High School Cheer Goes Legit

There's more to high school sports than just what's going on out there on the field. Part of the reason we love prep sports is that it's an "event". So much of life is about the day to day grind that we love a break in this...an event that shifts gears and at the high school level, prep sports provides this change-up. There's a lot that goes into the event aside from the sport itself and Cheer or Spirt is a big part of that. Let's take a look at how cheer has gone from a sideline event to serious business of it's own right.

On your average Fall Friday night, something is brewing at the local high school football field. Cars are starting to fill the lot and you'll notice a general wave of school colors make it's way to the bleachers. As you take your seat in anticipation of the upcoming football rivalry, the cheerleaders are already down on the field. They're going through their paces and the degree of organization and sophistication starts to impress you. This isn't the static cheer of 20 years ago with a few "Defense" yells. There are people flipping and twirling...being thrown in the air interspersed by tightly coordinated moves and steps that would rival Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Cheer's gone legit!

Cheer or Spirit is usually present at every high school. The members are generally chosen by the team, cheer captain, and/or cheer instructor. Practice can be intensive depending on how serious the cheer squad or program is at a given school. Where cheer might have been more aesthetics in the past, it now has a strong lineage in gymnastics which is evident by what they're doing these days on the field. It also had a tradition of being more of a supporting cast to the traditional high school sports but those days are also long gone (which we're fine with). You have now have competitive cheer competitions around the U.S. and competition is fierce. Cheer has officially crossed over to become a legitimate high school sport in its own rite. High school cheer has become so intense that it's not uncommon to have injuries (sometimes serious) within the sport especially as a result of the various pyramids and throws that are now the exclamation points to the sport. There has even been media attention relating to the heights at which the top tier of the pyramids fall from and must navigate.

Cheer was already on it's way up as a legit sport when it found it's public face in "Bring It On" with Kirsten Dunst in 2000. Not only was the movie edgy and able to cross over to traditionally unreachable fans for high school cheer (loosely translated as boys), but it really brought home the competitive nature of the sport which most people outside of the sport might not have realized (including myself). "Fired Up" in 2009 continued the media exposure and popularity of the sport further and there's no sign of slowing down. It's nice to see Cheer make the transition from might have been a popularity contest to a incredibly physical and agility demanding sport. For this, we cheer them on!

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