Thursday, July 22, 1999
Cheerleaders smile while muscles scream
BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
CRESTVIEW HILLS — Not every girl wants to play soccer. Some would rather build, fly and smile furiously while their legs scream for relief.
They like putting their lives in the hands of other teen-agers. For female bonding, nothing beats tossing each other into the air.
These were some of the facts I learned at cheerleading camp the other day.
I visited partly because Kentucky is famous for its horses, bourbon and cheer leaders. GQ magazine recently profiled the University of Louisville's squad, and somebody just wrote a book about the national champions from Greenup County High School.
Still, I wondered whether cheerleading's day had passed. What '90s girl wants to be window-dressing for boys' sports? Wouldn't she rather stuff shin guards into her socks and kick some ball?
Apparently, the answer is N-O.
Cheerleading is pure fun, I was told. It requires strength, flexibility and teamwork, but it isn't about flattening the other guy. Cheerleaders don't get taken out of games because they aren't good enough. Parents don't yell at them to get the ball.
“Soccer, it's more like you have to win,” says Ali Bardo, an eighth-grader from Cold Spring.
And in basketball, “you run more than you get to talk to people,” says Hannah Cook, a fifth-grader from Lakeside Park.
Hannah knows her dad means well when he cheers her on at games, but ...
“He goes, "Hannah, get the ball and just run with it,' and sometimes I get mad. It gets so frustrating, 'cause you're trying to do your best, and they're yelling at you.”
In cheerleading, everybody smiles. The more legs hurt and hearts pound, the wider these smiles become, say sixth-graders Cassie Palmer and Bailey Latham, of Lakeside Park and Edgewood.
A “build” involves four girls hoisting a fifth into the air, where she balances on one foot, raises her arms and otherwise “flies.” Then the bottom four throw her up, and she lands neatly in their arms.
Whoa. Cheerleading has changed a lot since I was a bookish and awkward teen-ager who never dreamed of being one.
I stopped by Four Seasons Sports Country Club on the last day of the camp, run by Shannon Horan and her squad from Bishop Brossart High School in Alexandria. The 40 campers were demonstrating moves to their parents. Hips wiggled, ponytails flopped and splits were attempted. Some
girls wore nametags that said, “Hi, I'm super!” or “Hi, I'm smiling!”
While they received awards — everyone seemed to get one — the Bishop Brossart cheerleaders entertained us with back flips, back tucks, builds and flies.
With only 400 students, Bishop Brossart is the underdog in competition. It won the state championship in its division without proper tumbling mats, which cost $700 apiece. (Four Seasons is now purchasing three of them for the school.)
The girls say their teamwork puts them ahead. They wear tiny, plastic-encased mustard seeds on their shoelaces — a Biblical reference to big things coming in small packages.
“We basically have to be best friends, because you're either on the bottom or on the top, and you put your lives in their hands,” senior Lindsay Nieporte says.
Besides Lindsay, Bishop Brossart's seniors are Michelle Groh, Amanda Marasch, Kellie Schwartz and Nicole Brierly.
They became cheerleaders for themselves, not boys' sports, they say. They never miss a game, but their two or three competitions a year are just as important.
Here's another difference between now and then: Both of Bishop Brossart's basketball teams — the varsity boys and girls — have their own set of cheerleaders.
Whoa. Girls cheering for girls. It can't get any cooler than that.
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584 or by e-mail at: ksamples@enquirer.com
Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584 or email
her at ksamples@enquirer.com
SAMPLES ARCHIVE
