Is cheerleading a sport? Judge says no. but suburban teams disagree

Is cheerleading a sport?

A federal court has ruled that it is not, at least for the purposes of Title IX, the law that requires equal opportunities for males and females in college and high school athletics.

Therefore, a Connecticut university cannot replace its women's volleyball team with a cheerleading squad, the judge ruled, adding that cheerleading is "too underdeveloped and disorganized" to be treated as a sport at the college level.

Cheerleading supporters in the suburbs conceded the judge may be right technically at the college level, but to say cheerleading isn't a sport - those are fighting words.

To think cheerleading merely rallies fans for a football game is an outdated perception, Rolling Meadows High School coach Patti Hein said.

"If people had to go through all the things my kids do athletically, they would consider it a sport," she said.

But the ruling is getting support from at least one corner: the director of the cheerleading program for the Illinois High School Association.

Susie Knoblauch says the state has classified cheerleading as both an activity and a sport for the past six years.

"I'm sure anyone that's attended a cheerleading competition would agree it's a sport," she said. "But for a court ruling, the judge was right on target."

Knoblauch said the ruling makes sense at the college level, because a sport is defined by competition, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association does not offer a championship in the event.

Some universities run cheerleading under the athletic department, offer scholarships and compete in national championships through other organizations like the National Cheerleading Association, but many simply run it as a student activity that must raise money on its own and cheers at games but not at competitions.

Maybe it's cheerleading's dual identity that confuses people.

In Illinois, at the high school level, cheerleading is both an activity and a sport.

Sideline cheering for football and basketball is a year-round activity for 800 schools.

But competitive cheering, with tournaments, playoffs and championships, is a winter sport for 300 schools that runs from November through March and is governed by the same time limits and coaching requirements as any other sport. And more state high school associations across the country are heading in that direction.

"It's the opportunity for competition that's important," Knoblauch said. "I believe we're seeing the trend shift."

So what marks an event for many fans is the competition and athleticism.

Cheerleading coaches and fans say it's a sport that takes a demanding amount of strength, skill, athleticism, training and teamwork.

Cheerleaders often work out, run, lift weights, and practice up to seven days a week to perfect their routines.

It also can be dangerous, because of falls. It accounted for 56 percent of catastrophic injuries (such as paralysis) to high school and college female athletes from 1982 to 2007, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research. That's far more than any other sport.

Edmar Nicolas, a cheerleading coach at Prospect High School and Ultimate Athletics in Wauconda, is a former high school cheerleader who also competed in wrestling, cross country and gymnastics.

An Army veteran, he runs a boot camp for cheerleaders that drains the participants and leaves them almost unable to walk.

"I do believe it's a sport," he said. "It's not for wussies. Guys and girls both have to be strong because you have to lift each other up. It takes a lot out of you."

Jeffrey Siegel, who coached five state champion cheerleading teams at Elk Grove High School and now coaches at Buffalo Grove High School, says cheerleading has grown by leaps and bounds to overcome the perception it's just a sideshow for other sports.

"It really is a sport at the high school level," he said. "I would say it's emerging and growing as a sport at the collegiate level."

The Women's Sports Foundation supports the judge's decision, not because of any objection to cheerleading per se, but because the NCAA hasn't developed it as a true competitive sport.

The nonprofit foundation doesn't want cheerleading to be used as an excuse to get rid of other established sports, said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympic gold medalist swimmer and the foundation's senior director of advocacy.

"The big beef is calling it a sport in name only," she said. "The quibble is not with what any athlete is doing; it's with the administrators."

Like synchronized swimming, she said, though cheerleading is extremely challenging, just calling it a sport for Title IX compliance won't change people's minds about it.