State Cheerleading Woes: Hopeful staff writer overshadowed by boy cheerleaders

By Collin Braley 2005

Failure is “to miss performing an expected service or function for oneself.”

The “expected function” I had set for myself was to gather 25 telephone numbers from cheerleaders at the State Cheerleading Competition two weekends ago. The “missing of the performance” was me getting only eight percent of the numbers I expected to get.

Emotion ruled the cheerleaders all day. If they had a good performance, they didn’t want to talk to me because they were crying and hugging each other. If they had a bad performance, they didn’t want to talk to me because they were crying and hugging anyways.

But with all the emotion, why couldn’t they share some of it with little old Collin? I’ll tell you why; I’m not a boy cheerleader.

Boy cheerleaders aren’t looked upon brightly by some people, but to girl cheerleaders, they are all that and a bag of chips and then some.

Here’s a case in point. At the end of each team’s competition, a jump off was held in which three cheerleaders jump one at a time and the one with the highest jump advanced.

After seeing many girls do the straddle jump, they organized it so three boy cheerleaders would compete against each other at the same time.

When those three boys walked onto the floor, the US Cellular Center was the loudest it was all day long. The girls were going nuts. The boy cheerleaders owned the place.

After the judge reviewed the boy’s jumps, they were all three told they were moving on to the next round because they were that good.

It narrowed down to three people at the very end, consisting of one boy and two girls. They had very even straddles, which were in the 4-5 foot range in height. The judges had no choice but to go on to the pike, a jump for which one needs a lot of balance and talent.

In any event, it was noted that day that in order for me to get some phone numbers next year, I’m going to have to work on my straddle and pike.

I realized that my pike can also be used as a good conversation starter next year.

“Would you like to see my pike? Oh, and, by the way, what’s your name and where are you from?” The system will be unbeatable.

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