The age old question -- to cover cheerleading or not?

[Starman]

Not cover subjective sports? Holy Roy Jones!

Cheerleading was first deemed a sport to equalize the number of female athletes with the number of men in a given institution (Helllooo 100 football scholarships!)

That's disturbing, but so is the whole macho flavor of the, I-ain't-gonna-cover-no-girls-in-skirts discussion here. Do we put WNBA, women's gymnastics, women's tennis in the paper? Or is it only good for the readers if the sports editor says it is?

No no no, cheerleading was first deemed a sport to allow high school cheerleading programs to get their fingers into athletic budgets.

The angle in college of using cheerleading rosters to equalize participation numbers for male and female athletes came later.

As far as the "I-ain't-gonna-cover-no-girls-in-skirts" angle, the biggest gripe I (and a lot of people) have about cheerleading is that it siphons off money (and participants) from completely legitimate girls' athletic activities (boys' too, although less directly), in order to involve them in an activity which, when you get down to it, is a symbolically-sexually-subservient role which exists to boost the macho egos of male football and basketball players.

 

[Tarheel316]

Starman, very well stated. Whenever I get a call about running a cheerleader pic, I tell them to e-mail it to me and that I will forward it on to our lifestyles editor. Of course they want it in sports and I tell them no. But I let them know it will still get in the paper, just not in sports.

 

[shotglass]

Just so we're clear on this, that appeases them not at all. They want justification as a sport. Anything less is not good enough.

 

[BillyT]

If it's a competition, it's legitimate to cover it, especially if it is sanctioned by the state athletics association.

But not necessarily the first one of the season.

I might cover the league meet or the state meet.

I might also negotiate with news side to see if they have a slow Saturday.

then you are a loser and you gain zero respect from your staff or your readers.

That really wasn't very nice

In my opinion, a sport is an activity with a clearly defined way to win or lose. In football, basketball, etc, the team that does a certain activity more (like running the ball into the endzone or successfully connecting on a free throw attempt) scores more points and the team with the most points win.

Now as for cheerleading, you can do the best flipperoni in the world and a judge can still give you less points than Polly Prissypants because Polly's toe didn't come in contact with the mat. In that sense, I don't consider it a sport so much as a competition, and as such, you should only cover it like you would cover any other competition (surfing, for example). In my opinion, cover it once (preferably when a state crown or something is on the line) and forget about it for twelve months.

Then again, you could just bench out and start covering anything someone says is a sport. But if you do, please send me a copy of your Fall All-Area burping contest tab.

Honest question: In that way, how is competitive cheerleading different from gymnastics or ice skating.

 

[shotglass]

Tomas ain't in it for the nice vote, pilgrim. ;D

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I've always felt that cheerleading is more a performance activity than a sport. If you ask most people who think cheerleading is a sport why it's a sport, they'll usually tell you about the conditioning and athletic ability it takes. I can't argue that it doesn't require those things, but pro wrestling also requires those qualities. So does ballet. Neither of those things are sports. I don't hear many ballet people sounding insulted when I say it's not a sport.
As Starman once pointed out, the competitions were created after the fact as an attempt to legitimize cheerleading as a sport.
If basketball and football didn't exist there would be no cheerleading. If cheerleading didn't exist, there would still be basketball and football.

 

[Tom Petty]

Tomas ain't in it for the nice vote, pilgrim. ;D

hot damn, i might be able to get a two-fer-one in here.

solid post, shottie. damn solid. in fact, i'm going to give you a 10 for effect and a 9.5 for style.

ok, the rest of you may be asking, "jesus tomas, what in the heck just transpired here at good ol' SportsJournalists.com?" well, let me tell you what took place. i just judged a post shottie made on a competitive board (see end-of-the-year awards) and i hereby declare him the winner of this thread.

and holy shirt, look what just happened, pilgrim! shottie now is an athlete by your standards. good work slugger. go hit the showers.


(now if i can just get shottie into a cute little skirt my work here will be done.)

 

[friend of a friend]

Tomas ain't in it for the nice vote, pilgrim. ;D

hot damn, i might be able to get a two-fer-one in here.

solid post, shottie. damn solid. in fact, i'm going to give you a 10 for effect and a 9.5 for style.

ok, the rest of you may be asking, "jesus tomas, what in the heck just transpired here at good ol' SportsJournalists.com?" well, let me tell you what took place. i just judged a post shottie made on a competitive board (see end-of-the-year awards) and i hereby declare him the winner of this thread.

and holy shirt, look what just happened, pilgrim! shottie now is an athlete by your standards. good work slugger. go hit the showers.


(now if i can just get shottie into a cute little skirt my work here will be done.)

Now that he's lost weight, maybe. At 320, not so much.

 

[shotglass]

Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

[Tom Petty]

Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

red X tease.

 

[BillyT]

Tomas ain't in it for the nice vote, pilgrim. ;D

I actually posted that accidentally.

I wrote it, then decided if I posted it I would get mocked.

I was right.

But I am glad it went through because the followup was worth it.

And he ain't an athlete until the state athletic board says he is.

 

[Tom Petty]

Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

winner. hands down.