Why do you think competitive cheerleading, which often requires 12 hours of practice a week, is not considered an official sport?Competitive Cheerleading Fights For Official Status : NPR
NPR says, "But soccer, hockey and volleyball are all approved by the NCAA, which means they also get funding under Title IX, a federal law that requires universities to distribute their money equally between the sexes. Competitive cheer is not even on the NCAA's list of "emerging sports." But it's trying to be."
I can relate to this video because I was once a competitive cheerleader. Me and my team, as well as many other teams never seem to fully get the credit which we deserved. Cheer practice is deff just as hard as any other sport. We condition, lift weights, run, and practice our sport. People dont think its hard, but I always ask them, "have you ever tried lifting another person in the air for 3 hours straight during practice?" In other sports, such as football or basketball, all the guys/girls are doing is throwing or passing a ball and running. That is what the sport consists of, in cheerleading you are required to continually hold your flyer in the air, while cheering, then you add, jumps(which most people are not capable of actually doing) dance routines, and tumbling. Stunting and tumbling, I believe, make cheerleading one of the hardest sports there is. People are always shocked when I say that, but i have to remind them that cheering at a high school football game is not a sport. Competetive cheer is the sport part of cheerleading! Games are seen as practice for the competitons. It upsets me that it still has not been accepted as an official sport by the NCAA, but it makes me happy that somthing is being done about it. Men and women cheerleaders deserve the recognition that they work so hard for.
ReplyDeleteMaegan Kelley
one more thing most people dont know, most of our US presidents were cheerleaders in college. Think about that...
ReplyDeleteMaegan Kelley