2008 Woodie Awards
Cheerleading is a sport
By: Letter to the Editor
Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Sports
What is your definition of a sport? A game played with a ball? Or an activity the NCAA says is a sport? The dictionary defines a sport as: an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
I was a cheerleader for four years, and I have coached cheerleading for a year. Ask any cheerleader and they will tell you that the sport of cheerleading does involve physical exertion and skill.
Try to go out there and throw a girl seven feet in the air, or be that girl and get thrown in the air to do a double flip. Don't tell me that doesn't take skill! Cheerleaders work just as hard as any other athlete out there (except golfers) and train just as much.
Cheerleading is much more than just standing on the sideline and looking hot…even though we do that, too. Cheerleading includes chants, cheers, routines, jumps, tumbling, gymnastics, partner stunts and pyramid building. It takes a lot of hard work to learn a cheer or routine, put it together with 15 people and get everyone to work in sync with one another. Not to mention the tumbling and gymnastics they do! The day you can go out there and do a round-off back handspring back tuck with ease, then you can tell me we don't work hard.
Cheerleaders do get hurt. The sport of cheerleading would be equivalent to juggling porcupines. If you can do that without getting hurt then you can say cheerleading is not dangerous. Over 50 percent of serious injuries that occur in female athletes are due to the sport of cheerleading. Throwing girls up in the air, doing flips and jumping off the ground, that's going to cause some injuries!
On top of all our hard work and energy we put into everything else, we still have to stay enthused and pep up the crowd and do it with a smile on our face. Yes, sometimes are uniforms are a tiny bit small but we're girls…we have to look good at whatever we do.
-Rachel Pelzel
I was a cheerleader for four years, and I have coached cheerleading for a year. Ask any cheerleader and they will tell you that the sport of cheerleading does involve physical exertion and skill.
Try to go out there and throw a girl seven feet in the air, or be that girl and get thrown in the air to do a double flip. Don't tell me that doesn't take skill! Cheerleaders work just as hard as any other athlete out there (except golfers) and train just as much.
Cheerleading is much more than just standing on the sideline and looking hot…even though we do that, too. Cheerleading includes chants, cheers, routines, jumps, tumbling, gymnastics, partner stunts and pyramid building. It takes a lot of hard work to learn a cheer or routine, put it together with 15 people and get everyone to work in sync with one another. Not to mention the tumbling and gymnastics they do! The day you can go out there and do a round-off back handspring back tuck with ease, then you can tell me we don't work hard.
Cheerleaders do get hurt. The sport of cheerleading would be equivalent to juggling porcupines. If you can do that without getting hurt then you can say cheerleading is not dangerous. Over 50 percent of serious injuries that occur in female athletes are due to the sport of cheerleading. Throwing girls up in the air, doing flips and jumping off the ground, that's going to cause some injuries!
On top of all our hard work and energy we put into everything else, we still have to stay enthused and pep up the crowd and do it with a smile on our face. Yes, sometimes are uniforms are a tiny bit small but we're girls…we have to look good at whatever we do.
-Rachel Pelzel
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 16
andrew
posted 9/27/08 @ 8:14 AM MST
i guess u could call cheerleading a sport
as for the injury thing, the only other sports they play are softball and basketball (as for sports in which an injury could accure) and if they get hurt so much then they must not be all that great at wut they do
Tori
posted 9/28/08 @ 11:36 AM MST
I've been cheering for 7 yrs and Recently tore my ACL doing a tumbling pass. Anyone who says it isn't a sport doesn't know cheerleading at all
rockangel431
posted 10/07/08 @ 7:20 AM MST
This article was awsome!
I had to do a report for gym on something physical, and I imeadiatly thought of cheerleading and this artical helped a lot thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
cheerleader101
posted 10/08/08 @ 6:57 AM MST
i have been cheering for 3 years and its def a sport. we probably work just as hard as any other sport. we have just as much injuries(if not more) and thanks for recognizing this!
Caroline Hunter
posted 10/16/08 @ 10:54 AM MST
Thanks for your article. We just had this discussion in my SAT Prep Math class with a football player who said Cheerleading is not a sport. How is cheerleading classified by NCAA? Are there athletic scholarships for cheering leading?
Thanks, Caroline Hunter
Teacher, CRLS
Cambridge, MA
chunter
Caroline Hunter
posted 10/16/08 @ 11:01 AM MST
Thanks for your article. We just had this discussion in my SAT Prep Math class with a football player who said Cheerleading is not a sport. How is cheerleading classified by NCAA? Are there athletic scholarships for cheering leading? Thanks, Caroline Hunter CRLS
matt
posted 10/17/08 @ 3:02 PM MST
I agree that cheerleading can be very taxing physically, but a person shouldn't be offended if it is not referred to as a "sport." There are different camps that cheerleading falls into: 1) cheering on the sidelines at athletic events (not a sport), and 2) competition cheering with fast-paced or highly-choreographed routines (close to a sport). (Continued…)
Erica R.
posted 10/18/08 @ 7:29 PM MST
i have been a cheerleading for 9 years! I'm 19 now, on the Varsity cheer team for my high school in California. I LOVED your opinion on cheerleading! I am definitly so tired of people telling me that it is NOT a sport. (Continued…)
Will
posted 10/21/08 @ 10:52 AM MST
Sorry, but cheerleading is not a sport. The definition I got had the inference of "direct competition," meaning that you have to be able to affect competitor's scores (Two individuals or teams on a court/field/mat simultaneously). (Continued…)
Ashley
posted 10/29/08 @ 10:28 AM MST
cheerleading is without a doubt a sport.i've been cheering for about 8 years now and im telling you its hard work.learing a routine,cheers,tumbling,all of it and having to do it as one is super hard. (Continued…)
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