“You are such an airhead. You must be a cheerleader.”

This is a stereotype that today’s cheerleaders face because some of our society has portrayed cheerleading as a non-sport that doesn’t take much to be successful. They write cheerleading off because it doesn’t involve a ball or brutal physical contact.

If an average person went through a cheerleader’s practice, they would realize that it takes a lot of athleticism, skill and determination to be cheerleader.

Cheerleading first began in the late 1800s at a Princeton University football game. Now cheerleaders can be found at many other sporting events including basketball and volleyball. There are also cheerleading competitions that are shown on sports television networks including ESPN. Many television shows feature cheerleaders and the work that goes along with their sport. “Cheerleading U” is one of them. It features the University of Kentucky cheer squad and its 2006 season. A few episodes of “MADE” even featured some girls who wanted to be made into a cheerleader for their school.

Movies such as “Bring It On” and “Sugar and Spice” give us a sense that cheerleading shouldn’t be taken seriously. They give the impression that all cheerleaders do is yell and do some sort of arm motions. Some people in the media have always made it seem as if cheerleaders are non-athletes who are out there to look cute in their skirts.

Many people who do not know much about cheerleading think that it does not take much skill to be a cheerleader. But cheerleading consists of many difficult components including tumbling, stunting and, of course, cheering.

Senior cheerleader Lacey Baxter will be one of the first to tell you that it takes a lot of hard work to do all the things involved in being a Division I cheerleader.

“You have to be in top shape to do all the baskets, tumbling and stunting,” Baxter said. “It’s complicated stuff.”

All these different areas of cheerleading take hours of practice to perfect, just as any other sport does. The KU Cheerleading squad typically practices a couple days a week for two hours. Each practice consists of standing and passing tumbling, stunting, pyramids, and basket tosses.

Cheerleading is also dangerous. In 2006, the NCAA made a rule stating that no pyramids can be higher then two and a half body lengths, and there cannot be any tosses without mats below the cheerleaders. This is now a rule because in 2006, at a Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournament game, a Southern Illinois cheerleader was dropped after being thrown in the air as part of a stunt. She lay motionless for several minutes before being carried off on a stretcher, but was still cheering as she was taken away.

While this helps protect them, it still takes some of the excitement away from the cheerleaders because they are not allowed to show off all of their skills. This is one of the many dangers that cheerleaders face every time they put on their uniform and perform for thousands of people.

Along with every practice, the cheerleaders attend every home football and basketball games as well as some volleyball games. They also must cheer at any post-season games that any of the teams may have. Think about it, if a team is losing, they still have to stay upbeat and keep cheering even though you aren’t, or they aren’t doing their job.

With all the regular practices, the Kansas Cheerleading squad also has to prepare for the national competition it attends annually. This takes months to perfect before performing it for judges.

The squad has already started working with its choreographer, combining ideas for the competition that is held in January. This is like the Super Bowl of cheerleading. Each squad has only one chance to show its athletic skills and creativity, instead of every other sports team that has multiple games in which to compete.

During the summer the squad went to a cheer camp in Milwaukee. First-year squad member Danielle Hanson said they took first in the cheer category and got the leadership award.

“These were both really exciting,” Hanson said.

Across the U.S., many states still do not consider cheerleading a sport. But more colleges are making it one. In 2003 the University of Maryland added cheerleading as a sport and offered partial scholarships to the athletes. Most colleges and universities offer some sort of scholarship, but usually it is only a couple hundred dollars, enough to cover half of a semester’s worth of books.

“It is not a sport at KU, but we still put all this physical effort into it like every other team does,” Baxter said.On one hand if cheerleading is added as a sport, Title IX would take some scholarships away from men’s sports to provide some scholarships for the cheerleaders. On the other hand, many squads have both male and female cheerleaders. Nevertheless these types of concerns will still arise because not every school has male cheerleaders.

Cheerleading is one of the fastest-growing sports for young girls today and is even on ESPN. So why not make it an official sport across the U.S.?

— Edited by Luke Morris