“Pretty sure that’s not a sport”, I am sick and tired of people talking down on cheerleading. Although if you would’ve asked me a year earlier, I probably would have agreed but being as though I finally cheered and seen what it takes I think differently now. It’s a constant debate on whether or whether not it is or is a sport. I personally think it is a sport. When you look up the definition of sport it says “an activity involving physical or mental effort and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” Sounds like a sport to me.
    

In order to be a cheerleader it takes a lot of mental and physical strength. You have to be in shape, you can’t be lazy. My cheer team practices from Monday through Friday every day right after school. The first thing we do before every practice is run a mile and we have to run the mile. Our coaches made it mandatory by the end of football season that we run an eight minutes or under mile. Keep in mind these are regular girls whose average mile time is around ten minutes to fourteen. That is a major cut down, and running it every day, just to do more conditioning after that.
  

Several of our practices where many people have the idea that we’re just sitting in a circle calling out chants to each other, they’re so wrong. We’re outside on the track trying to feel our arms and legs because our coaches just had us do fifty push-ups and we had to keep restarting because someone didn’t have their elbows tucked, their butt was too high in the air, or they just didn’t do it properly. But because we were a TEAM, We all started over. All the sit ups, crunches, burpees, wall sits, unnamed new stretches, super-mans, planks, V-ups, 6-inch holds, scissor kicks, and so many more. We work so hard just to get looked down upon.
   

Then you have the majority who like to argue, “But you’re not competing against anybody.”

That’s funny, the moment we step on the track with another team on the track, we’re competing just as much as the football team or any other sport. Although when we compete we don’t get looked at for “who’s going to win or who’s going to lose?” When we compete everything is being looked at. Our voices, do we know our cheers, are our motions sharp, are they smiling, are we being supportive to both our team and the other. Everyone is watching to see who’s doing what better.
      

And to top it off, we have to keep a positive attitude at all times. On the track, in the class, in the hallways, and even outside of school. Why? Because we are cheerleaders and we want everyone to look up to us and see something positive to want to follow. We are highly encouraged to keep an A and B average only. Unless we have an honors or AP class that’s the only time a C is okay, and even then it has to be a high C. Other sports are fine and dandy as long as they aren’t failing or they aren’t failing more than two academic classes to participate in a game. Where with cheer, if you even have a D you better be prepared to sit out a quarter. Then make sure to contact your teacher and get whatever you’re missing made up.
      

Oh, but let’s not forget about the countless amount of injuries. Broken arms, legs, twisted ankles, concussions, nose bleeds, busted lips, and black eyes. Anywhere from ninety pounds up to one-hundred and forty pounds we’re putting up in the air. The constant being stepped on, kicked, knocked over, elbowed in the face, stomach, etc. But that’s just the people putting the person in the air. Imagine the flyer, how many times you had to mentally prepare yourself to go that high up and trust to make sure the people below were going to be there to catch you. How many times something didn’t go right and you were so close to smacking your head off the ground. It’s scary and takes plenty of mental strength. And believe it or not, physical too. You have to be able to push yourself off the bases to pull up and hold all of your weight in the air and then use all of your stomach muscles to be able to pike in a cradle to be caught correctly.
    

It’s not as easy as people assume. It’s very hard both mentally and physically. We try our best for our team. And you would think the teams that we’re supporting would support us back. We lose our voices, we get hurt, and we’re on our feet all game. We don’t have people to come sub for us when we get tired, we have to stick it out and don’t forget to smile. We cheer through rain, cold weather, scorching weather, we do it all. And if even after all of this you still think cheerleading is not a sport, okay. But do give credit where it’s due. Acknowledge that we are very hardworking ladies and males and put our all into cheer just like anyone would put their all into something they have a passion for.