Sophomores in Mrs. Dameron-Vines’s English 10 class worked throughout the month of March on a unit to craft Opinion Editorials, articles that explore an author’s opinion on a chosen topic of interest. This story is the first part of an on-going series to highlight some of their stories.
Cheerleading is often overlooked for being just another activity that you participate in to be the face of the school. How much work has to be put into the sport is often unknown by fellow classmates or adults.
As a sideline and competition cheerleader, I can often get overwhelmed with practices and keeping my body healthy for activity. Just like any other sport, cheerleading takes lots of practice and skill to be successful and make it look effortless. If you talk to anyone in cheer they would tell you the amount of skills they have to keep to perform at the level of the team.
Most cheerleaders start learning how to tumble by a young age in order to gain enough skills to make the high school team. While tumbling classes outside of cheer are not required, they are almost essential to be able to keep the skills you need.
You also need skills to be able to stunt. Most people think three people under one person is easy but in reality it is all about communication and form. While we have lots of skills we have not learned yet, good skills come with basics. Anything from an extension or single leg liberty is the foundation for spinning skills or inversions. This might sound like a foreign language but they are essential for learning how to stunt.
Cheerleading also requires teamwork and perseverance.
Coming from experience, many practices or events like UCA Cheer Camp can be difficult to push through. While spending four days at the beach sounds nice, each day is spent in the dirt in sweltering heat for six to eight hours. Not to mention we are stunting or standing the entire time but a smile is always a must. This causes fatigue in your body, but you have to keep pushing. This is an amazing opportunity for our team to work together and encourage each other. The most growth we have in the team comes within this four day event because it takes the entire team to make it happen.
Each and every cheerleader is important and no one has a second string for their position. Each person is vital to the team so you learn quickly that teamwork fuels the team to keep moving forward. When unexpected things happen we always turn to each other to lean on and keep going.
Although cheerleading is seen as an activity rather than a sport, just think about the depth behind it and any other sport that may be overlooked. Appreciation for the little undercovered details really makes the difference.
