Ready, team? Okay! (Clap)
My niece, bless her, is a cheerleader.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2LxuFEjpc]
She started high school this year and made the JV cheer squad (by the way, only two girls who went to tryouts did not make the team. I bet they felt great. Welcome to high school, girls. You’ll be feeling like that for the next four years.)
I watched my niece at the end of last school year as she practiced for tryouts, and I had to find other babysitters this summer while she attended cheer camp and cheer practice, and I even had to drive a gallon of gasoline to her mother one day, when she ran out of gas after dropping my niece off to gymnastics, which she started taking to improve her acrobatic abilities. All in all, I am a TOTAL BYSTANDER to the art that is her cheering.
Today, I went from bystander to psuedo-participant by attending a JV football game. I wanted to see my niece in action, to watch her cheer and to cheer her on as she cheered her team on, and to cheer in response to their cheers, which were intended to encourage the people in the stands to cheer (go ahead, reread it).
I brought Little No Limit and The Boy and we sat in the very front bleacher and – enough, already! – cheered. My niece, who is cool enough to not be embarrassed by her grandma, aunt, and cousins showing up to watch her cheer, smiled and waved. She even walked over and gave us hugs during halftime. Her friend gave the kids balloons (which got in the way the rest of the game, but it was a nice gesture). My niece later informed me that some of her cheer friends even said, “Look at those cute kids” and she told them they were her cousins. Whether or not she just said that to have something nice to say, I’m not above believing it.
Although it was JV football, the game was entertaining. How can one not get excited by witnessing the opposing team’s verbal abuse of their waterboy? They really seemed to get off on yelling at him. I also saw an excellent touchdown and many boy pile-ups. Parents yelled “defense!” with half their faces hidden behind video cameras. In my ideal world, they are videotaping the game to proudly show it to/harass out-of-town family members, and NOT planning to play back the game with their son to point out where he could have done better. In truth, they are probably videotaping it and will never watch it again. Whatever. I have a few years before I need to think about it. And I WILL need to think about it because The Boy was thoroughly excited by the game, and kept asking to play. Little No Limit was equally mesmerized by the cheering, clapping when they clapped and yelling incoherently when they yelled “Go!”
Everyone* left on a high note that night: the families of the cheerleaders got to see the girls do their thing. The families of the football players got to see the boys do their thing. The families of everyone at the school got to see their school win 20-0. And I – I got to sit around and get a taste of what’s to come while my kids played in the dirt. At least they weren’t eating the dirt. We’ve come such a long way.
*Did I say everyone? Obviously, not the losing team. 20-0! Whew. Maybe the waterboy put something in their water. It would serve them right. Poor, abused waterboy…
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High School Cheer Squads are uniquely American. Thank doG. Cheerleaders scare me. They’re so over the top, like drag queens but with out the good humour. Or penises. But I’m sure your niece is lovely at it.
My highschool had a cheerleading team and all the fat girls were on it, to the immense disappointment of the male athletes.
Man, you totally took me back to high school with this post.
And how cool is your niece! I remember a few girls who were cheerleaders who would ignore everyone in their family (or, you know, the geeky girl with whom they played softball over the summer) as soon as school started and they donned their spanky pants. Grrr. (and yes, I’ve watched Bring It On a couple times too many and know the bloomers underneath the skirt are supposedly called spanky pants. Dork!)
Maybe the water boy can go hang out with the two girls who didn’t make the cut. Then they can secretly plot to put ex-lax in the water, and pepper in the pom-poms…
Tell your niece to shake her pom-poms really hard before she uses them, just to be safe.
“this is not a democracy! it’s a CHEERocracy!”
Gawd I love that movie. No, really, I do. I have to watch it every time it’s on.
Shut up.
Oh, how I remember the days when my kids ate dirt. When I had to pry the cigarette butts out of their grubby little hands.
And I remember being a nerd in high school too — someone whose humanity the cheerleaders wouldn’t even have bothered to acknowledge. Good for your niece, who sounds like a nice kid. MY niece actually made the soccer team. Neither my sister nor I can figure out how that happened.