Competitive Cheer and Pom Pon: Fast-Rising Girls Sports

Competitive cheer and pom pon are catching hold nationwide as top girls sports, as demonstrated at Ithaca (Mich.) High School in the heart of the state's lower peninsula.

A basketball athlete passes and shoots. A volleyball athlete digs and spikes. A pom pon athlete dances and does splits. A competitive cheer athlete tumbles and performs stunts.

During the past two seasons, Ithaca's girls won state championships in pom pon. The cheer team was third in the state a year ago, and was preparing in late February for another tournament run.

"We have to show that intensity for three-and-a-half minutes and we don't get any breaks," explains Jill Sandro, the school's competitive pom pon coach. "Instead of 14 girls each doing their own version, we need to have 14 girls doing the exact same thing at the exact same time."

Jill Davenport, Ithaca High's competitive cheer coach, gives a similar explanation.

"Our skills include tumbling, stunts, handsprings and jumps," Davenport says. "Some of the girls participate in the other sports, and absolutely, they say that this is the toughest sport."

Fast-Growing Girls Sports

The Michigan High School Athletic Association reports that 326 of the state's 520 high schools had competitive cheer teams last season, more than double the count of 148 at the turn of the millennium, making this the fastest-growing girls sport. Pom pon supporters are working to make similar inroads.

A transformation is taking place from the era when cheerleading and pom pon participation were viewed as venues for subservient girls to support the dominant and heroic boys.

"Many people still see cheerleading as the girls on the sideline who bounce up and down and clap, which is not what is happening at our level," Davenport declares.

Jill Sandro (the former Jill McDonald) is a 1997 Ithaca High graduate who was a freshman when the school captured its fourth consecutive pom pon state crown, and then the team won another during her junior year.

Jill Davenport (the former Jill Pratt) is a 1998 product of a nearby Breckenridge High School competitive cheer program that has won seven state championships.

Competitive cheer is the more established sport, sanctioned in 1994 by the Michigan High School Athletic Association, and a larger number of schools are involved. Pom pon enthusiasts hope to follow in those footsteps with the MHSAA, but for now they must rely on competitions organized through various private companies that each declare their own champions.

Starting in Middle School

Davenport says her competitive cheer squad's excellence results from many years of practice.

"The core of the team is juniors and we've been working together since the sixth or seventh grades," Davenport says. "You need to have a group of girls who want to work."

Sandro agrees.

"There are higher expectations than when I was in school," Sandro says. "There is more of a demand nowadays to come up with something new, something flashy, something that makes the crowd go 'ahhh' and really catches their eye."

Competitive pom pon and competitive cheer are considered winter sports, but the requirements are so rigorous that practice begins in the early fall.

In sports such as tennis or golf, or cross country or track, athletes can achieve individual honors. Even in team sports such as volleyball and basketball, some of the focus is on individual postseason honors. Competitive cheer and pom pon are different, coaches and participants say.

"This is a sport where the concept of team is huge," Davenport explains. "In competitive cheer, you can't have one outstanding player. It's as a whole. What they do, they do alike."

Some Fans Are Still Learning

Still, the push for public acceptance (and understanding) of these sports is ongoing. Davenport recalls a news report last season in which the author noted that Ithaca High's girls "got to wear their new hair pieces," but failed to mention that the squad won the competition.

"The competitive cheer team must perform three routines in front of a panel of state certified judges. The rounds must consist of motions, floor formations, jumps, vocals, tumbling and stunting," Davenport says, asserting that the sport really has nothing to do with hair pieces or hair styles.

"The rigorous sport of cheer has left the sideline setting, and is something that female athletes have become more and more interested in."

SOURCES

Reporter interview with Jill Sandro

Reporter interview with Jill Davenport

Michigan High School Athletic Association