A Question for Americans

[Mrs. Tina Johnson]

Yes!! I wanted to be a cheerleader sooo bad... I wanted to wear the short skirts, wear my hair in a pony tail, date the cute football players and be the most popular girl in school! Instead, I was a nerdy boy, lonely and depressed without any friends.

[deatsabat546]

no to cheerleading  never  really wanted  to but did play soccer and did gymnastics most of my life.
and my school had all main sports for males and females.   

[Cindy]

I'll catch women's beach volleyball on TV and wonder, "Why can't I look like that?"

I think why can't the guys wear short tight jocks, I'd watch more often to make sure the balls stay in play

[Jamie D]

I think why can't the guys wear short tight jocks, I'd watch more often to make sure the balls stay in play

With that double entendre, you are perilously close to slipping into Devlyn-style punning.

But seriously, have you never watched male figure skating?

[Jamie D]

Dedicated to Cindy:

Beach Baby by the First Class

[Cindy]

Oh thanks Honey

I loved the beach boys. Adelaide beach culture is very similar to Cali from what I hear. Girls in teeny bikinis and guys in board shorts. Seems such a shame, Even our surf life savers are covering up to protect against skin cancer.

[King Malachite]

I didn't do football and I rarely wanted to become a cheerleader.  In both cases I was and still am out of shape for that.

[Felix]

I didn't do football and I rarely wanted to become a cheerleader.  In both cases I was and still am out of shape for that.

I was good at football because I could take anyone and never got knocked down (or knocked out). I wasn't so great at throwing the ball, I guess. It was really hard for me not being allowed on organized teams. That kind of seemingly-pointless hurt is why I spent so much time playing in the woods and reading books by myself.

[justmeinoz]

I confess to complete bafflement regarding American Football ( how can it be called football when the ball is hardly ever kicked for instance), but the Cheerleaders are a totally different thing. 
I would have loved to be a Cheerleader, and be surrounded by all those gorgeous girls! Fitness is a total turn on for me.  I know, I know I am just a totally girly dyke!

Karen.

[Joelene9]

  I never went into extracurricular sports.  I did the minimum gym class (2 years).  I was too thin and too shy for any of those.  I didn't have a passion to be in the glee club in high school either.  We did have a large number of girls in the glee club judging by the large number of them wearing their uniforms on certain days to school.  Pleated one piece skirt and top vest combo with a white long sleeved shirt in the school colors under it didn't tickle my fancy either. 
  My HS did take state in basketball 2 of the years while I was there in 1968-1971, but I haven't seen that school take state in anything since then.  Also I knew very little of the jocks on the winning teams, as they were in their own special classes.  The life of the pampered jock with the top notch coach was prevalent then as it is now.  Funny, I was never bullied by those in the high school extracurricular sports teams, just by those who think that they were tough. 
  Joelene

[JessicaH]

I enjoyed sports in my younger years but NEVER liked watching sports in ANY form.  I played baseball in through much of 6-12th grade and ne year of college but I had to quit due to intense arm pain (from throwing balls at 90+ mph since 7th grade). I played football my 11th grade year but yes, I was envious of the cheerleaders and would have rather been one of them but I had to settle for dating a few of them.

I was trying hard to be the guy that everyone thought I was supposed to be and even tried proving that to myself but my true self never really bought it. I even did the whole Airborne Infantry thing and was in for the invasion of Panama and Desert Storm.

[tekla]

I think a lot of the American love for the school spirit deal in HS and college, as well as the public team worship for pro sports, is just a method of making the motto of the US: E pluribus unum, a reality.  It's a way to unite disparate populations and give them something in common.  Yeah, you're __________ (Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Mutt, none of the above), but as long as you are in Giants colors, and I'm in Giant's colors, then that no longer matters (or its not supposed to) because we are both sharing something together - in the Giant's case usually heartache. 

But the unity can be and is a very real thing.  Ask any sports fan in a winning city or campus what's it like, it can be a very overwhelming feeling, one that does overwhelm a lot of other differences.

And, as American as it is, it's not omnipresent.  Baseball does not have cheerleaders.  And since soccer was imported without cheerleaders it continues to be sans them.  Track and field, motor sports, horse racing, swimming and a host of others do not have them either.  Pretty much it's football, basketball and wrestling.

