hit hard by cutbacks in men's athletics is wrestling. With no female counterpart and lacking the strong fan support of most university football programs, more than 400 wrestling programs have been axed in the past 20 years. Princeton also fell prey to similar budget-cutting, dropping its wrestling team in 1993 — though the University was able to reinstate it with heavy private funding in 1996.

 

The elimination of men's sports teams has prompted some to question Title IX and proclaim it does exactly what it set out to prohibit — allocate opportunities based solely on sex.

 

Critics of Title IX proclaim that the law is creating opportunities for those who do not want or need them while stripping opportunities from those who do.

 

"Men have been penalized over the past 20 years for having a higher interest than women in athletics," J. Robinson, men's wrestling coach at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, told The Chronicle of Higher Education. "We should provide opportunities for whoever wants to play sports, but not manufacture those opportunities for those who show no interest.""

 

 

Is your reality different?

[buc1973]

Quote: "Its purpose is to raise spirit, lead the crowd, and promote sportmanship not competition."

 

This is one person's interpretation of the "purpose" for cheerleading. Perhaps that was it's original purpose, and agreeably with those specifications, it is indeed an activity. However, it is no longer 1960, and the focus, purpose, and vision of the sport has dramatically changed over the last decade. The problem is that the TSSAA refuses to sanction the sport, which many people do not realize. We (cheerleading) are "under the umbrella" of TSSAA, but are NOT a sanctioned sport by the state. What this does is create an "a la carte" approach to cheerleading, as decided by each individual school. In other words, each team decides what it wants its purpose and focus to be. This creates the problem that we are debating on this board. Teams and their talent run the gamut. Some teams are not allowed by their principals to tumble or stunt at all, while others are allowed to compete for national titles. It's difficult to defend cheerleading being a sport when perspectives regarding what cheerleading actually IS, vary so greatly.

 

Competitive cheerleading is a sport. It's plain and simple... It takes athleticism, endurance, physical and mental toughness, sport-specific knowledge, and determination. Is there an additional attribute that football requires that competitive cheerleading does not? This is a tired topic that people always place on cheerleading message boards to spark a frenzy from teenage girls. I am not one of them. I am a high school cheerleading coach of ten years. I know what these kids are made of. I've seen them fight through pain, injuries, and personal tragedies just to be a competitive cheerleader. I've seen them bask in the thrill of victory and hang their heads in the disappointment of a poor performance. I don't need anyone to convince me that I deal with athletes every day.

 

 

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[ksgovols]

My only gripe about competitive cheer leading is that it often comes at the expense of cheering for the football and basketball teams which is what the original purpose of cheerleading was all about. I feel the same way about the band no-showing the football games because they have a competition to go to the next day. It would seem to me that cheerleading and band competitions should be during the spring so that they don't conflict with 'cheer' leading duties or 'pep' band duties during football and basketball.

[fbfan51]

I'm actually right there with you about getting rid of Title IX. Survival of the fittest if you ask me! The legislation might as well not exist at the high school level. My squad practices in the school lobby every day, while wrestling, basketball, and even our middle school teams practice in the gym. My team pays for travel expenses while football and basketball take the school's bus for free. My "office" is a corner of the laundry closet, while the ASSISTANT football and basketball coaches have engraved name plates on their palatial office doors. Title IX is a joke at the high school level. I've coached in five other schools, and it's the same everywhere. I'm not whining about it. It is what it is.

 

I agree with you about those teams who put competing over supporting their school events. Sometimes the primary focus of team support is lost in the intensity of preparing for competition. I can't stand to see a band not show up to a football game either, and it seems like it is happening more and more often.

 

As for spring competitions, that would be great, but see, we'd have to be sanctioned for that to happen. These huge corporations come in here and take hundreds of thousands of dollars from our kids' pockets every year when they host competitions. Because we're not sanctioned, any company can have a competition anywhere they want any time. I want the TSSAA to sanction us so we can have an actual competition "season". It's madness the way cheerleading is year around. I want schools to be able to host sanctioned competitions so the money is given back to the schools, and not into the pockets of corporate leaders.

