by Eve Mager

Created on: May 27, 2008

I began cheerleading in my freshman year of high school. The very first team I was on was an all girls team. We cheered, we danced, and we stunted. We thought we were great - until we all watched the local University cheerleading team that had a full roster of both female and male cheerleaders. The addition of males to the cheerleading squad added elements such as power, height, and strength to the stunting and it also added more flirtatious elements to the dancing and some deep powerful vocals to the cheers themselves.

Male cheerleaders have often been ridiculed and made fun of by other students. This fact has unfortunately discouraged many young men from cheerleading which is traditionally seen as a girls sport. But the more one watches cheerleading the more you become aware of how vital men are to a cheerleading squad. On female only cheerleading teams the stunts are good - there are fulls, liberties, basket tosses, and arabesques But tall thin woman can only do so much when compared to a muscular male. When male cheerleaders throw a basket toss the flier travels much higher into the air as the men have much larger muscles to toss with. The arabesques and liberties are that much more stable because men have that much more muscle to stabilize with.

In my sophomore year of high school my teammates and I finally convinced two males to join out team. The results were amazing. The two men were quickly positioned as our key bases and we were able to do more complex stunts, higher pyramids and try stunts that we had never attempted before. The males added stability and endurance that our stunts had been lacking and they were the most enthusiastic of all of us. And once we even put on of the men up in the stunt which was a real crowd pleaser.

While stunting shows the biggest difference between all female and coed cheerleading teams other more subtle difference are noticed within the team as well. Cheers over all are often performed with more stunts included in the chant lines. The stunts performed with the cheers adds a visual effect that captures and holds interest. The harmony of a male voice syncs nicely with the higher pitched female voices. And the dancing is a combination of two choreographed roles - not just a single routine for the woman.

And of course there is the added benefit that the female fans now have something to look at as well.

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