Cheerleaders earning cheers
They go airborne like Carly Patterson or Shannon Miller. They lift weights, practice year-round and compete against each other.
Yet they are not gymnasts. They are cheerleaders. Stunts required of today’s high school cheerleaders represent a radical departure from the 1950s portrait of girls wearing pleated skirts and shaking pompoms. To make a squad, cheerleaders need gymnastics skills more than they need popularity.
Families of cheerleaders can pay $500 to $1,000 a year for camps, private tumbling lessons and travel to attend their daughters’ competitions. Since cheerleading is not an Indiana High School Athletic Association sport, there are no practice limitations.
Some schools hold practices throughout the school year and into summer. People have not viewed cheerleading as athletic. They’re stuck with a stereotype,” said Jeff Webb, president and CEO of Universal Cheerleaders Association.
The decline of prep gymnastics teams has redirected some girls into cheerleading. Eighty high schools in the state have girls gymnastics teams, compared with a peak of 188 in 1978-79, according to the IHSAA.
