Linden High School
cheerleaders want their varsity letters, but budget cuts have them feeling
down

by Linda Angelo | The Flint Journal

Thursday October 09, 2008, 9:16 AM

LINDEN, Michigan -- They're out on the sidelines rain

The Flint Journal | John
W. Adkisson

Linden High School varsity
cheerleaders stretch under the direction of coach Kim Zimmerman during
practice Monday afternoon at Linden
High School.
Cheerleading has been downgraded from sport status to club status at the
school.

The Flint Journal | John W. Adkisson

Linden High School varsity
cheerleader Morgan Maker (right) and other cheerleaders
help support Erica Callahan by holding her foot while practicing a stunt
Monday afternoon at the school.

or shine, but Linden High School's cheerleading squad isn't feeling as
peppy this football season.

Many of the girls are up in arms over a school district decision that made
sideline cheerleading a club rather than a sport.

"I don't think it's fair," cheerleader Erica Callahan said.
"They should come to a practice and see what we do. We're not just 'rah,
rah, rah.' We're a lot more than that."

But they aren't eligible for varsity letters.

Under a verbal agreement with coaches and the administration, the
cheerleaders do not attend away games and, therefore, do not get a varsity
letter since they are not cheering at as many games, interim Superintendent
Ed Koledo said.

That issue, as well as
making sideline cheerleading a sport again, is being
re-examined, Koledo said Tuesday.

The
decision to change sideline cheerleading to a club happened during contract
negotiations, Koledo said. The district replaced
the coaches with less-expensive sponsors.

"We moved sideline
cheerleading to a club and lowered what we pay by having a sponsor do it and
not a coach," Koledo explained. "It freed
up money for us to hire assistant coaches for girls
golf and hockey."

Football players and fans have seen the impact at away games.

"It's been kind of like a downer. ... To not have the girls be a part of
it is crazy," football player Jimmy Bader said. "They are just a
different kind of sport. I guarantee you, our
football players could not do a lot of the things (the cheerleaders) do. They
are our energy boosters."

Parents aren't happy about all of the changes, and they have been letting the
Board of Education know it.

"(This is) very disrespectful for the girls and the sport as a
whole," said Sue Callahan, Erica's mother.

Athletic Director Dallas Lintner said the district
is not trying to diminish the importance of cheerleading.

"We're not trying to demote anyone or color them in a different shade,
so to speak, nor minimize their importance," said Lintner,
who became athletic director after the contract changes were made.

"It's unfortunate the girls feel demeaned. ... That is not the spirit of
what we're trying to do here."

Parent Jennifer Maker said she wants a coach for her daughter, not a sponsor.

"Girls go up in the air, they twist and fly down," said Maker,
whose husband, Scott, is a school board member. "We don't want a
sponsor. It just isn't safe."

Some parents have questioned whether the school district violated Title IX --
the federal act that deals with gender equity in sports -- by making sideline
cheerleading a club.

But sideline cheerleading does not fall under Title IX, said John R. Johnson,
communications director for the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

Linden still
has a competitive cheer team, which does fall under Title IX, Johnson said.
It differs from sideline cheering in that the girls participate in
competitions. Sideline cheerleaders do not.

The MHSAA sponsors a competitive cheerleading season and tournament. It has
no involvement with sideline cheerleading.

Linden's school
board, in the meantime, has asked Koledo to see if
there is a way to get the cheerleaders to away games.

"(The sponsors) were hired thinking they wouldn't do away games,"
he said, adding that the sponsors "are in college and have got jobs and
are scheduled right through those away games.

"We told them here's the job and this is what it entails, and to change
that on them, I'd have to find out contractually how to do that. I'd have to
get with the sponsors to see what their obligations are."