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fever:
Are you saying the girls’ teams dislike your presence? If so, why would they? It seems like they’d appreciate the crowd getting more pumped up for the game just as with the boys’ teams.</p>
<p>In all honesty, they would rather we do not attend. I suppose it’s bothersome to have to listen to our cheers when all they want to do is focus on the game. We don’t even pump up the crowd because my school isn’t very spirited.</p>
<p>Last night I attended the varsity basketball game at D’s all-girl h.s. The team is having a great year (18-1), one of the best in the county & in the top 20 statewide. The cheerleaders, who jump around like grassphoppers when cheering at their sister-school boys’ games, sat like lumps in the stands. Some were doing their homework, with books out on their laps & pencils in their hands. I asked the Dean of Students why they weren’t cheering & she shrugged, saying it drove her crazy. Now, I have no idea if there is bad blood between the team & the squad, as my D is a member of neither, but it is pretty clear that the cheerleaders were less than enthused about either the game or the team. I guess cheering is more about catching the attention of boys than it is about revving up spirit among the fans.</p>
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<p>I would be surprised if playing to the boys wasn’t a goal for some of the girls. I can tell you from a close personal relationship over a long period of time with a retired pepster that at least some of them believe in enthusiastic support of whatever is going on at the time.</p>
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Interesting … I have to admit at my kids HS the boys and girls teams get equal treatment by the cheerleaders. How is that? The cheerleaders used to attend only the boy’s games but were so uninvolved (and disrespectful during the national anthem) that the squad was disbanded. So now no one has cheerleaders … well, at least it is equal treatment.</p>
<p>What about all the classes the cheerleaders are now going to be missing? It’s hard enough for them to keep up with their school work missing two classes a week for games. What happens when they’re out twice as much? How about games schedules where it’s JV girls, Varsity girls, JV boys, Varsity boys all in one night? Does the cheer squad have to cheer all four games–about 6 hours total? Somehow I think the cheerleaders are getting the short end of the stick.</p>
<p>Our cheerleaders cheer year around, but there are some sports where they don’t cheer, for boys or girls, such a s soccer. But they do cheer for any team - boy or girl should they make it to playoffs, and that takes precedence. Freshmen cheer for freshmen teams, JV cheers for JV, and varsity cheers for varsity. We also solved much of the problem with conflicts in that we have stand leaders. They sit in the stands, and lead the crowd from there. They don’t do splits, etc., just yell and stir up excitement, wearing their signature tee-shirts.</p>
<p>As to numbers of girls and boys on the squad, we have no prohibition, and any boy that wishes, can be on the cheer squad, should he able to do what is required. No boy has ever tried out.</p>
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<p>In my opinion, no. But when it is decided where the cheerleaders cheer, is it automatic that the boys’ games get precedence? If there are only 2 games they can cheer at, how about one boys’ and one girls’? Or even (gasp!) cheer only for the girls’ teams - particularly if there’s only one game they can cheer.</p>
<p>Well a lot of schools have Freshmen and JV cheerleading squads. I mean my school is small and cheerleading is not so big (there were no seniors or juniors who participated in Varsity winter cheer this year. Not one.) and we have freshmen, JV, and Varsity. So I don’t think that’s so much a problem at most schools although if they only have one big Varsity squad I guess it would be.</p>
<p>It also occurs to me that a lot of sports just don’t lend themselves to cheerleaders:</p>
<p>Surfing (my high school had a championship team)
Golf
Track (too many events at the same time)
Wrestling
Fencing
Swimming</p>
<p>It seems like you could just limit cheering to team sports. Having said that, my high school way back when managed to send at least two Varsity or JV cheerleaders to every varsity sporting event. Of course, girl’s sports back then were j…u…s…t starting the transition from after-school sort-of-intramural events to varsity-level events. Girls at my school still didn’t earn varsity letters when I graduated in '74.</p>
<p>^^ It actually works to have cheerleading at wrestling matches. Wrestling cheerleaders probably get more support than any others, because it gives a good edge to the wrestlers.</p>
<p>The rest I agree with.</p>
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<p>This was answered by a cheerleader back in post #32:</p>
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