Having grown up in a small town, sports have always been important to me. Our town revolved around sports and my life, in particular, was centered around cheerleading. The perception of cheerleading is often viewed as a frivolous sport that just involves cheering on the football team and waving pom-poms. That's a stereotype. Even according to Judge Stefan Underhill, cheerleading isn't a sport, to begin with as of 2010. Cheerleading can teach important life values, builds character, sets an example and aids in self-discipline. Cheerleading even has health benefits. Although cheerleaders are meant to cheer on other sports teams anyone who participates in it has beneficial outcomes.

Harlee Lynn Photo

According to the NCA (National Cheerleading Association) creed, cheerleading is simply a practice for the larger arena of life. The educational benefits are very broad when it comes to cheerleading, especially when it is high school cheerleading. In order for cheerleaders in high school to even stay on the team, they must maintain a certain grade point average. This could potentially keep girls more focused on school. According to information collected by statisticians via the National Cheerleaders Association, 82 percent of cheerleaders maintain a grade point average equivalent to a B or higher. This, in turn, gives them a higher chance to be accepted into college but also receive a cheerleading or honors scholarship. The study also claims 82 percent of cheerleaders get accepted into college. Unlike other collegiate sports, colleges do not recruit as zealously when it comes to cheerleading. Even though cheerleading is not recognized as one of the NCAA. NAIA, or NJCAA athletic teams, it is still a highly demanding sport. Opposed to other sports getting recruited, cheerleading scholarships and team picks are solely based on tryouts. They are common when applying for college, or being familiar with dance, gymnastics or tumbling is also acceptable.

Cheerleading may seem like a dangerous sport but it definitely has its health benefits. Cheerleading in itself involves a lot of physical endurance through stunting, tumbling, dancing and cheering. Stunting involves a base holding a cheerleader's foot in their hand while they perform a multitude of body formations, all while being held in the air. A flyer generally weighs from 100-115 pounds, which could be compared to the amount of weight a football player has to lift to prepare for their season. A lot of endurance is needed to perform these activities. Cheerleading provides a strength-training and cardiovascular workout that keeps girls healthy and fit, as well as maintaining a positive attitude.

Harlee Lynn Photo

Cheerleaders technically are more active than the whole football team. While football games can last up to an hour and a half or as little as 48 minutes, they get breaks on not only the bench but at halftime too. Cheerleaders are expected to perform at halftime and during the entire four quarters of the game with no breaks. Cheerleaders stay active. "From core strength for stunting to powering every muscle in your body for tumbling, cheerleaders are the strongest athletes around," claims Danielle Wechsler, founder of cheerFIT training. She estimates that each cheer practice burns 600 calories.

An important key to life is being happy. Cheerleading brings a good amount of happiness to anyone who is apart of it. According to psychology, even if you're sad, smiling makes you feel happier. Cheerleaders are forced to smile every day, even if the games aren't going their way it's apart of the cheer religion. "We smile because we are happy but smiling also makes us happy," says the University of Cardiff's Dr. Michael Lewis. Lewis conducted a study that showed that people who couldn't frown because of Botox injections reported feeling less sad than the control group. So take it from cheerleaders and cheer yourself up by smiling.

Cheerleading builds character for all that participate in its rigorous behind-the-scenes training. Cheerleading is a diverse sport offering spots for all races and ages to participate. Including not only women but men too. In fact, women weren't allowed to cheer until the 1920's. The name in itself has the word "leading". According to Google, the adjective leading means guidance or leadership. Just as cheerleaders guide the teams to victory with their support. In the 1890's the U of M was on a losing streak until a medical student named Johnny Campbell assembled a group to energize the team and the crowd. Johnny picked up a megaphone and rallied the team to a victory with the very first organized cheer. To this day cheerleading still holds true to its origination of promoting not only their schools but communities.