[bellgo]

I agree with you about those teams who put competing over supporting their school events. Sometimes the primary focus of team support is lost in the intensity of preparing for competition. I can't stand to see a band not show up to a football game either, and it seems like it is happening more and more often.

 

 

I totally agree with this! I've seen competitive cheer squads act bored at games because they don't want to be there. I also cannot stand to see a band not travel to away games these days. However, most bands travel long distances to marching competitions.

[ksgovols]

I'd also like to see the TSSAA sanction cheerleading competitions as a competitive sport and for colleges and universities to offer scholarships as same. That seems to me to be one way for cheerleaders to get their just dues AND to meet the requirements of Title IX. I wasn't kidding about that. I think the current system at the college level stinks. At the high school level, the enforcement of Title IX usually means cutting everybody's funding. The softball parents get mad because the baseball parents build a concession stand..............with baseball parents money and volunteer labor. The school system doesn't pay a dime for fear of Title IX lawsuits, so everybody suffers. Suffice it to say that there are some loopholes created by Title IX that allow women's athletics to not be promoted and male athletics to be cut as well.

 

As far as cheer competitions, our cheerleaders could sign up for any or all of 3 cheerleading squads. Football, basketball or competition. Those in competition were required to cheer for at least one of the other 2 sports. How wacked is that? Cheerleaders should attend all football and basketball games as 'cheer' leaders. If they want to compete, that's fine, but not at the expense of cheering for the athletic teams imo. I think that policy is going to hurt how our cheerleaders are viewed by the athletic teams. I know the football team and fans are not happy about the reduced number of cheerleaders at football games while there's twice as many cheerleaders asking the community to purchase fund raising items.

[little23]

Quote: "Its purpose is to raise spirit, lead the crowd, and promote sportmanship not competition."

 

This is one person's interpretation of the "purpose" for cheerleading. Perhaps that was it's original purpose, and agreeably with those specifications, it is indeed an activity. However, it is no longer 1960, and the focus, purpose, and vision of the sport has dramatically changed over the last decade. The problem is that the TSSAA refuses to sanction the sport, which many people do not realize. We (cheerleading) are "under the umbrella" of TSSAA, but are NOT a sanctioned sport by the state. What this does is create an "a la carte" approach to cheerleading, as decided by each individual school. In other words, each team decides what it wants its purpose and focus to be. This creates the problem that we are debating on this board. Teams and their talent run the gamut. Some teams are not allowed by their principals to tumble or stunt at all, while others are allowed to compete for national titles. It's difficult to defend cheerleading being a sport when perspectives regarding what cheerleading actually IS, vary so greatly.

 

Competitive cheerleading is a sport. It's plain and simple... It takes athleticism, endurance, physical and mental toughness, sport-specific knowledge, and determination. Is there an additional attribute that football requires that competitive cheerleading does not? This is a tired topic that people always place on cheerleading message boards to spark a frenzy from teenage girls. I am not one of them. I am a high school cheerleading coach of ten years. I know what these kids are made of. I've seen them fight through pain, injuries, and personal tragedies just to be a competitive cheerleader. I've seen them bask in the thrill of victory and hang their heads in the disappointment of a poor performance. I don't need anyone to convince me that I deal with athletes every day.

[little23]

Well said fbfan from a former cheerleader! Those who think cheerleading is not a sport have obviously never been a cheerleader. Maybe they should be a cheerleader for a week...I bet they would change their point of view!

[oknative]

.

Soccer players= kick a ball through a goal.

 

CHEERLEADER=compete nonstop with tumbling stunts and much much more.

 

HARSH WORDS! In a typical contest, soccer players run for a total of about 6 miles at fairly modest speed, sprint for about 800-1300 yards, accelerate 40-60 different times, and change direction every five seconds or so. How far does a cheerleader run during a tumbling run?

 

That said, I have no doubt that cheerleaders must be in fit condition to do some of the things they do.

[fbfan51]

Offending other sports is not the way to defend your own. I always tell my cheerleaders to legitimize themselves with their efforts, not with their words.