Where have
the high school cheerleaders gone?

Jane Bos | The Grand Rapids Press, March 1, 2009

Press Photo/Mark CopierIan

McKay, a leader of Holland High
School student cheering section, fires
up the crowd at Thursday's game with the help of the sideline cheerleading
squad.

HOLLAND -- Ian McKay and the rest of the
animated Holland High School students seem to know just what
the basketball team needs.

A
three-game losing streak? They dress up in suits and ties and dub the game
"Back to Business."

A scoring
drought during a game? They break into a repetitive chant of "Here we
go, Dutchmen, here we go." Clap-clap.

"We
are very conscious about what's going on in the game, and I feel like we have
a good connection with the players," said McKay, one of the senior
leaders in Holland's cheering student section.
"After the game, we always talk to them about what went on. It's like we
are almost on the team."

This type of student involvement, this type of creativity, is the norm
for leading cheers in area high school gyms. Their trochaic-meter chants
reverberate at prep basketball games now. They never stop. They never sit
down.

The
cheerleaders on the sidelines in short skirts and tight ponytails, doing
well-rehearsed motions to specific cheers while facing the seated crowd, are
the rarity.

Of the 51
high schools in the O-K Conference, only seven have basketball-sideline
cheerleading squads. In the six-member River Valley Conference, there are
none.

Competitive
cheer is sanctioned

Where have the cheerleaders gone?

Well,
they have joined competitive cheer teams. They have become recognized
athletes, winning conference and state titles in a Michigan High School
Athletic Association-sanctioned sport. The state finals will be held Saturday
at the DeltaPlex in Walker.

The MHSAA
does not recognize sideline cheer as a sport.

"I
see winter sideline cheer as a dinosaur," Reeths-Puffer athletic
director Todd Farmer said. "In the past, the cheer team worked hard but
never received any credit. It went to the basketball team. With competitive
cheer, they are still working hard, if not harder, and are receiving the
credit they deserve."

Cheerleaders
still can be found at high school football games on fall Friday nights. Along
with the marching bands and crowded bleachers, they provide an atmosphere of
fun and excitement, Allendale athletic director Dave Chrisinske
said.

"Attendance
at basketball in general is down, and football has become king because, one,
it is the only show in town," he said. "It has all the pomp and
circumstance we used to associate with basketball."

Andy Secor, who played at Lakewood High before graduating in
1994 and has coached the boys varsity at Cedar
Springs for the past five years, misses the "community atmosphere"
of seasons gone by.

"I
am kind of old-school," he said. "I like all the fanfare that goes
with games, the cheerleaders, the band, the student
section, all of it."

For the
first time, Tri-unity Christian does not have sideline cheer, either. Mark
Keeler, the boys varsity coach for the past 20
years, does not think it has hurt student spirit.

"There
were about six senior boys who took it upon themselves to lead our student
section." said Keeler, who has led the Defenders to their state finals
six times since 1996. "They have done a phenomenal job. I believe all
our students are more active and into the game than what they have been in
the past few years."

Cheerleaders
versus rooters?

Cheerleaders and students have to get excited for twice as many games now,
too. Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a change in sports
seasons, mandating that boys and girls basketball be played together during
the winter. Basketball games now are played almost every night of the week.

To
maintain equity, athletic directors insist that cheerleaders are at the same
number of boys and girls games. Cheering four to five nights per week --
along with practice time -- has taken a toll on cheer squads.

But not
for everyone. Abbie McKay, a sophomore at Holland
High and Ian's younger sister, and her fellow Dutch cheerleaders work the
home and away games for girls and boys all winter long.

"I
don't want to be on a competitive cheer team," Abbie
said. "We are more involved with the fans. We are like fans. Even if the
game is not exciting, we can keep the fans excited."

Her
brother agrees there is a place for sideline cheering, but to keep peace in
the house, their parents, Mike and Anne McKay, sat them down before the
season started to make sure they stayed respectful of one another.

"We
agreed not to make fun of each other," Ian said. "In the past,
there has been tension between us and the cheerleaders. Now, we agreed that
there would be special times for them to do their cheers. They really are
there to pump up the fans. We are more about commenting on the games."

Press Photo/Dave Raczkowski

Ottawa Hills is one of three O-K Conference schools to
offer sideline cheer, but not a competitive team.

One or
the other

Holland, Grand Rapids Central and Ottawa
Hills are the only three O-K Conference schools that offer sideline cheer,
but not a competitive team. The only schools to sponsor both types have
larger enrollments -- East Kentwood, Forest Hills Central, Grandville and Rockford -- but some participants cheer
only at home games.

A handful
of other area schools have the competitive cheer team take the sideline at
select home games.

"At
Ottawa Hills, we tried to have competitive but were not quite ready,"
Bengals athletic director Rodney Brown said. "And I don't see in the
very near future us trying competitive again. Maybe that will change, but
right now, we are sticking to sideline."

Most
schools do not have enough student-athletes to fill both kinds of cheer
squads. But having the numbers isn't the only consideration.

"East Kentwood has made sideline cheer and
competitive cheer two separate teams because they have two different
purposes," said Blaine Brumels, the Falcons
athletic director. "The goal of sideline cheer is to cheer and support
the team that is competing. Our competitive cheer team competes at meets and
in the MHSAA tournament."

Other
districts had to make a choice during the winter sports season. Most choose
competitive cheer.

"Sideline
cheer was from back in the day when there wasn't anything else for girls, and
now there is," Chrisinske said. "There
also was the component here that our girls weren't feeling like they were
needed or appreciated. The girls were doing six days of practice and
competing and trying to do sideline on top of it. It was way too much."

Some of
that might change again next season, when the O-K Conference will adopt a new
varsity basketball schedule. While girls and boys will play at opposite sites
on Tuesday nights, they will play together in doubleheaders on Friday nights.

"With
the seasons change, we have lost so many of those Friday nights," Secor said, "and I am excited to get them back next
year with the new schedule."

But will
it bring back the cheerleaders?