ssess ‘strength, agility, and grace,’” the court wrote at the time. “Similarly, we do not foreclose the possibility that the activity, with better organization and defined rules, might someday warrant recognition as a varsity sport. But, like the district court, we conclude that the record evidence shows that ‘that time has not yet arrived.’”
For CIF and the state, one of the biggest steps moving forward now is getting compliance for cheerleading within the boundaries of Title IX.
“One of the major goals in this process will be to develop guidelines for competitive cheer programs that our member schools can implement, meet the standards and be compliant with Title IX as defined by the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights,” wrote the CIF’s Executive Director Roger Blake in a statement.
Another big fight for cheerleading has been a slanted view of cheerleading. What’s the initial perception of cheerleading? Probably the image of cheerleaders on the under Friday night lights across the U.S or cheerleaders at professional sporting events. That is not a sport and no one would argue that it is.
What is a sport is competitive cheer, a collection of teams performing highly skilled routines in roughly two-and-a-half minute increments and receiving scores by a panel of judges. Theses competitions are plentiful across the country among both school-based teams and all-star teams, cheerleading groups not affiliated with a school, essentially a club team.
But what Bill 949 has outlined to be rolled out in 2017 is not this. In Section 1, Article (b), Bill 949 describes sport cheerleading as follows:
“For the purposes of this section, ‘competition cheer’ means a sport in which teams participate in direct, head-to-head competition with one another using an objective scoring system.”
Competitive cheer is not done on a head-to-head basis and uses a subjective scoring system.
“That’s not what we have as what we have right now,” says Lauren Hysen the well-regarded cheer coach at Yucaipa High School. “We have a subjective score sheet. That’s a completely different activity.”
There is still plenty of time for the wording and definition of CIF cheerleading to be changed or altered, but at the moment it stands as a new creation.
But uncertainly aside, the news brings positives, particularly cheerleading gaining more attention.
“Ultimately I’m very excited that attention is being brought to the sport,” says David Kirschner, founder of the California High School Cheer and Dance Association (CHSCDA). “The hope that this bill or another bill help increase the opportunity for coaches and athletes to be put in a safer environment.”
“The biggest push for us is safety for our cheerleaders. Proper training and such,” says Hysen. “That’s what we would love to see happening.”
Safety is obviously a big issues in all sports, but it generates a lot of headlines with cheerleading. A 2012 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that 65 percent of all direct catastrophic injuries in females at the high school level and 70.8 percent at the college level came from cheerleading between 1982 and 2009. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1994 to 2004 the number of emergency room visits due to cheerleading injuries increased to more than 28,000 from 16,000.
Part of that stems from lack of proper equipment, i.e. mats and the lack of certified coaches across the sport. More attention can help lead to improvements in both aspects to make for a safer product.
The next two years will be a very interesting journey for cheerleading. Will it gain Title IX compliance? Will Bill 949’s definition of cheerleading change?
While those answers are unknown, one thing is clear. The debate will carry on.