And in football its a side-show, its just that the rah-rah nature of cheer-leading went perfectly with the rah-rah nature of the game and the spectating sides were split on opposite sides making it pretty easy to work the cheer deal.  That and it had its real start in college which is all about cheers for the above reason.  But since football is outdoors, it's big and the crowd is far away, and in those helmets and all that noise is not really a factor in the game.  But in some things like college basketball it makes a huge difference.

The clip below is of KU singing it's alma mater song and then doing the 'Rock Chalk Jayhawk' chant before the game.  They do this for every home game.  Look at the amount of KU blue in that fieldhouse, and listen to all of them using that stuff to all get on the same page, the cheerleaders can then use that unity to really rock the house.  Imagine how loud it is in there - all directed down to the court itself - during the game.  Last year against Mizzou they were up to 120db inside that field house, that's like trying to play b-ball inside a couple of jet engines.

[Peppy]

I was in the band. It was kind of cool because our uniforms are unisex so I didn't have to worry about the "Cheerleader" or "Footballer" thing. I just got to play trombone and be a general goof at football games. The band is really where the most fun is at imo.

[Felix]

I was in the band. It was kind of cool because our uniforms are unisex so I didn't have to worry about the "Cheerleader" or "Footballer" thing. I just got to play trombone and be a general goof at football games. The band is really where the most fun is at imo.

Ha. I'm glad someone else feels that way. I used to go to football games just to see the bands play. Didn't give a damn about the scores.

[Peppy]

I rummaged around my computer and found a photo I took of our uniforms

Orange, grey, and cream are probably the least flattering colors but I mean, on the bright side we had capes.

[Cindy]

I have never ever understood the fascination of bands at USA college football (I'm Australian BTW) what is it all about? They are all over the place, marching playing, it seems totally weird.

[Felix]

I have never ever understood the fascination of bands at USA college football (I'm Australian BTW) what is it all about? They are all over the place, marching playing, it seems totally weird.

You mean TOTALLY FUN. 

[Kelly J. P.]

I rummaged around my computer and found a photo I took of our uniforms

Orange, grey, and cream are probably the least flattering colors but I mean, on the bright side we had capes.

I just wanted to say that that is the the best uniform I have ever seen.


On topic: If I were to be a cheerleader - in any circumstance - I imagine the only way it would happen would be as a joke. I'm very clumsy, not very athletic (due to the clumsiness), and I'm not very good at getting into cliques, which is probably a necessary skill in cheerleading; otherwise, it would be totally boring, because even though you would be surrounded by people doing the same thing as you, you would still feel alone because they're excluding you.

Overall, it would be a very negative experience in all probability, before I factor in how boring football is, and how cheerleading, as a concept, is contemptable.

[Peppy]

I have never ever understood the fascination of bands at USA college football (I'm Australian BTW) what is it all about? They are all over the place, marching playing, it seems totally weird.

Not a lot of people know about the marching band world it would seem. There is competitive marching band here in the USA, where bands from different regions from all around the US compete with each other (Drum Core International is one of the organizations that kind of runs the competitions.) And the various college marching bands do compete with each other much like the sports teams. While you aren't necessarily fighting the other band like you would in a sport, you compete to perform to your best ability while marching, which is a lot harder than it looks. There are some bands that even practice year round to get their performance level as high as they can. It's very strenuous and requires a lot of talent and stamina, but having been in a marching band it's some of the most fun you can ever have.

Also bands do a great job of getting people hyped up with music and general goofiness. Our band usually dances and has their own chants for our school at sports games, and when there's any sort of goal or point earned in a game we attend we're usually the first people in the crowd to go crazy and that usually spurs the rest of the crowd on. : ) We also play the school's fight song, which is usually an immediate way to get everyone in the stadium riled up.

And thanks for the compliment Kelly! We got new uniforms this year but the one in the picture is still my favorite. It's incredibly outdated but I always liked it because we looked extra goofy with the capes and parade stripes.

OH, and here's a pretty good video of some of the best performances in DCI. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsMRPlSmADo&feature=related It's a good example of how awesome it is to see bands perform. (And if you've never had a chance to see a marching band perform, you should try and do it, because it's kind of mind blowing in person. : )

[leCommunard]

Not me. Not by a long shot. I specifically selected schools that did not have American football teams or cheer squads. Don't like the American football culture. I did play soccer/football and took ice skating as a kid, though Barca and Michael Weiss might have given me unrealistic expectations.