Is cheerleading a sport? A federal judge said no.
Connecticut judge Stefan Underhill ruled that cheerleading could not replace volleyball at Quinnipiac University because it is not a sport under Title IX.
I interviewed WHB students about what they thought of cheerleading and the only person who felt it was a sport was junior T.J. Murphy, who said, “I love cheerleading. It’s really intense. If I was a girl I’d do it.”
Varsity basketball player Aaron Berisha said, “First of all its not on ESPN, so it can’t be a sport, I mean even checkers is on ESPN, cheerleading is just more of a hobby.”
Junior Reid Paoletta had the strongest comments of all stating, “Professional cheerleaders make less than McDonald’s workers so…I’m not sure where I stand.”
Before you write Reid off as being disparaging, his statement is actually true.
Professional football cheerleaders make only $15-50 per home game. Since there are only eight home games a season, that is only $120-400 per year. Local McDonald’s workers make roughly $12,000 per year before taxes.
J.D. Sipala also had a strong opinion. He pointed out, “Cheerleaders cheer for sports. They’re on the sidelines cheering on the sports. They’re just a glorified version of fans.”
J.D. is right in that the main purpose of most cheerleading today is to just go out and cheer the boys on. The way it’s structured in most schools just makes it so that the girls only have to worry about looking pretty.
Junior Bryan Curry agrees, he said, “As long as they look good doing it, it doesn’t matter.”
But you may be wondering, what about the female perspective on this? Even some girls believe it is not a sport.
Junior Gina Reichert chimed in, “Cheerleading a sport? Haha…no, all they do is stand there screaming for their team. I mean I scream at my mom, is that a sport?”
Just because you work hard at something and may get hurt from it doesn’t make it a sport. The term sport is thrown around too loosely these days and ought to be restricted to the truly physical entertaining sports like football and basketball, not the lame low-action thrill “sports” like bowling and cheerleading which belong classified as clubs.
According to The NY Daily News, as a part of his ruling, Judge Stefon Underhill claimed that cheerleading “is just far too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as a genuine varsity sport.”
Lastly, cheerleading is even funded as a club, not a sport in most schools on Long Island under Section XI. According to sectionxi.org, “Section XI recognizes cheerleading as a support activity for interscholastic athletics (and that is not to be classified as a sport). As such, qualifications of advisors need be neither more nor less than those currently in existence and will remain the prerogative of each school district. A mandatory clinic for cheerleading advisors will be scheduled each September.” Section xi covers all of Suffolk County, Long Island.
This further proves why cheerleading has no place in the sports world.