The sport of cheerleading

I don’t know how many of you saw it, but last week in Connecticut U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill ruled that competitive cheerleading could not be considered a college sport to achieve equal athletic opportunities for females under Title IX.

A generation has grown up with Title IX and probably doesn’t fully appreciate the impact it has had on the landscape of athletics.

Title IX became a federal law in 1972 and was designed to literally level the playing field opportunities for women so that they would be on equal footing with their male counterparts.

Last week’s ruling by Judge Underhill came after several women on the volleyball team at Quinnipiac University sued the school for dropping volleyball and replacing it with competitive cheerleading to keep the gender balance in place.

In his ruling Judge Underhill wrote, “Competitive cheer may some time in the future qualify as a sport under Title IX. Today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students.” 

Quinnipiac will abide by the judge’s ruling while making plans for the future that might include women’s rugby. The school also hopes that competitive cheerleading will one day be accepted as a varsity sport. And, for the time being, women’s volleyball is back at Quinnipiac.

I have to wonder how this ruling will filter down to the high school level.

While Title IX is generally associated with college athletics, it does pertain to prep sports as well.

A couple of years ago the Florida High School Athletic Association sanctioned competitive cheerleading as a sport. As is the case with most college divisions, the FHSAA offers competitive cheerleading for all female as well as coed teams.

Some of the larger college coed cheer teams have an equal number of male and female members, but under the FHSAA guidelines a small squad can have no more than four males on the 12-member squad.

FHSAA rules also stipulate that each member of the squad must participate in at least four sideline events.

I’ll chicken out here and leave it to others to argue as to whether or not cheerleading is a “real sport.” I can make arguments for both sides of the issue.

The gripe I have with competitive cheerleading isn’t so much with the concept of it being a sport so much as when the so-called cheer season takes place.

Last winter Crestview’s cheerleaders brought home a state championship in cheerleading. Unfortunately, through no fault of the cheerleaders, they missed the girls’ district basketball tournament hosted by Crestview as the state championships were held the same weekend.

I’m sure the Crestview cheerleaders weren’t the only squads to miss a basketball tournament.

In essence, by scheduling the state cheerleading finals during the height of basketball tournaments, the FHSAA deprived both basketball teams and cheerleaders a very special opportunity. Like it or not, cheerleading groups were first formed as a way to support and cheer on their respective school’s athletic teams.

If the FHSAA is going to require cheer squad members participate in four sideline events, it makes no sense to schedule cheer competition that directly conflict with those events.

Competitive cheerleading if fine. But in the end, I still believe the first priority of cheerleaders should be cheering on other teams at the school. Kids shouldn’t have to make a decision on cheering at a game or competing for a state title. And only the FHSAA can change that dilemma.