I have tried hard for many days to find some kind of fact that cheerleading is considered a sport, but I found that it is as possible as stumbling across the Holy Grail. Everyone wants to state their own opinion about this is a subject that seems to be very controversial. I was hoping that I wouldn’t need to state my own opinion about this matter, but maybe I should, as one cheerleader to the world.

Unfortunately this year I could not be a cheerleader because of my busy schedule, but cheerleading is my life. Anytime I get a chance I watch it on ESPN or any other station willing to play competitions. Cheerleading should reach a certain place in a school before it can be considered a sport. I come from a small town that has a corn field around it. Beyond that point we have a cheerleading squad that has a lot of potential. Until we were given a new coach the cheerleaders sat in the high school lobby coloring pictures and then wondered why people didn’t say they were athletes. It amuses me because these people seem to gather more attention than the cheerleaders that do lots of work.

Cheerleading should be considered a sport when these simple things are met. Cheerleaders who put their heart and soul into what they are doing. I remember waking up at 5:00 in the morning and going to cheerleading practice until 8:00 am. Then going straight from school at 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. That’s cheerleading dedication. When you are willing to cheer with broken fingers, sprained backs, and any other sport related injury. I came from a cheerleading squad that was allowed to stunt, I was the person that took the most beatings from flyers. The job of the back spotter is to pull as much weight up off the side bases hands. The flyer is supposed to pull as much of her weight up into her chest. If something goes wrong with any of these stunting spots the flyer falls. When the flyer falls, she falls backwards the majority of the time. The thing that separates athletes from non-athletes is the willingness to jump back up from an accident and work at it until they perfect it. Cheerleading is a great sport and when they work as hard as described above, they should get the same respect that a basketball or football player receives.

Now there has to be a second point to this, what makes cheerleading not a sport and just a bunch of hyper active teenagers? When the “cheerleaders” hang around color pictures everyday and talk about who wore what to school. When they stand on the sidelines and talk about their boyfriends or girlfriends and laugh uncontrollably about something that just happened. In any other sport you would be benched for the rest of the game for such behavior. So if you want to be considered a sport STOP LAUGHING and TAKE THINGS SERIOUSLY!

Cheerleaders take this as a dare and start taking your sport seriously. When the school realizes that you are taking things seriously so will they. We learned that when you care as much about the sport you are cheering for the fans and sports players will take you seriously. It will be hard to make a good name for your squad, but trust me the hard work is well worth it. Sorry if any feelings were hurt by this story, but it is one person’s opinion. Cheerleaders please take this story to heart and work hard on the sidelines it will be appreciated.