Sarah Kimball has a bruise on her arm the size of a tennis ball. But she wasn't playing tennis when she got this bruise. She wasn't playing soccer, rugby, or lacrosse either. Sarah was cheering.
Kimball is a member of the Tufts Cheerleading Squad. If you've never been to a football or basketball game, you probably didn't know Tufts had a cheerleading squad. But it does. And they want you to know that they're making an impact on Tufts' athletic scene.
Once a leisure activity - something students did to distract themselves from work - cheerleading has grown rapidly at Tufts over the past three years. During the 1998-1999 season, interest in the program was so low that there were not enough people to form even a small team. However, with the return of alumni cheerleader Erika Beam (LA '99) and support of Amy Welch, a member of the Tufts faculty who had cheered in national competitions, the Tufts cheerleading squad was revived.
Today, cheerleading is less of a pastime and more of an athletic commitment, with the majority of the squad coming from dance or gymnastic backgrounds. Coach Erika Beam is eager to dispel the stereotype that cheerleaders are "a bunch of girls jumping around in short skirts and screaming their heads off."
"The team was not so strong in past years and it was discontinued," she said. "But I don't think a lot of people know how good we are now. We're a very strong team."
Cheerleading at Tufts is not just pom-poms and pep rallies. Being on the team is now a firm commitment: the girls practice four times a week in addition to running and lifting weights on their own time. Most of the routines are based on gymnastics and strength training and involve a number of stunts, including tosses, flips, and tiers. Injuries are commonplace: Beam has broken her ankle cheering in the past, and freshman Rose Okoye has suffered a broken wrist - although the injury didn't prevent people from standing on her.
"It's not easy and it's not comfortable," Beam said. "I want people to respect these girls if only for the amount of pain they go through. People don't realize it's really hard to throw someone 30 feet in the air. It's hard to have someone stand on you while you're standing on someone else and smiling the whole time. There's a big gymnastic component people who don't see us aren't recognizing."
Although the squad acknowledges there is a negative stereotype against cheerleaders, they say that their biggest critics have usually never seen them perform.
"People that don't like us aren't really going to games anyway," senior Justine Alger said. Freshman Caitlin McGarty was teased by some friends on the cross-country team until they actually saw the cheerleading squad in action. After seeing the squad's moves, they "apologized profusely," McGarty said.
The squad emphasizes that they work just as hard academically as they do athletically. "I wouldn't be surprised if the team's average GPA was one of the highest among teams at Tufts," Alger said, adding that the fact that the girls are Tufts students should be enough to erase the "dumb cheerleader" stereotype.
Reactions from people who have seen the team performing have been overwhelmingly positive this year, attracting everyone from the random fan in the crowd to President Bacow. At homecoming, the squad made such a good impression that one fan told them that their stunts were worthy of Division I. The football and basketball teams are also among the cheerleaders' fans.
"They appreciate it," Okoye said. "We're out there with the teams in the bad weather." The squad has been asked to cheer for a number of other sports teams, including girl's teams, but has had a hard time accommodating all the requests.
Overall, the team wants potential cheerleaders to know how much fun being on the squad is. "My high school team was the most miserable experience," Beam said. "It was the stereotypical squad - numerous cliques fighting all the time. Here, I look forward to practice every single night, and the rate of progress is unbelievable." Because of the team's cohesiveness and progress, they plan to start entering local competitions.
Okoye agrees that the team defies expectations. "It's not what people make it out to be. It's very rewarding physically, socially, and emotionally. You get what you put into it," she said.
"The best part is that everyone is so supportive of one another," McGarty added. "Everybody is so nice, nobody is snippy, nobody is talking behind backs... It's ridiculous how fun and enjoyable this experience has been. None of that whole girl-group mean, backstabbing stuff."
The squad is also hoping to attract some men to the team as well. "Any serious team needs guys. At any other school, there are football players helping out with stunting," Beam said. "What it takes three girls to do, one guy can."
Men don't even have to cheer on the team, she says. "No previous experience, you don't have to wear a uniform, and no cheering required. We'll teach you everything you need to know."
Alger challenges those who are hesitant to join the squad due to cheerleading's social stigma to reconsider their opinions. "It's humbling. You know you'll get crap because of the stereotypes, but it gives you the self-confidence to spite all that. But it's good for the school and it's a good time. And you get to prove people wrong," she said. "We're like any other team. We work really hard, we're proud of what we do, and we have something to show for our efforts."
