Netflix released a short original documentary entitled “CHEER" that follows the Navarro College Bulldogs through their season. Navarro College has one of the most elite and highly looked upon cheerleading programs in the entire country with athletes dying to join the squad. For years before the documentary, Navarro was doing gravity-defying tricks, tumbles, stunts, and jumps, but now it's all on record for the world to see.
In a lot of people's hearts, cheerleading has blossomed into a challenging sport that blends gymnastics, dance, and weightlifting (but you pick up other people) into a graceful two and a half minute routine. Looking back to when Lawrence Herkimer invented the herkie jump and became the father of cheerleading to now, the sport has come an extremely long way from "rah rah rah" cheerleading with pom-poms, kick lines, and dancing, to crazy baskets that go 15 feet in the air and innovative stunts that genuinely look as if they cannot be done in real life.
The original form of cheerleading still has a place today. Cheerleaders can be seen on the sidelines of just about any games still, but odds are before or after that game they were hustling to perfect their competition routines. Thanks to "CHEER," viewers were able to follow Navarro cheer and see that there is, in fact, more to cheerleading than the public ever wanted to believe. In the show, Navarro is seen in the public eye in the same light that their small town of Corsicana, Texas sees them as. Corsicana is a cheer town. How many times have you ever heard that before? Navarro cheerleading is the pride and joy of this small town and is changing the game now that the world gets to see how cheerleading can truly shape a community and be more than just a supporting role.
The biggest reason why people never believed that cheerleading is a real sport is because of the way cheerleaders are portrayed in the media. Pretty uniforms, makeup, hair, spray tans, and shiny props make it hard for some people to understand that cheerleading is hard and takes a great amount of skill and determination to be successful in. Teams practice their routines for months to have just a few opportunities to perform it flawlessly. Through injuries and failed attempts, cheerleaders fight not only to make themselves and their team proud by putting on a show that goes off without a hitch but to prove themselves worthy to the world. Other athletes in other sports are able to just do what they love without fear of scrutiny because their sport “isn't a sport." They are able to just play for themselves and people just recognize their hard work. Cheerleaders, on the other hand, are just now starting to get the recognition they deserve after competitive cheer being around for years.
Not to mention the males that choose to participate, they are never treated the same. There is a stigma around all-male cheerleaders being part of the gay community and while some of the time this may be true, cheerleading does not define someone's sexual orientation. Also, male cheerleaders are no less athletic than your average football or baseball jock. In all honesty, male cheerleaders have to have the strength to flip, toss, and catch another human in their hands usually with little to no help from other people which is probably more challenging than what your average jock lifts at the gym. They also flip and tumble across the mat at such fast speeds and can do the most insane tricks by throwing their bodies off the floor and landing on their feet. Male cheerleaders are a different breed and thanks to “CHEER" are beginning to become a normalized feat to public society.
It is great to see an underrepresented community come to the positive limelight and finally get the recognition they deserve. Thanks to Netflix, Navarro cheer, and all the members of that organization, the cheerleading community finally has a way to show the world how hard they work, the everyday battles and struggles they persevere through, and their love, support, and passion for their teammates and what they do with facials and a smile on their face. 2020 is the year cheerleading will change the world.
