Cheer Up!

This article on the front page of nytimes.com reports that there is drama over cheerleaders in many New England states. Apparently the cheerleaders aren't being dispatched to support girls' basketball games as much as boys' games, so one angry parent of a girl basketball player filed a Title IX lawsuit. She thought that the policy made the girls feel second-tier to the boys.

In response to the lawsuit, the school is now forcing cheerleaders to cheer both girls and boys, but so that this won't impact the "workload" of the cheerleaders, cheerleaders aren't allowed to go to away games anymore. The cheerleaders, they are pissed, because they can't go to away games with the boys and flirt on the school bus anymore. The female basketball coach doesn't like it because the girls drown out her instructions to the players. No word on how the boy players feel, but likely they are glad that those short skirts won't be distracting them at crucial moments of the game : ) Come to think of it, the girls' coach is probably distracted, too.

<-- This is apparently W cheering at Yale. whee!

Since most of you probably have more of a life than to read the article in its entirety, I give you my two favorite quotes, both from the second page:





“It’s probably toughest on some of the parents,” said John Allen, athletic director of the Chenango Valley Central School District, just northeast of Binghamton. “All of a sudden they’re at games, and there are no cheerleaders.”


Um, is anyone else thinking of American Beauty here? What the hell is this man talking about? Pervert.





Katelin Maxson, 17, a senior who is the cheerleading captain, said that while she does not mind cheering for the girls, it has doubled her workload: She has continued the tradition here of decorating the lockers of the basketball players on game days and bringing them treats.





“We joined sports to have fun, but they’re basically taking the fun away and giving us more work,” she said. “The interest is down so much, and it’s going to keep dropping, until there’s no cheerleading anymore.”


I'm sorry, what alternate universe does this little bitch live in? All that baking and decorating...cheerleading blows!


If I'm remembering correctly, the South may actually be more progressive on this issue - I'm pretty sure we had cheerleaders at both games because the girls always played right before the boys. Both teams played the same away schedule so that busing and such was easier, so I'm pretty sure cheerleaders cheered for both away, too. Am I delusional?