Reading this thread got me to contemplating high school cheerleaders and dance teams. I realized that I don’t really know what their purpose is, exactly, and I’m curious to know what other folks think.
I have a fuzzy notion that cheerleaders are supposed to motivate the ball-players by getting the crowd excited, vocalizing their support of the team. They do that with cheers and gymnastic tricks. Old-fashioned notions?
I don’t really know what the purpose of dance teams is. My first thought is “OK, they do some dances during half-time, for entertainment of the crowd”. Is this entertaining by fancy footwork? Gymnastic tricks? Sexy dances?
I tried to remember when I last went to a high school athletic program, and I don’t think I have been to one in over 30 years. You can see why I’m clueless! That was back before there were such things as dance teams.
I thought about what they call “bragging rights” also. Is the point of cheerleaders/dance teams to say that “our girls are prettier”? Or sexier? “Our men are stronger and our girls prettier than yours, nya nya” ?
It’s an activity for girls that’s physical. Dance teams are more for entertainment, but in my high school, cheerleaders definitely led cheers at football games.
I don’t know either. When I was in high school playing sports they were more of a distraction than anything. They did do a good job of keeping the crowd entertained during half-time though. Maybe some players felt there was more support with them on the sidelines but I never did.
Exactly. Some girls don’t want to play volleyball or basketball, I know I sure didn’t. Cheerleading was a way to use the gymnastics I’d taken and have female camaraderie during a school “event.” Same with dance teams by way of using dance classes I’d taken. Teamwork, learning to take direction, learning responsibility, etc etc.
Most high school sports players don’t get scholarships to college so they don’t really serve any more purpose than cheerleading. They’re teaching kids about sportsmanship and how to work together to achieve a common goal.
Of course some coaches and dance instructors take it too far (like the lap dances in the other thread), but you’ll have those exceptions when it comes to just about anything.
It’s also become a phenomenon on its own. I’ve seen girls going off to cheer/dance competitions at local auditoriums. A lot of the girls were way too young to be at schools that had sports teams (although you wouldn’t know if from their hair, make-up, and costumes.) It seemed to be a somewhat more wholesome version of the kid beauty pageants.
There are star, competitive cheerleading teams that tend not to cheer for any boys teams on a regular basis. They are mainly just group gymnastics in sexy costumes and they travel to competitive cheerleading contests all over the country some of which are prestigious and quite demanding. That type of cheerleading can easily earn a college scholarship for the really good ones. Of course, George W Bush was once a cheerleader as well and males are needed to some of the upper body strength stunts.
I wonder that as well, but down here in SEC country, them’s fightin’ words. I would not miss football if it disappeared entirely. Or any other high-school sport.
I dunno about bands, but I suppose the officials are making sure the players abide by the rules. I guess bands are entertainment.
According to My Old Man, who knows every goddamn thing under the sun (Cecil consults him frequently) cheerleading is the modern iteration of an ancient practice of the Plains Indians. During battle, the women and children would gather on a nearby hilltop to urge their warriors on to victory. They had a special interest in victory, since the outcome of the battle often decided their own fates. The winner got the loser’s women and kids, and since there were no child labor laws or rules against rape, that made the winners’ lives easier and more fun. My Old Man has a really skewed view of Native American society, I gotta’ tell ya’.
Having grown up on the plains of Colorado with this story as part of my background, however, I’ve always had this idea that somewhere in the back of everyone’s mind is this ancient tribal notion that cheerleaders have a vested interest in the outcome of the game.
Oh, I’m from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There is no sport but Football and Saban is the Messenger of Football. I’m only half-joking; the man (football coach for UA) has to go around with a police escort. It was kind of funny actually—one time he came to my high school to watch a football game (his daughter is on the cheerleading team), and no one would look at him because the people didn’t want to be “that guy” who obsesses over a celebrity.
But I just meant my comment to say that there’s ultimately no more or less point to the cheerleaders than there is to the football players themselves.
Ye gods! I know exactly what you mean. People here just have GOT to know where you went to college, and then they take sides (Ole Miss vs. Miss. State).
Hmm. Maybe there’s no single answer, eh?
Or is it like grits? You remember the old tale - out-of-state customer goes in for breakfast in a southern cafe. Orders ham and eggs. Waitress brings plate with ham, eggs, and grits. Customer says “What’s this? I didn’t order grits!”. Waitress says “Oh, you don’t hafta order grits. Grits just comes.”
Look at it from the other side. If you don’t have organized activites for high school kids, they will come up with some themselves. And they won’t be, shall we say, of the nature that might be approved by parents. Stuff like bonfires, beer bashes, smoke outs, gambling, fighting, flirting, teasing, and screwing. Competition seems to arise with nearly everything as part of the budding young mating game.
So it’s a real good idea to give the kids some organized stuff to do after school that can be approved by parents. It has to involve competition to satisfy all those budding young primal urges. And you might as well get them in shape and teach them some life lessons while you’re at it.
I’m neither for nor against cheerleading/dance teams. I’m just curious to find out what they are supposed to be all about. I’m not against sports either, I just don’t find them entertaining.
But … all of them don’t get to do it. Example: the H.S. my daughter attended had a student body of almost 2000. Of those, maybe a dozen were cheerleaders.
I don’t disagree about the usefulness of organized activities, but I also think that not all kids enjoy competition. Some do, and some don’t.
Oakminster, that’s very interesting about Title IX. (Just now had time to read the link).
I’m not against sports either, I just don’t find them entertaining.