The varsity cheerleading team first adopted male cheerleaders in the 2012-2013 winter season. Shelly Reathaford, the head of the cheerleading program and coach of the varsity team, wanted to incorporate boys into the program in order to provide a challenge for both herself and athletes. Not only has the introduction of male cheerleaders provided challenges, it has also opened many doors to both the program and the athletes by furthering their cheer experience.
This season is the first season that the varsity cheerleading team has been co-ed throughout the entire season. With four returning males and two newcomers, this year’s team is comprised of 19 girls and six boys, the most boys it has ever had.
The males have brought many different factors to the program throughout the past few months.
“The males have affected the team dynamics, in a good way. They have brought a calming presence to the girls, as they handle competition in a different manner than high school girls. They have also brought physicality to the team. Due to their strength level, we are able to work on harder stunts throughout practice as we can increase stunt repetitions, allowing us to master stunts quicker than we have been able do so in the past years,” said Reathaford.
After seven months into the cheerleading season, the boys and team have undoubtedly grown closer and have also grown in their stunting and tumbling skills. Most of the males and females had little experience in co-ed stunting and struggled with difficult, yet basic skills.Now, all males and females on the team are working on collegiate level stunts.
Not only have the males impacted the team and their fellow athletes significantly, cheerleading has also had a great impact on the males as well.
“Cheerleading has helped me develop an incredible amount of trust in my teammates to do what they are supposed to do, and a sense of self-responsibility to do what I’m supposed to do. It has created a whole new world of networking and opportunities,” said Vincent Lopez, a senior on the varsity cheerleading team. Lopez joined the cheerleading program his sophomore year, the year that males were first introduced, and has stuck with it ever since.
Andrew May, a senior on the varsity co-ed cheer team, was one of the two newcomers this season. He had almost no experience with cheerleading when he first tried out but has come to love every aspect of the sport.
“I absolutely love the team aspect of cheerleading. There are times when you perform where you have to have complete blind faith in your teammates to do their job, and that builds a ton of trust between us. I think cheerleading may be the closest to a perfect sport that anybody has ever gotten,” said May.
The females on the team have also been affected greatly by the adoption of males into what is more commonly viewed as a girl-only program.
“[The boys] push the team to work harder and try a variety of new things. They always have positive attitudes and help me keep my head up when practices don’t go well. With the boys on our team, we can go beyond the limits that are set for an all-girl team,” said Carlie Sellers, a junior on the varsity co-ed cheerleading team.
Although their competition season is over, the hard work doesn’t stop there for the varsity co-ed cheerleaders; in addition to practicing every day, they will continue to cheer for both the girls and boys varsity basketball teams as the teams end their regular season games and bounce into playoffs.
The main focus for the cheerleaders now is learning and developing new skills in order to prepare each athlete for the following year, whether they are trying out at the college or high school level. Each athlete has come a long way since August and continues to improve every day.
“The level of growth of our team has been really fun to watch. I remember feeling floored at our performance at the NCHSAA State Championship [in November]. When I compare that routine to our Wake County competition routine [in January], it doesn’t even look like the same team! Everyone has gained skills, everyone pushes one another to be better at every practice… everyday,” said Reathaford.
As an extremely long and successful season comes to an end, Reathaford and the cheerleaders are already preparing for next season with many difficult and exciting skill ideas up their sleeves. Hoping to maintain and build an ever stronger varsity co-ed team, the Leesville varsity cheerleaders will definitely be something to watch for over the years to come.
