Cheerleading Enforces New Restrictions

John Stambaugh, Staff Writer
May 11, 2012
Filed under Opinions

Under the definitions that are set by the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA), cheerleading will not be recognized as an organized activity in which one team competes with other teams, otherwise known as a “sport”. This ruling by KSHSAA is popular belief amongst most students who are not involved in cheerleading. Even some of those involved in the activity agree with the popular belief that it is not a sport.

There are several new rules being implemented for LHS cheerleaders and they are as follows:  it is strongly suggested that cheerleaders take a weights class, practices will be right after school three days a week (as opposed to the history of morning practices), and if a cheerleader plays volleyball then she will only cheer basketball and not football (due to the conflicting change of practice time). Also, going along with the change of practice time comes the fact that they will no longer be able to participate in the school musical.

All of these changes beg the question of whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport. Now keep in mind, with no personal bias, think about all of this information and consider it as coming from a fair third party. Think about the fact that practices will now be after school just like sports practices are and there is no way to work around the conflict. Either a student picks sports, a job or the musical OR she picks cheerleading, which is currently considered to be just an extracurricular activity. No longer are the days when students can pick more than one option and work hard to make it work. Now, students are either on the squad or not.

Is it fair? Will this prove to make a better cheer squad? Should the term squad be changed to “team” because it is quickly becoming a sport? It is up to each individual to decide their opinions based on the facts that they have read and found on a credible source.