Cheerleading has been here since 1898 and still people disagree on if it is a sport or not.
According to the USA cheerleading website, cheerleading started with Johnny Campbell, a student at the University of Minnesota in 1898. On November 2, 1898 he was seen jumping a fence down to the field at a football game and he began leading the crowd with a chant.
Cheerleading, known as “Yell Leaders” at the time, started to sprout around other college campuses, and before you knew it there were jumps, tumblings, cheers, and motions involved. Now this was mainly a male sport until WW2. With men going to war, women had to fill the role on the sidelines. Then in 1949, the first cheer clinic was held.
Cheerleading is still huge today, but the opinions aren’t the same anymore. Many people don’t consider cheer a sport anymore. According to Davon Dyson, another Bowie State student, “You play basketball, and you play football. You don’t play boxing, and you don’t play cheerleading.”
Alyssa Roeingk, ESPN journalist and former cheerleader, “Sports teams exist to compete, not to perform and entertain or support another group that competes.”
Becca Alves, cheerleading captain, and senior at Oakmont believes that sideline cheer, which is when you only cheer at other sports events, is not a sport but, when compared to cheerleaders who compete, Alves strongly believes that cheer is considered a sport.
Even though opinions may vary it’s still important to know the evolution of cheerleading, cheer started with simple chants at Friday night football games, then in the 1960’s, dance and gymnastic elements started to be incorporated and before you knew it cheerleading was booming with competitions and showcases across the country by the 1980’s.
People are now starting to realize how cheerleading has evolved into something much more than just cheering at a football game, in fact Erin Bergin, Oakmont history teacher and cheer coach stated her opinion on cheering at games stating,“I actually do not think that we should cheer at football and basketball games, I think that it is detracting from people recognizing us as a sport, however it is important to be able to show your sport to the community.”
Bergin also feels strongly on cheer being a sport, “I obviously think cheer is a sport, it combines a bunch of different athletic events like gymnastics, stunting, dance and acro, especially with the NCAA recognizing STUNT.”
As cheerleaders are starting to gain recognition there are more and more scholarships available for cheerleaders, like the 10,000 “No Essay” scholarship, the Competitive Cheer Coaches Association of Michigan scholarship, and the Drew Morton Memorial scholarship.
Not only are cheerleaders gaining access to scholarships, there are now competitions held at the national level, the UCA and Summit are huge organizations that host these competitions. ESPN, a popular sports network, hosts these competitions, showing off all that cheerleaders have to offer.
Tanya Leblanc, former cheer coach, and special education teacher at Oakmont stated her opinion on the matter, “ Cheer is a sport! A sport is an activity that involves physical exertion and skill in which people compete against other people for entertainment. They work just as hard as any sport in this school.”
Eric Dawley, an Athletic Director at Oakmont also agrees with the opinion stating, “ Absolutely I think it’s a sport, cheerleaders are some of the best athletes that we’ve seen, just with they’re gymnastics background, and ultimately how that translates into competitions at the highschool level.”
Cheerleading is starting to gain more recognition as Dawley went on to explain how high school cheer is recognized by the MSAA, which gives highschool cheerleaders flexibility when it comes to pre and post season practice times, as well as giving cheerleaders a wider range of opportunities to perform and practice.
Despite people’s mixed opinions, in 2016, the International Olympic Committee designated cheerleading as a sport and assigned a national governing body.
