The history of cheerleading is connected to the development of sports in the United States and crowd participation at athletic events. In 1869, the first American football college game took place at Rutgers University against Princeton University in Piscataway, New Jersey. This was where cheerleading initially began.
By the 1880s, the students at Princeton formed an all-male student “pep club” to lead chants and yells in order to support their team and create an exciting sports environment. To motivate their team, people in the stands would yell encouragements such as "Tiger, Tiger, Sis, Sis, Sis!" and 'Princeton, Princeton, Princeton!" In 1884, Princeton alumni, Thomas Peebles, successfully introduced the concept of cheer and pep club at football games to students at the University of Minnesota. That same year, two rugby players, John W. Adams and Win Sargent, created what they called a “team yell”, SKI-YOU-MAH, to inspire their team. They used the native battle cry “Ski”, which means victory, and a made-up word “U-Mah” to represent the University of Minnesota. It rhymed with “rah-rah-rah” to form a team cheer. Their “yell” became popular throughout the school, and later helped a student named Johnny Campbell with inventing what is known today as cheerleading. By 1889 pep clubs, cheers, yells, and fight songs rapidly developed in many schools all of the country.
The students in the "pep club" at Minnesota came up with a plan for more crowd involvement so they can win their game versus Northwestern University. The November 12, 1898 edition of the University of Minnesota student publication “Ariel” stated, “The following were nominated to lead the Yelling today: Jack (sic) Campbell, F.G Kotlaba, M.J. Luby, Albert Armstrong of the...
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... years cheer teams began traveling to other countries participating in World competition. In 2004, the USASF/IASF hosted the 1st World Cheerleading Championships at Disney World in Florida. About 14 of the top teams in the world competed for the title of “World Champion”. Today, more than 9 thousand athletes from over 40 countries compete at Worlds.
Cheerleading began as a male-only activity to cheer on their schools sports teams. Today it is a world-wide co-ed sport that incorporates leadership, athleticism, and entertainment. Cheerleading focuses on teamwork, dedication, and skills preparing participants for future challenges in life. It helps cheerleaders practice communication skills, confidence, and crowd management. Cheerleading has come a long way since the 1800s and is now a very popular sport in the US and a few parts of other countries around the world.
For competitive cheer you have to athletic if you want to be good. The cheerleaders are non stop tumbling, stunting, jumping, or dancing for more than two minutes. They never have a break in the routine that is pushed to the max with all the difficulty you can make and all of the legal things you can do in a routine. The sport
It took a disciplined mind, strategic, and vision to pull a team with this composition, these ego’s, to put aside their self-interest and egocentric tendencies to play as one, play for a nation. The term miracle on ice is one that will forever be linked to Her Brooks’ legacy, the fabled 1980 U.S. Olympic team which won the gold medal at Lake Placid, NY. According to Coach Brook’s, the team was mentally tough and goal-oriented. They came from all different walks of life, many having competed against one another, but they came together and grew to be a real close team. He pushed this team really hard. But they had the ability to answer the bell. (Herb Brooks Foundation, N.d.) Here Coach refers to the team or they, as the team they came together for a common goal. For anyone who has watched the movie or read the book it was obvious that it was his leadership was the cause of the team coming together to play as one. He addresses the team in a positive light and himself as the catalyst.
Unlike gymnastics, you must rely only on yourself to do what you need to do to win. Relying on the rest of your team, cheerleading is a much harder team sport. Gymnastics does have a team score but it only takes the top three scores form each event for the team score. Gymnast must perform wonderful but if they do not then they are the ones to blame. Cheerleading, the most team oriented team sport, relies on multiple people to get one job done.
Ever experienced cheer camp a famous college? Surround by its famous color orange and blue? Well, I did! A tremendous amount of people have their different ideas an exciting experience in their life. Although out of all of the exciting experiences I’ve ever experienced , I would have to say my favorite is when I visited The University of Florida for cheer camp my sophomore year. I was overly excited about spending four days at The University of Florida; I stayed up all night the night before packing and getting ready to finally stay at a college for four days with my fellow cheer sisters. From that experience I learned a lot about sticking together as a team, and friendship! But, most importantly, I learned that bonding together as a team is what got us to finish strong at the end. Those four days really opened my eyes to a lot of different things and I’m glad I can say that I really enjoyed myself.
Cheerleading is a big part of high school and community culture. For many young girls, and sometimes boys, cheer is a way of life. Often pursued as a profession, cheerleading is a very serious sport. Like most sports cheerleading has different types and divisions. Scholastic cheerleading and All-Star cheerleading have many similarities and differences. Cheerleading similarities and differences include what they do, coaches, and appearance.
