No Experience Necessary

Every year, we recruit many athletes who have never seen or heard of cheerleaders other than those that dance at NFL games. Those cheerleaders and our team have very little in common (what we do is like a combination of circus acrobatics and gymnastics). Because this type of recruit makes up such a large portion of our team, we will address them first.

If you are like most of our recruits, you are hoping to remain physically active throughout university, and maintain or improve your fitness level. Cheerleading at our level focuses on a balance of endurance, strength and flexibility (less for men). This balance allows most of our team members to continue their involvement in other sports at the recreational level, and for the most part improves overall health and fitness.

What do you put in?

We expect our team members to attend all scheduled practices and games. Most will also learn skills outside of practice time at gym clubs, and at optional stunting practices. This is only because it is thrilling to learn such impressive skills so quickly.

Many members also put in a certain amount of physical conditioning like stretching, cardio and jump training for girls; weight training and cardio for guys. We don't demand workouts (though we do have a team workout slot in the PAC gym) but every team member eventually feels obligated to step up and do more. This generally requires that their base athleticism goes up before attempting the new skills, and so we have a cycle of getting in progressively better shape over your time on the team.

What do you get back?

A higher fitness level, a sense of community with other training athletes, and maybe even new trick you can do at the beach.

Tumblers and Gymnasts

Tumbling makes up a large part of the scoring system in cheerleading, making it a huge asset when trying out. If you can tumble, we absolutely want to see you at a tryout! What we give back to the tumblers out there is a sprung floor, crash mats, and devices to help you up your level in tumbling. Tumblers also are generally coordinated, making them ideal candidates to learn stunting and basket tosses.

Ex-gymnasts, this is your place to come be part of a team, and meet some people who train like you did throughout gymnastics.

Women

If you can't tumble, there is still a place for small flexible female athletes on the team. Often dancers, rhythmic gymnasts, non-competitive gymnasts, figure skaters, and some other athletes choose cheerleading for another chance to perform, and to train for a goal.

Stunting, basket tosses and pyramids all benefit from having small but strong and flexible cheerleaders. With relative strength, they are able to move their body in the air, and maintain a rigid posture which is important.

The coed training environment is a unique experience, limited usually to pairs sports (tennis, badminton, figure skating), but is often one of the things most enjoyed by athletes in cheerleading.

What we expect from our female athletes is covered in the Tryouts section.