As the winter sports season approaches, facilities are taken up, it gets dark at 4 pm, it’s cold, it’s wet, and the cheer team continues to practice outside. In the fall, this isn’t as much of a problem. It’s usually bright out, and we at least have a dry patch of grass to practice on. However, when basketball season rolls around and cheer season carries into the winter, practice conditions become miserable.
This issue continues to go unseen within our school. Every team has a practice location, because why wouldn’t they? The basketball teams all have gyms to practice in, the football team has a field, the tennis teams have tennis courts, the baseball and softball teams have fields, and the cheer team… they get the spare patch of grass left over where the other sports aren’t practicing.
Junior co-captain Charlotte Masaki explains how “we shouldn’t have to practice in 40-50 degree weather, especially when the attire norm is shorts and t-shirts.”
She also brings up a good point, stating that “our whole sport revolves around supporting and uplifting others,” so why isn’t the support being reciprocated back to us from our school?
This is a huge issue because as you have probably noticed, a lot of what we have to practice involves music. Playing music over and over while practicing and running through halftime routines is incredibly distracting to other teams that are also trying to practice. The cheer team is very aware of this, but there is nothing we can do about it because music is essential to what we practice.
Because cheerleading is typically a female-dominated sport, the question arises of whether or not this issue relates to Title lX. Title Nine is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States, enacted in 1989, that prohibits discrimination against individuals based on sex in education programs or activities. The Title lX regulations also “require schools to provide equal opportunity based on sex,” (U.S. Department of Education). Why is it that cheer, a female-dominated sport, constantly gets unequal treatment from the school, as we don’t have anywhere to safely practice? We don’t have the opportunity to improve throughout the season, so equal opportunity where?
Another thing you’ve probably noticed is that the cheer team has to practice pretty dangerous stunts to be able to hit them in routines. This is not something that can take place in the dark, or on wet grass, which takes a toll on the team’s improvement throughout the season. If we can’t practice, how are we supposed to improve?
Many people claim that the team can practice in the FAB. This solution seems reasonable, but first, it’s rarely available, and second, the hard floor is not necessarily safe to stunt on. The fact that it’s a warm, inside location seems nice, but it’s not practical. For example, when we practiced in there and tried to stunt, girl’s heads genuinely hit the roof. This is not a reasonable practice location. The wrestling room is another solution that is commonly brought up. However, the wrestling team begins practice in the winter, so if the cheer team wants access to it, we must practice after wrestling, pushing our practice back by hours.
We may never see a solution to this issue at Arcata High School, but it’s something that more people need to be aware of.
“We love our sport and our school and we would appreciate feeling the love back,” Masaki added.