Cheerleading is fun! Of course we cheerlead because it’s fun! From cheer camp to laughing on the sidelines, cheerleading is always a good time, especially with your friends. The memories made my cheerleaders whether they be from practices, games, or spirit activities (like decorating for senior night or baking treats for football players) are memories that will be cherished for a cheerleaders lifetime. Cheering is such a positive and happy experience because we are always doing something fun or accomplishing something new, like learning our new pyramid or mastering our routine. I get to get dressed up in my uniform with my bow in my hair and my white, red-track stained cheer shoes and not only cheer on my favorite football team but run around and cheer and stunt with a team of fun-loving girls and bring my community
I know that cheerleading is a sport. Have you ever got asked if you think that cheerleading is a sport or not. That is what I am going to tell you today. Cheerleading is just like football and basketball it is a game where you compete and get points. But with cheerleading it is not about throwing the ball accost a field or making a basket. It is about how well it is performed. To do good they have to prates a lot and they also have to have a lot of upper body mussel.
Movies portray cheerleaders as the popular girls that everyone likes and aspires to be. But when reality hits at Salem High School, it’s a completely different story. Cheerleading was taken as a joke by the other athletes and even students. It was considered a hobby, but to me it was a passion and something I worked hard to be. Being on the cheer squad in high school was difficult to deal with in school because we were constantly being snubbed by the other athletes and students in our school ever since we were kids in junior high which should not happen because everyone has the right to do what they love and they should not be judged for it being different than everyone else. It was always us versus them up until my junior year of high school when we finally earned the respect of our peers.
I believe that cheerleaders provide hope and gleam when it’s required the most. Cheerleaders are kind-hearted and continuously display it without hesitation. If you think about it, cheerleading is the only sport where it’s mandatory to smile; Whether it’s scorching hot or freezing cold. When on duty as a cheerleader, there is no time to slack off. The games would never be as enjoyable without the cheerleader executing their full
RAH! RAH! GO TEAM! This is what most people think of when they hear the word cheerleading. Movies usually give people the impression that cheerleaders are just stuck up blondes that rule the school and cheer at football and basketball games. Although there are still stereotypical cheerleaders just like the ones in movies, cheerleaders are not just on the sidelines anymore. There are now competitive teams who only compete and do not cheer for anything. This is called competitive cheerleading. This type of cheerleading is very different from the cheerleading on the sidelines and is much more athletic. Competitive cheerleading is often underrated because cheerleaders make it look easier than it is. Society should consider competitive cheerleading a sport because it fits the definition, requires incredible strength and endurance, and considering it a sport would help prevent injuries.
Because some cheerleading squads don’t compete, society thinks of it merely as a physical activity. Even though cheerleaders’ main purpose is to support other athletic activities, cheer squads whom compete, follow all physical criteria to be considered a sport. Cheerleaders put forth an incredible amount of determination. They practice tirelessly to show off their skills, with little or no recognition for their efforts. Cheerleading is a sport because it requires physical fitness, skill, dedication, and stamina. Cheerleading should be considered a sport globally.
The New York Times states that cheerleading is the fastest growing girls’ sport, yet more than half of Americans do not believe it is a sport. A sport is defined as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature” (dictionary.com). Cheerleading at a competitive level is physically demanding and requires team work to be the best. The misconception of cheerleaders being weak, nonathletic crowd entertainers makes people believe cheerleaders are not athletes and that cheerleading is just a hobby but cheerleaders that compete at a competitive level are in fact athletes because it meets the standards of what a sport is, which includes rules and regulations, and overcoming air resistance.
From an outsiders perspective one may see brainless and beautiful robots, which scream and perform neat tricks. This is not the case from the inside; cheerleading is so much more than that. Many people are under the impression that cheerleading is not a sport. I am the voice of reasoning that will let you in, and I will show you that cheerleading, in fact, is a sport. Cheerleading requires much physical demand from the body just as any other sport would. Cheerleading, in general, is a team effort. There are many sides to cheerleading, which make it a versatile sport. When it comes to cheerleading there’s more to it than what meets the eye.
A group of people who lead others to cheer, especially at a pep rally or athletic event. That's the definition of cheerleaders. But stereotypes seem to block the positive energy coming from the cheerleaders and make them look negative. Cheerleaders main goal is to pump up the crowd and cheer on their team. However, when the students and parents neglect that it doesn't just mock the cheerleaders, it also takes away the spirit of the football/athletic team.
...hat the athletic groups tended to say together. What my eyes had missed so far is that this is a community that is very closely connected within the larger campus. These are people who share a bond that is clear and so very obvious, part of it, is that they play a sport but they all seem to share the same interest. When watching them it is too see people who are clearly involved in each other's lives, more like siblings that are very connected and concerned with each other. The eye contact I noticed was very intense and deep, to each other they wanted to see and make sure that the person being listened too knew that they were important and cared for. I only saw such looks when looking at other couples, or when I realized that Jim and I had caged ourselves in the corner to be alone at snack time.