Whatever you do, please don`t bring up that Texas murder-for-hire scheme, the one where the woman was convicted of plotting a killing so her daughter could make the high school cheerleading squad. The one where the images of two coiffed, lipstick-wearing 13-year-olds told as much as the story of the alleged conspirator mom, charged with trying to plan the rival girl`s mother`s death so the grief-stricken child wouldn`t try out for the team.
That`s the nightmare stereotype people involved in cheerleading would like you to forget. ”We`ve been lucky we haven`t had that type of parental involvement,” said Lockport High School cheerleading coach Micki Klement.
She said it with a chuckle. After all, what an absurd case, right? But it was just one more example of cheerleader abuse.
Cheerleading has been undergoing a kind of reverse discrimination the past few years but it appears to be emerging leaner and stronger as a result. It used to be so cool to be a cheerleader.
Once she dated the captain of the football team; she was the homecoming queen and one of the most popular kids in school.
As that image changed, cheerleaders were as likely to be thought of as airheaded bimbos.
”Years ago it was different,” said Patricia Homa, senior cheerleader at Shepard High School in Palos Heights. ”It started to get better when I was a freshman, but there was still a typical stereotype of what kind of person a cheerleader was: gorgeous, and not intelligent, with a forward personality and not much of an athlete.
”The funny thing is, not too many of us fit that type of a description.” Homa, for one, played volleyball for Shepard for three years and basketball and badminton for a year each.
That may not have been the case 20 years ago. In 1972, Title IX was passed, and the federal legislation mandating equal play for girls` and women`s sports on both high school and collegiate levels changed more than just the right for girls to field sports teams. Girls could be seen on the athletic stage as more than a prop for the boys` teams.
”When it finally came,” said Ola Bundy, assistant executive director of the Illinois High School Association, ”the girls were ready.”
Girls` sports mushroomed overnight and have kept going ever since. The IHSA`s most recent addition, girls` soccer in 1988, is the fastest-growing girls` sport in Illinois. As the importance accorded girls` athletics grew and the participants began competing for worthwhile prizes such as college scholarships, cheerleading became perceived as a trivial activity.
”It was the one thing girls could go into that had to do with athletics,” said Klement, who`s been at Lockport 21 years. ”Then society in general went through a period when it wasn`t real cool to cheer your team on. That`s when we went through having to really grab the audience`s attention.” The move into college-style stunts involving fairly advanced tumbling skills took place in the mid- to late-`80s. By then, the saturation of televised college basketball made big-time cheerleaders from schools like Indiana and Duke Universities worth emulating-if you were interested in cheerleading in the first place.
According to athletic directors and cheerleading coaches, the number of girls trying out for teams has declined. ”The number has decreased considerably,” said Oak Lawn High School athletic director Bill Marcordes.
”I remember seeing some kids being terribly saddened when they didn`t make it. You don`t see that anymore.”
”We might have had a small decline in numbers, but what I`m finding out is the ones who come the first day see the skills required and maybe cut themselves out,” said Klement of Lockport.
The IHSA`s most recent survey shows a steady growth in the number of cheerleaders at Illinois schools. Slightly more than 9,000 were rostered in 1981, compared to more than 13,000 in 1991.
”Turnout varies,” said Shepard`s Colleen Sands. ”In the mid-`70s when girls sports came into their own, the numbers went down. Cheerleading came full circle in the `80s. It showed you`re not just an airhead and you have to be a good athlete. Our trainer recently told me, `I think you have stronger girls and better athletes than some of these other teams,` when he saw my girls lift and throw people and catch them.”
Coaches such as Sands and Lori Pedrige of Stagg High School in Palos Hills have campaigned hard to transform cheerleading from club status to a sport.
Cheerleading`s about two things, the way Pedrige sees it: athletic ability and school spirit. ”I would say the biggest change in cheering is we now expect the girls to be involved in leadership and other activities at school,” said Pedrige. ”Many are doing other sports. And the level of skill has improved so much. They`re doing college-level stunts you wouldn`t believe.”
Her girls undergo rigorous physical workouts to perfect their timing, jumps and overall execution. They compete regularly in state competitions.
When it comes to cheering, Stagg`s squad appears not only at football and boys` basketball games, but at girls` games and other school teams, transforming themselves into a pep squad in the stands for sports like swimming.
The Illinois Cheerleading Coaches Association was formed in 1985, since cheerleading is not sanctioned by the IHSA as a sport, and it sponsors regular competitions for schools across the state.
It all adds up to a stringent effort on the part of coaches to bring cheerleading to the same level as other girls` sports.
”I feel like I`ve devoted my whole life to instituting some positive change,” said 20-year coaching veteran Sands,.”going from some little blond out there bouncing around to an athletic side. Years ago it was sort of sing- songy, stamp and clap my hands stuff. Now there`s technique.”
”This is a sport,” said Pedrige. ”It belongs in the sports section.”
But respect is never a given. ”As far as being respected, well, it`s not as bad as it used to be, but then again . . .” said Shepard`s Homa. ”The cheerleaders are running around saying, `We`re athletes, we`re athletes, and the others are patting us on the back and saying, `Sure, right.` ”
Donna Kolberg, marketing director of the Dallas-based National Cheerleader Association, said: ”We don`t like to consider it a sport because it`s not really a sport, because you don`t compete in a sport situation, except in a competition, and then you just compete against a score.”
This puts cheerleading in a position much like Olympic ice dancing and the now figure-less figure skating, where the participants compete to music against a score. These have been smirked at as well.
But cheerleaders will continue to fight the battle. The most welcome sign of change: A limited number of college scholarships are now available for, yes, cheerleaders.
