<p>The only time my nieces felt that their uniforms were inappropriate was when one cheered in the NFL. The costumes have built-in gel inserts for cleavage enhancement & plenty of midriff showing. </p>
<p>Speaking of skimpy uniforms, d was shocked to see some of the tiny spandex panties worn by some cross-country & track teams from competing high schools. She marched up to her coach & told him he’d better not order them for the girls or they’d all quit. Coach assured her that the school would never allow that.</p>
<p>that is what our wrestling team says…especially when the girls know nothing about the sport.<br>
If Title IX wants the rights then they need the responsibility of cheering for ALL sports not just ones where the “boys are”.</p>
<p>My opinion of cheerleaders has changed over the years as I’ve had to sit through many football games to watch my kids in the marching band. I started with the assumption that the cheerleaders were the cute, flirty, not-very-smart girls that were just there to cheer on the boys. I soon discovered that they were athletes, not always pretty, sometimes overweight, and often smart. Their routines were not suggestive and no bump and grind moves were ever seen. Every time our team got a touchdown they would do push ups for however many points the team scored. I also realized that for most every cheerleader there was a parent or two in the crowd that came just to watch her. The girls had several routines coordinated with the marching bands songs and there were many times that what the band and cheerleaders were doing was much more interesting then whatever the football team was (not) doing on the field. We band parents always clap after our kids play but the cheerleaders get nothing from the crowd after doing quite amazing gymnastic stunts. I’ve taken to yelling “yeah Cheerleaders!” to the amusement of my friends. Since our football team never wins it’s often painful to watch the boys on the field when the talented students are obviously the girls cheering and the musicians in the stands. </p>
<p>We have had boys on the basketball cheerleading squad and the cheerleaders and the people in the stands loved them. The guys muscles made possible some moves that the girls were not doing without them. Both were in the marching band so could not participate during football season.</p>
<p>kathiep - Sounds like our high school. For football games, our squad does pushups = to the total score everytime the team scored a point…and they were the ‘manly’ pushups too…some GI Jane style with one hand. And everything our cheer squad does at football games is heavily coordinated with the band. The band calls down the song, so the girls can prepare for their routine. The girls watch the game and call for certain ‘sound effects’ depending on what’s going on in the game (opponent’s field goal attempt for example). It’s a very cooperative effort…with the drum major and head cheerleader running the show. Most of our cheerleaders are not tiny, skinny airheads either; they are athletes with athletic bodies… and the drive that allows them to master difficult cheerleading/tumbling skills is also the drive the gets them that A in AP-Physics.</p>
<p>Some of our district high schools do have co-ed teams…and co-ed stunting is unbelievably cool. Anyone who has ever sees a one-handed ‘kewpie’ or ‘awesome’ can attest to that. Unfortunately, here in Texas, the stigma against high school male cheerleaders is pretty strong…despite the fact that I’d put a male cheerleader up against any other male athlete any day.</p>
<p>We had one male cheerleader on my cheerleading squad back in the 70’s. He was voted head cheerleader. We all thought it was great because we could do so much more cool stuff with him on the team. He got made fun of a lot by all the “he-men” but it didn’t seem to bother him too much. They shut up once they saw him do back handsprings all the way across the gym floor and on any given Friday night get to carry, hold or flip all the feamle cheerleaders.</p>
<p>At my s’s hs, there are 12 girls and 4 boys on the squad. The boys help with the lifts and stunts. During dance routines, the boys get out of the way ;). Our squad attends both girls and boys events. This fall, both the volleyball team and the football team won district and played post season games, so the cheerleaders were really busy! They also do pushups for the number of points scored, and this fall, with our high powered offense (scoring over 40 points a few times), it was kind of funny to watch their “push-up form” break down :). </p>
<p>They do a great job, whether it be at a girls court sport or at a football game or basketball game, and I know that ALL the athletes appreciate their support and encouragement.</p>
<p>And, 2 of the girls are top 1% and heading to UT business, the others are smart cookies too, no skankiness allowed.</p>
