Cheerleaders at Lyons Township High School aren’t only standing on the sidelines these days.
They are taking center stage as competitors and will start in December to test their skills against other high school teams in competitive cheerleading, which is the newest addition to the school’s athletic program.
While the competitive squad will continue to cheer on the boys basketball team, they also will compete in such skills as tumbling, stunting and dancing.
Tryouts recently were held for the team and Sarah Better, 17, a senior from La Grange, made the squad. She has cheered at LT throughout her high school career and, along with other students, asked the school district to make it a competitive sport.
“Instead of just cheering for the boys, we compete,” said Better. “It’s a lot more serious and more competitive.”
The high school continues to have a spirit squad that also cheers at games, but varsity competitive cheer has a higher degree of difficulty.
Some of the more difficult elements include tumbling and performing stunts in which cheerleaders build pyramids and sometimes toss team members, known as fliers, into the air. Fliers also pose at the top of the pyramids and land on the ground or are caught by other team members.
The team, which has about 20 members, is made up mostly of girls, but it has three members who are boys.
While competitive cheer is new at LT, it has been at Nazareth Academy since 2005 when the Illinois High School Athletic Association made it a sport.
Joie Stevens coaches the team at Nazareth, which is made up only of girls and has about 12 members. She said they would welcome a boy on the team, but they have not yet shown interest in it.
The IHSA requires teams to perform three minute routines at competitions that include cheering, dance, tumbling and stunts. The routines are performed to music and/or to cheers.
Stevens attributes the rise of competitive cheerleading to when ESPN started highlighting it.
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“ESPN started broadcasting a lot of cheer and it just caught wind,” she said.
Susan Knoblauch, assistant executive director of the IHSA, said there are about 300 high schools statewide that have competitive cheer as a sport.
When the sport was sanctioned in 2005 in Illinois, said “we were right on trend as it started growing nationwide,” Knoblauch said.
“A lot of girls don’t have experience in tumbling or stunting, but they work really hard to learn that,” Stevens said.
The IHSA requires that teams cheer on the sidelines at a winter sport. Knoblauch said that continuing to have squads on the sidelines pays homage to the sport’s roots.
“Cheering at games is really the premise and it’s an important part of the school spirit culture,” she said.
Stevens said competitive cheering helps her students grow as athletes.
“It contributes to their confidence and discipline,” she said. “It takes all the sideline elements and ramps it up quite a bit.”
Stevens said some of her former team members go on to cheer in college.
Inez Castro, a senior at Nazareth Academy, has enjoyed being on the cheer squad throughout her four years at the school. Because of the difference in the size of their schools, Nazareth Academy will not compete against Lyons Township High School. Even so, Castro, who lives in Lyons, is excited that they have formed a team.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do,” she said.
Squad collects donations
Lyons Township High School’s newest sport, competitive cheer, is looking for donations of gently used clothing and household items to kick off a Donation Drive from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 19 in the south campus parking lot, 4900 S. Willow Springs Road.
Acceptable donations include clothing, shoes, accessories, linens, books and small household items (no furniture). All goods collected will be sold to Savers, an organization that pays by the pound for every qualifying donation received. The goal of the drive is to raise $6,000 to support the competitive cheer team for new uniforms and the upcoming season.
Savers, Inc. is a privately held global thrift retailer. Through a business model of purchasing, reselling and recycling secondhand merchandise, the Savers family of thrift stores benefits more than 150 nonprofit organizations.
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