The Upstart

Name: Maason Kao

Grade: Sophomore

MIPA Class: Opinion Coverage

Instructor: Julia Satterthwaite

Cheerleading took a heavy blow when Federal Judge Stefan Underhill ruled that it was not a sport. The sport is plenty dangerous, but cheerleading is still too “underdeveloped and unorganized,” Federal Judge Stefan Underhill ruled. Cheerleading, like the Judge said, is still too fresh to be considered a sport.

“Cheerleading involves no skill,” Mike, a Student Journalist at MIPA, said when asked if cheerleading was a sport or not. Anybody can go down to the stadium, stand in the shape of a letter, and jump around like crazy waving pom-poms. Also, many people rate cheerleaders on how “hot” they are, not their skill. A coordinated group of girls that aren’t as pretty might receive the same score as a bunch of pretty girls that stood around.

There is no serious competition for cheerleading in High School. When football games happen, cheerleaders do exactly what their title says: they lead in cheers. Fans at a game generally do not rate how well the cheerleaders do on each team. They usually watch the game, or occasionally chant along.

A recent survey said that approximately 55% of the people consider cheerleading a professional sport. Of those that said cheerleading was a sport, another 50% said that only competitive cheerleading was a sport, and that sideline cheerleading is not a real sport. The percentage of people who consider cheerleading a sport and the people who consider it not a sport is too close to determine whether the majority of the people think it is a sport or not.

Competitive cheerleading is organized to some degree. There are competitions, and actual physical coordination that calls for skill. The style and manner seems close to gymnastics, although cheerleading has no solid system of grading the teams. Without a solid system, competitive cheerleading cannot be considered a sport.

Cheerleading is made to support other teams, REAL sports teams. Cheerleading can be fun to do and watch, but when it comes down to the bottom, cheerleading is not organized enough to be considered a sport. Like Federal Judge Stefan Underhill said, “…competitive cheer may, sometime in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX,” but that the activity is still too “underdeveloped and disorganized” to become a sport

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