<p>Now that we have discovered that one should not jump to conclusions about lacrosse players, perhaps we should also remember that college cheerleaders come in many if not all shapes and sizes, and in a wide range of GPAs and SATs. More to the point, based on limited secondhand knowledge, I think the NCAA has specific rules about cheerleading at NCAA games. I believe it limits the number of cheerleaders who can be on the floor at certain events, too. I also think it is pretty comon for college cheerleaders to work at home games for both male and female basketball teams, not away games at all except for special playoff/tournament events, and few if any other sports beyond home football. This is clearly a lot more equitable and fostering of a better attitude among all concerned than the program described in yeterday’s Times. It should be noted too that Big Ten cheerleading squads definltely are co-ed–as you will note when you watch this year’s basketball playoffs and get a glimpse of Ohio State, etc.</p>
<p>Given the time demands of practice and performance schedule it obviously is not feasible to have a single squad consisting of the same people at events in multiple sports beyond the range I’ve noted. At small schools there is a limited pool of people available for any given activity; perhaps at larger ones there is room for multiple squads. </p>
<p>I was never a cheerleader, or a friend of cheerleaders, in high school. But I hope I’ve learned since then that wearing glasses does not automatically make you smart, having long hair does not make you a poet, and being pretty does not automatically make you empty-headed.</p>
<p>while my D does do track ( or she did- she decided that this year- she is going to play tennis instead- which I think is a great decision- she has asthma- and does long distances- which were really difficult), they had regular running shorts for competitions.
Still brief- but not * briefs*
She also didn’t like the tanks they had to wear- she is built like a runner & it looked fine on her- but I don’t think she likes the feel of it.</p>
<p>I have no idea what the tennis team wears- presumably more than the track team.</p>
<p>One of the nice things about being a marching band parent is that you know that your kid won’t be embarrassed about the skimpiness of the uniform. Marching band uniforms cover everything.</p>
<p>Or at least that’s what I thought before my daughter got into marching band and discovered that the real embarrassment comes after the competition, when the kids are required to change back into their street clothes – which involves stripping down to a t-shirt and underpants – ON THE BUS, in front of everyone else, of both genders. Evidently, keeping the uniforms clean takes priority over any notion of personal privacy.</p>
<p>We once were at a competition at which one band had a band front bigger than the band, not just flag twirlers but this huge line of pom pom girls whose skimpy outfits would’ve put a cheerleader to shame, not to mention the amount of butt wiggling they did while wearing them. So even band is not always safe.</p>
<p>(our kids wore the uniforms home, guess they were too old to need that kind of special care…)</p>
<p>My hs senior son is partial to the girl’s volleyball uniforms. Back in my day, we literally wore bloomers and long button up shirts. Now, the shorts (if you can call them that) are skin tight, short short spandex shorts. Yikes!</p>
<p>My wife was a cheerleader back in the day, and she frequently expresses her disappointment at the fact that today’s cheerleaders don’t seem to have any idea what’s going on in the game, what its significance is, etc. “Cheerleaders” seem to have morphed into “dancers” who put on their own performance unrelated to the game they are “cheering” at. At basketball games at my kids’ high school the actual cheering is done by a “6th man” group - led by guys. So I don’t think it actually makes much difference what event the “cheerleaders” are performing at, although they’d probably prefer to do their thing at a well attended one. </p>
<p>My kids can’t believe that when I was in high school my best friend was a cheerleader - a male cheerleader, that is. He held a magaphone (like GWB) and actually led cheers. Didn’t dance, though.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school, two of the band’s six flag twirlers are male. And both of the drum majors, as well as the leader of the drumline, are female. Go figure.</p>
<p>ldmom, I never thought that cheerleading, as its own primary event, is “fluff”. It is truly a great sport. with dedicated and talented athletes, when it is played in competition between cheer teams. But when it is true “cheerleading”, i.e. standing on the sidelines, or even twirling around on the sidelines trying to generate enthusiasm for other athletes – that’s a different story.</p>