Behind the Scenes: Cheerleading

For years, television has presented stereotypes that have defined cheerleading, causing us to conjure up the image of girly, shallow, popular mean girls. It’s easy to tell who’s a cheerleader because she’ll always have her uniform on. After school, cheerleading practice (that takes place after hours of preening in the bathroom) just consists of waving pom poms for an hour while looking pretty. But who could blame them. It’s not even a real sport.

All these stereotypes exist even at Stuyvesant to a certain degree; most students didn’t even know there was a cheerleading team until they were at the football homecoming game.

But this year, there is an unprecedented growth in the number of people joining cheerleading. A lot of the new members of the team are our high-achieving friends, often making us wonder what compelled them to join.

Challenging Stereotypes: Building a New Reputation

In the past, cheerleading didn’t have the best name. “Though I wasn't on cheer my freshman year, I know that there was a lot of issues with the team,” junior Xinyue Nam added. “Last year, the coach didn’t really try to grow the cheer team, and we didn’t go to competitions. We depended on the football team. We are so much more than just pretty girls, and guys, waving pom poms while shouting, ‘Let's go Stuy.’”

A lot of the cheerleaders had difficulty being able to have their parents respect their decision to join the team. Cheerleading is a costly sport that is underfunded and overlooked because of the team’s lack of success in the past. “Cheerleading is very expensive and it hurts that people don’t respect us. A lot of people have to pay for their cheer costs and our parents aren’t on board with things,” Nam revealed.

This lack of support causes many Stuyvesant cheerleaders to obtain money from after school jobs in order to stay on the team.

Furthermore, the commitment required to be a cheerleader is unanticipated and can cause a strain on a cheerleader’s social life. “To be honest, because I spent a lot of time in practice and other cheer-related events, I haven’t been able to spend much time with my friends. I think that they fully support me being on cheer, but sometimes, it’s hard to not talk to them for several days because I’m so busy with it on top of schoolwork and other clubs,” sophomore Angelina Chu said.

Now, with good advertising and people involved with Student Union on the team, the influx of new members this year is challenging the typical stereotypes of what it means to be a cheerleader.

“Clearly, if we’re at Stuyvesant, I think you can tell that we don’t fit the stereotype,” senior Patricia Tan commented. Many members take AP classes and are involved in ARISTA, proving they still have the GPA to be at the top of their class.

In addition, cheerleading isn’t just waving pom poms around, because strength is a necessity for all the teammates. “You’re not just dancing and trying to look good,” sophomore and flyer Theresa Teng explained. “Especially if you are one of those people on the bottom, and you’re literally lifting people up. You need to be strong. We condition just like other teams.”

On the other hand, male cheerleaders are often labeled as gay. But junior Xinyue Nam has been on the cheerleading team since her first year at Stuyvesant, and she understands the crucial role of males like junior Kevin Zong on the team. “They are the glue of the team,” Nam said. “Our guys don't care about the stereotypes. It gets annoying, but we know these things.”

A Bond for Success

The bond that the team has can be clearly seen. “Cheer is really emotionally stressful sometimes, and I feel that a huge reason as to why we are so close is because we always somehow overcome the obstacles,” Zong said.

As we walk into the third floor atrium after tenth period, we see the cheerleaders warming up and practicing their impressive stunts. The beginning of typical practice doesn't stray far from an average baseball or football practice: stretching and warming up. These are necessary steps every athlete, including cheerleaders, must take in order to prevent injuries. During warmups, cheerleaders can be seen running laps around the school and reinforcing positive motivation to get each other through the tiresome workout. Afterwards, the members break off into their respective stunt groups and go straight to work. Many stunts are dangerous and consist of flyers getting lifted up into the air by the bases and backs supporting them. Typically, the male cheerleaders are at the base.

“We try to clean our dances, our cheers, and also work on new stunting skills to incorporate within our routine for Nationals,” Zong described. With improvement in stunts, flyers are learning how to do more intricate and difficult routines just in time for Nationals. For example, in a high to low tick tock, the flyer has to switch legs and end up standing on the opposite leg with the other leg bent.

Zong plays an extremely crucial role because he is one of seven males on the team. Being the “back” of routines, he's responsible for literally lifting up his teammates, a feat the average person cannot do. Before joining the team, Zong initially joined the PSAL Stunt team due to a friend recommending it. When Cheer season came around, he saw no reason to leave the family. “Cheer has become such a huge part of my life. I dedicate myself to it because I want to be part of something great,” Zong explained.

New Coach, New Goals, New Cheer

The introduction of Coach Nicholas O’Stanton has proven to have given the team more opportunities. Because Stuyvesant’s team wasn’t the only commitment the former coach had, he would only be able to come to one out of every few practices and didn’t allow stunting while he was absent. “Coach Nick comes to every practice, so we really have been able to progress in terms of stunts and skills. He really fosters our ability to prepare and set goals,” Tan explained.

A major change under Coach O’Stanton is the addition of a Junior Varsity (JV) team. “They tried to implement it last year, but it didn’t really work. This year, we have a total of over 50 people, which means we can definitely split it into Varsity and JV.” Tan said. If JV acquires the skill, they will also be competing at these competitions, but in their own division. In addition, with a new JV division, the team is a lot more organized.

This implementation is providing positive results rather than negative ones. Rather than unhealthy competition, the addition of a JV team is a providing a stronger team bond. “Many of the JV members are working hard to earn a spot in Varsity. I think that this helps motivate us and strive to always be the best that we can be,” Zong explained. Members in JV are with people that have similar skills and can help each other grow.

The greater opportunities for people to become more involved in cheer has led to the evolution of the team’s reputation because it is a lot more inclusive. In addition, cheerleading is attractive because it has so many members and radiates a sense of community to whoever might be interested in joining. The team’s growing integration into Stuyvesant’s culture can be seen with the performance at the pep rally as well as the creation of a future cheer club.

In addition to making them physically stronger, cheerleading challenges them mentally. Members have to dedicate themselves to improving and ignoring the judgement they receive on their physical appearances. At competitions, members are evaluated on both their skill and physical appearance in front of large crowds. The long and frequent practices don’t ease this either because it adds a great deal of stress with a huge time commitment.

In prior years, the team never competed at official competitions, so members are very excited because they’re focused on literally throwing people up in the air. The Stuyvesant High School Cheerleading Team will be competing at Regionals, hoping to bid there and get to the ultimate dream: Nationals.With the new coach, members finally have a target to aim for. “Coach Nick actually set [goals] in stone. ‘We’re going to Nationals,’ ‘This is the date we want to go to,’ so we’ve been working up to that goal of going to Nationals so far since the summer,” Tan said. “The idea of people taking us seriously at Stuyvesant once they hear that we bid at Regionals and potentially [go] to Nationals is a good thing to me.”

Currently, the team is already preparing to go to Nationals in Orlando around Christmas break of this year.

Moving Forward: Together as a Family

Reflecting on her past three years on the team, senior and captain Michelle Moe is

excited for the team’s upcoming season. “I’m looking forward to taking my team to Nationals, if we bid at Regionals,” Moe said. “I look forward to sharing the experience that a lot of cheerleaders across the country dream of with my favorite people.”

“I know that we have the potential to become great,” Zong said with enthusiasm. “So this year, I hope to take the ‘in’ out of ‘infamous’ and rise above what others think of us.”