Every football team, from recreation league up to the NFL, has cheerleaders. They are there every game, cheering, dancing, performing, and inspiring. For most fans, their only glimpse of cheerleaders is what takes place on game day, and they may neither understand nor realize just how difficult cheering is. The sport – and yes, cheering, both sideline and competition cheerleading are legitimate sports – takes tremendous work, sacrifice, and talent. Some of the best football in the state is played here in South Georgia. Likewise, the cheerleading squads that support those teams are also among the best you will find anywhere. This month, three cheerleaders from different Region 1-6A programs share a few insights regarding what it takes and what it means to be a cheerleader in Georgia’s highest classification.
For most cheerleaders, their initial exposure to the sport came when they were very young – in elementary school attending high school games with their parents, seeing cheerleaders from the high school come to their campus for pep rallies, or both. The impressions the varsity cheerleaders make on young girls cannot be overstated. “I remember players and cheerleaders coming to see us when I was in elementary school. I looked up to the cheerleaders and I wanted to be one,” said Alexandra Holt, a senior cheerleader at Valdosta High School who also cheers on the competition team. Tift County junior Addie Eanes, who moved to Tifton from Vidalia when she was in the sixth grade, agrees. “I loved the colors at Tift County. When we moved here and I saw the uniforms, I immediately wanted to wear one. When the varsity girls came to pep rallies at the middle school, I told myself, ‘I really want to do that’,” she said.
What those impressionable elementary students don’t realize is how difficult it is to be a cheerleader. They practice just like other teams. They spend summers training, lifting weights, tumbling, and conditioning. They also put themselves at tremendous risk; few sports have the number of serious injuries that cheering does. Being a cheerleader is also like being a member of an exclusive club. There are only a few slots available, and hundreds of girls often try out in hopes of finding their way on the team. “It’s an honor for me to cheer. We only have 16 spots and so many people try out. It’s nerve-wrecking. You don’t know if you’re going to make it. It takes a lot of work to make the team,” said Meg Glorius, a junior cheerleader at Lowndes High School.
What takes place on the sidelines on Friday night is but a small part of what cheerleaders actually do. The girls spend upwards of 15 hours per week practicing. They also support and encourage the football players and become almost an extension of the team. They celebrate the team wins; they feel the sting when games don’t go their way. “One of the hardest parts is dealing with losses. It’s not easy,” said Glorius. In fact, all three young ladies agreed that one of the best things about cheering is getting to know the players and encouraging them each and every week. They feel like a part of the program, and they want to do their best to inspire the players to
win each Friday night.
While a lot of what goes on behind the scenes is extremely important to the vitality of a program, cheerleaders make their names on Friday nights, in front of the crowd, performing for an entire game. Cheering is very much an aerobic sport, one that requires both strength and endurance. “We are constantly moving. We stunt. We jump. We dance. We have to memorize hundreds of cheers and about 20 dances. It takes a lot of dedication,” said Eanes. The girls consider themselves performers, and they put themselves out there in front of some of the largest gatherings their communities will see all year. “I love everything about it. I consider myself a performer and I love being in front of people doing what I love to do,” said Glorius.
When you talk to cheerleaders, they say the same thing about their sport as other athletes do about theirs. They mention the hours at practice. The long summer workouts. The demanding nature of their games. The emotional ups and downs that come with winning and losing. They have a lot at stake on Friday nights; they celebrate the wins and mourn the losses just like the players and coaches do. “Cheering takes a lot of work and a lot of time. You always have to be on your game, in shape, and you have to know the game of football. You’ve got to know the game to know how to cheer for it. You spend a lot of time with the team and you represent your school as well. We want to represent our school as well as we can,” said Holt.
Special Feature/South Georgia/December 2014
Hard work, hundreds of hours of practice, danger; or the life of a 6A cheerleader
Robert Preston Jr.
Photography by Micki K Photography
