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Becoming "one" With The Cheerleader Again
Section 1 crowns its conference cheer champs
by Ray Gallagher
 | | Three Cheers! - The Putnam Valley girls cheered their hearts out at the first ever Section 1 Conference championships at New Rochelle High School last Saturday. |
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A cheerleading competition is more like a party than an athletic competition, at least that's the way it seemed to me last Saturday at New Rochelle High where some 20 schools got after the first annual first annual Westchester/ Putnam/Dutchess/Rockland Cheerleading Coaches Conference Championships. At the same time in which they were competing against one another for the first team conference titles in Section 1 history, these competitors danced, toe-tapped, bopped around and crooned like Robins to the sounds of Don't Stop the Music deejays.
In the end, when North Rockland was crowned Conference I and overall Grand Champions, there were enough hugs and tears to fill the Grand Canyon, enough spirit to temporarily quell Third World gloom and doom and enough optimism to keep the "sport" of cheerleading afloat for a few more years. It was a thing of beauty, but not nearly as sweet as NY Giants 17, New England Patriots 14: For that was about as good as sports can ever be for me. First Johan Santana to the Mets on Friday, then the best Super Bowl win in New York since 1969 on Sunday; can it get any better?
Making cheerleading a validated Section 1 sport has been the goal of folks like WPDRCCC Director Marsha Tessler, Putnam Valley Coach and WPDRCCA member Regina Albano, Susan Barringer, Tonia Gallo, Kris Santare and Chrissy Stanionis… just to name a few. The Goal: To have cheerleading emerge as a full-fledged sport for girls and boys in Section 1; was finally recognized before the start of the 2007 school year with the assistance of Greg Ransom, BOCES Chair; Jim Rose, BOCES Safety; John Magnotta, New Rochelle AD and Karen Peterson, Bronxville AD.
Mission accomplished! What they do next will determine whether or not cheerleading thrives in Section 1 or just barely pans out as some fringe sport that only the participants' parents care about.
"We are proceeding slowly and carefully so that we make the best possible decisions for our athletes and coaches," said Tessler, quite cheerfully. "This is a very exciting time for us in Section 1 and we hope to continue on a successful path. We hope to hold League competitions sometime in the future, and I have been asked to help cheerleading coaches in New York City set up their cheerleading program in the style we have adopted for Section 1.
"I was hoping that we would have had more spectator support," Tessler said, noting that a lot of people were running errands in preparation for the Super Bowl. "It was very exciting for us to have such a meaningful competition for cheerleading in this area."
Some schools in the Conference Championships where strongly represented; schools like Fox Lane, New Rochelle and Ursuline saw large participation from their respective student bodies. I, for one, was most impressed by Fox Lane, as the members of its basketball team actually took the floor, led by my man Travis Johnson, and danced during breaks to Cotton-Eyed Joe with Fox Lane cheerleaders.
The Fox Lane student body truly seemed to care that its cheerleaders were in the running for the Conference II title, placing second to Ursuline when all was said and done. Putnam Valley, despite a decent showing, failed to place in Conference III, which was won by Eastchester.
There was a time, back in the day, when I cared about cheerleaders, too; spending more time with the Lakeland Hornet cheerleaders than my own family. I liked to think that I was "one" with the cheerleader back in the day. We, players and cheerleaders, knocked off bottles of Boones Farm Apple Wine… win, lose or draw (legal drinking age being 18 then). We traipsed across Section 1 on school buses before packing in to my 1963 Plymouth with the push-button transmission, and whether or not we won the game the Hornet cheerleaders ensured that we were worthy.
With that history in mind, I decided to become "one" again with the cheerleader just seconds after passing the Putnam Valley team bus on I-684 Saturday morning. Soon thereafter, I passed Conference III runnerup Byram Hills and Fox Lane. I could feel my cheerleading juices bubbling again, my roots in the "sport" taking hold of me as they did in the '80s (my tongue is planted firmly in cheek right now).
There was a time when the cheerleader and I had fallen out of favor, though; for how could I genuinely care about a group of spiritcrazed kids who cheered for others but did little to affect the definitive outcome of the game? I told my nieces to play sports, rather than root for others. Somehow, some way… I'd lost a little respect for the cheerleader, partly due to my own ignorance I suppose.
You see, the cheerleader of yesteryear is not the same one I saw on Saturday. Back in the day, cheerleading was a status thing. Most of the girls back in the day didn't join the cheerleading team in the hopes of obtaining a college scholarship. They did it to "get the guy", to be "a part of the scene". The cheerleader's role was primarily one of support. She picked us up and patted us on the back, even after a 104-44 loss to the Todd Scott-led Peekskill Red Devils. She organized the Friday night party at the Cegielski household, whether we allowed loathsome Horace Greeley had hit the century mark at our expense, or we knocked off Mahopac in a stunner on the gridiron. Nowadays, they're in it to win it, and they are much more athletic and driven.
"Cheerleading has changed since you and I were at Lakeland," Hen Hud Coach Patti Peters said, still smarting over the fact that the highly competitive Sailors did not make the grade in Conference II. "It's completely different now. These girls still support the team, but some of them are tremendous athletes in their own right."
One thing still perplexes me about modern-day cheerleading, as opposed to the old-school cheerleader back in the day: Why is that I often fail to see these competitive squads cheering on the team during game day? Shouldn't the Putnam Valley cheerleaders be at the Putnam Valley/Briarcliff basketball game? I mean, if ever a team needed support, it's the Tiger basketball program, but that story is just getting started.
Call me old-fashioned, but I'd like to see these competitive squads stay sharp by attending more games, lending some support and picking up morale after a devastating loss. Somewhere along the line, some of these competitive squads have lost sight of the meaning of cheerleading: a person who leads spectators in traditional or formal cheering, especially at a pep rally or athletic event, according to dictionary.com.
I know that some squads still cheer at games, and that some of the new Section One rules makes if difficult to be at the games, particularly the one where teams are not permitted go to away games unless they are pre-approved by the home team A.D. As well, cheerleaders are not allowed to stunt and tumble on hardwood floors, so the girls can't really do the things that they enjoy most.
I understand the part about six to eight competitions a year, so the time involved is demanding and makes it difficult to practice and cheer at a few games a week and get ready for competitions at the same time. I get all of that, but I'd hate to see Section 1 cheerleaders lose sight of where they're needed most: On fields and gymnasiums from across the state.
If Section 1 can find a way to blend competitive cheerleading with old-fashioned pep, then and only then will I become "one" with the cheerleader again.
And won't my lovely wife have something to say about that. Please visit www.yourdirectrays.com to view Section 1 sports photo galleries.
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