NFL Cheerleaders...Overated?

From pee wee to varsity I've always loved the sport of cheerleading, yes the sport, but as I look towards college and being a cheerleader it seems like the final step is that College cheerleading is "professional." As I watch the football games and see the professional cheerleaders, they look nothing more then "man pleasers." Honestly, they have no purpose to me at the national level and they don't have a purpose being there. Don't get me wrong I love cheerleading, but with the very skimpy outfits they wear and the meaningless dances they do on the sidelines it just doesnt seem like cheerleading to me anymore. In a world where women do work so hard to get where they are it seems like the NFL cheerleaders forget all that (that's without me actually knowing a cheerleader.) But I take that back, my fifth grade teacher was a "Buffalo Jill" and when every boy in my class expected her to be hot, she walked in looking something close to what my grandmother looked like, no "hot" qualities according to the boys. Back when she cheered for the Buffalo Bills, it was much more like actual cheerleading, carrying heavy pom poms and even bringing one in to show us. Now a days though cheerleading seems to be at its peak when you are at the collge level. Doing stunts that are even illegal at the high school level risking serious injury. They cheer for football,soccer and basketball and they also compete. The NFL cheerleaders don't compete and don't do life risking mounts, they're more a pretty face for all the boys in the crowd.

-Missy

LeBron James

LeBron James is already putting together an MVP caliber season. It's amazing to think that it's only his 4th year and he's 22. He's averaging 27.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists. He is leading the Cleveland cavaliers towards a very good season and hopefully an NBA championship. There is nobody in the NBA that can compare with him because he's either too strong or too quick. He's unstoppable and if he doesn't get MVP, it will be a robbery.

Beginning of Duke's Season

As of right now the Duke Blue Devil basketball team is 4-o. They are ranked number 8 in the country and they seem to be off to a good start to a hopefully good season. Duke is a completely different team this year because they lost over 70% of their scoring from last year when All Americans JJ Redick and Shelden Williams graduated. Now they are based around sophomores Josh McRoberts and Greg Paulus, along with junior DeMarcus Nelson. I certainly hope that Duke does very well because I'm really passionate about them and i am a die hard fan.

And then there was 20...

Our cheerleading squad seems like it's rapidly decreasing! I've always been accustom to being on teams that have over 20 people, last year we had the maximum 35 (29 girls, 6 boys, 1 amazing team!), but this year, my senior year we only started with 22! It's weird to go from almost 40 people to half of that in only one year. Then on only the second day of practice I re-injured my torn left ACL and also tore cartilage in my knee leaving me out for the season and expecting surgery in mid-December and a week later another member quit to pursue her other sports interests. It's really hard after awhile to deal with the members who always lack passion for the sport. I don't think there's every been a season since I've cheered, 12 seasons, that no one's quit or been kicked off at all. Even though are team is small though, I think that we will have a successful season. It's better to have a team of 20 who are passionate and dedicated than a team of 35 where several of the people don't want to be there. It's amazing how our team comes together through the heartbreak, my best memory of this is from last season when five people were suspended/kicked off the team a weak before our Greater Rochester competition, but we went and we won! Hopefully the rest of the team can enjoy a successful as well as long basketball season.


-Missy

Well,I`m gonna spend a school year here in United States which is pretty cool.Goin to a school in a different country is a little weird when there is a bunch of differences.I just remember my first day in RH.I was about to cry cuz everthing was different from my country and your life is like start over.Imagine I don`t know anyone at school I don`t stay in same room as I do in my country,Turkey,almost everthing is unfamiliar to you and you have only taken English for 3 years so at first I had difficult times to express myself it was scary. Now I'm having lots of fun and i love it.

Skate and Basketball

Transworldskateboarding.com is my favorite skate site on the Internet. It's chock full of tricks and sweet videos and tips. It also has some sick skateboard designs. One of my favorite skate videos also includes snowboarding. It's called the Shaun White album and you can find it on google video. It's a sweet video that has tons of clips of Shaun in action and it also includes Tony Hawk.

While skating is awesome I really like watching and playing basketball. My favorite players are Chris Paul, Gilbert Arenas, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, and JJ Redick. My favorite pro team is the Orlando Magic. They are gonna beast out on the Eastern Conference this year cuz the East is a bunch of chumps. My college team is the Duke Blue Devils and they always kill it. Skating and basketball are friggin sweet.

Rush-Henrietta changes Cheerleading Squads Schedule

In Rush-Henrietta, New York, the Superintendent changed the Varsity and JV's local cheerleading schedule by allowing them to not cheer at the Varsity boys Basketball team's away games and instead cheer at the Varsity girls home games. Most of the varsity cheerleading squad disagreed with this simply because none of their students were asked their opinion on the topic.
Because of the Title IX ruling in the supreme court from a number of years ago women were granted equal rights in all sports, but in Rush-Henrietta the girls varsity basketball team is mad that cheerleaders will be attending their games. Of course it's great that girls will have another opportunity to have the same rights as men, but is cheerleading really the best thing?
It's been an on going tradition at Rush-Henrietta to cheer at the boys away varsity basketball games because we're a very talented school in basketball and our boys team usually attracts a big crowd, home and away. The cheerleaders are disappointed that they can't be apart of the crowds at these away games. Of course the girls are very talented too, winning three state championships in a row, but most of the girls on the team disagree with having our cheerleading squad there.
We are glad to have opportunities opening up for more women, but we want to feel wanted where we are cheering at. For many of the seniors it's disappointing that all these changes are occurring at the end of their high school careers and are some of the "last times" they'll be cheering. For the underclassmen however, they'll have to get used to the new rules made by Rush-Henrietta and soon their fall football seasons will be affected to. This changes moves us in the direction of cheering at not only football but soccer games too. Sooner or later two squads will be needed to do all of these events, plus competitions.
Rush-Henrietta is one of three schools in Monroe County (Rochester, NY) that will be cheering at both women and men's varsity basketball games.

-Missy