When I was sixteen years old I was a member of the Junior Varsity Cheerleading Team for Claremont High School in Southern California. I was your typical cheerleader in that I had a ready smile, some athletic and dance skills, and above all team spirit.
My family is the average “football family;” games are always playing during family gatherings, my uncle was the assistant coach for Grambling State University (an HBCU in Louisiana) for several years, plus my cousin played for the Seattle Seahawks in the early 1980’s and now his sons play for their high school and junior high teams. As for other sports, my Dad has been a fan of the Lakers since they were in Minnesota (hence why they’re called the Lakers…as in “Land of 10,000 Lakes”) and a cousin of mine had season tickets for the Kings. We’re quite the sporty sorts.
The way I chose to get involved was on the sidelines. In high school, there was a girl that played on the football team, but I’m a bit more “girly” and wanted to be involved in a different way. As cheerleaders, we had to learn everything about football and basketball so we would know the proper cheers to do, and how long they could be. We had to know how many downs and how many yards our team had, if we were playing offense or defense, what a “safety” is ,and whether it was a time out and we could perform or if someone was actually hurt and we should stay quiet.
I only cheered for one year, as I found French Club, hanging out with my friends, and applying to universities at the last minute more important and more fun than cheer. There was also some politics concerning our coach and assistant coach, which was also why I chose to quit. In hindsight I wish I stuck with it. Nowadays, Project Runway is my sport but I’ll never forget The Rules of the Game.
Photo Source: My Dad’s House