[CheerVeteran]

Some Pep Clubs are great. I think ours was awesome last year. We had teachers helping. It was clean, but edgy enough to be a crowd effort.

However, to lead, the cheerleaders have to be respected all aronud and frankly they are not. They act like cheerleading is a job and they complain about how they hate it. Maybe they would be happier if they didn't try out.

That is really sad to hear! The cheerleaders are supposed to be out there to do just that: LEAD CHEERS! They are supposed to get the students, faculty, parents, etc. excited about the games, and lead the effort to get behind all of the players and coaches. When you put a bunch of students together cheering against another team, there are always going to be a few choice words or chants that emerge. That is just the competitive nature of students when it comes to sports. They will do anything that they feel will give them an edge! The cheerleaders can obviously not prevent students from saying those types of things. HOWEVER, they CAN get the students involved by setting the tone for what games should be like before the game even begins. For the sake of the argument, let's say that the game is on a Friday....a big game...a big district rivalry, let's imagine. The cheerleaders, along with a Pep Club if your respective school is lucky to have one, should create "Spirit Week" for the entire next week to build school spirit and excitement for the game. All students should be given notice about what each day is designated as so they can participate and exhibit their school pride! If you focus more on having pride in YOUR school, and not necessarily bashing the other school, then students will be more likely to want to cheer for their team rather than cheer against the competitor. (Oh yes, there is a difference! Just consult the KAPOS in-game judging sheet!) This school spirit should snowball into Friday: the day of the big game AND the big pep rally. This IS a cheerleader's/squad's responsibility. If arrangements have not been made to have a pep rally, it is a cheerleader's responsibility to go the principal to ask for 15 minutes, a small chunk of the day, to rally school spirit for the game and possibly give students who may otherwise not even consider going to watch the game a reason to reconsider. If you go into the game after an entire week of "I'm so lucky I go to -----!", then you're more likely to be able to lead the students in that direction. Cheerleaders should start cheering a great deal before game time in order to gear the student section in the direction that they want them to go. It's alot harder for the students to get out of hand with slander and low-blows toward the other team if you beat them to the punch in cheering for your team. After all, if they have pride in their school and the players on the court, it would be a no-brainer for them to decide whether to yell something awful at an opposing player, or to yell something positive at one of their player's that could help pump them up to play a great game. Wow...that was my SoapBox for today, :redboxer: but I can't help but get upset when I hear about cheerleaders not doing the job they signed up for!