The Great Debate: Is Cheerleading a Sport?
Posted on: Tuesday, 2 November 2004, 15:00 CST Clad in multi-colored shorts and T-shirts that read “I Love Me,””Boys Play Games – Athletes Cheer” and “Cheerleader,” the girls in the gym give off an air of youthfulness and fun. But a glance at their faces – foreheads wrinkled, eyes focused, faces stern – dispels that notion. Watching what they put their bodies through during this two-hour- long practice might convince you that this isn’t your mother’s cheerleading. Kelsey Turner, a 12-year-old on the senior squad, twists through the air and falls into a perfect cradle catch in the arms of two girls. The catch doesn’t always turn out that well for the butterfly, the girl on top. On the way down from a twist, she recalls, the back of her head smacked down on the knees of one of the bases (girls who support the butterflies) – full force. “It was scary, but I’m not scared to do it again,” said Kelsey, a seventh-grader at Munford Middle School. The girls on her squad noted casually that Kels
