Cheering Up My Community by Haley

Cheering Up My Community by Haley - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

I am a cheerleader. But, in my community this sport is not available as much as it should be. Cheerleading takes hard work and dedication. We throw dangerous stunts every day and we smile through it. Cheerleading has difficult choreography and no matter what happens on the mat every single person has to show confidence. In my community cheerleading is not offered as a sport until the high school level, this is a major setback. In other schools kids start cheering at young ages and by the time they enter high school they are at a higher advantage. Cheerleaders are often not respected as the athletes they are. It is an ongoing question of whether or not cheerleading should be considered a sport. As someone who spends hours every day practicing and perfecting a routine, down to each footstep I can assure you this is a sport.
I see aspiring cheerleaders in my community often but there is not much they can do. There is no way for them to achieve their cheerleading goals until high school. But, myself and other cheerleaders decided to help make a difference. We helped to coach elementary school children in our community for eight weeks. During this time aspiring cheerleaders could get a sense of what the sport was like. These eight weeks flew by quickly but we were already beginning to see the kids develop their skills and this was amazing to watch.
I was always shy growing up and this caused me to have a lot of social anxiety. I had trouble making friends and big groups of people terrified me. Eating lunch in the cafeteria was something I just could not do, so I spent many lunches with teachers. My social anxiety continued when I was in high school until my junior year. This is when I joined the cheerleading team and took a huge step outside my comfort zone. As a cheerleader I spend a lot of time performing in front of people, at football games, basketball games, and in our competitions. This sport allowed me to become a more outgoing person and now I love the spotlight. Many children have problems with being shy and this can make school very difficult. This sport allows those who participate to gain new confidence in themselves that they never knew they had. My cheerleading team decided we should do a cheerleading clinic and gather more interested kids. We had children from kindergarten all the way up to eighth grade come to our clinic and spend a day learning about the sport, it was most definitely a success.
As the captain of my cheerleading team I am able to do what I love and see new people join and over time develop skills, as well as confidence. As a community we do not accept cheerleading as we should, but because of this I was able to make a difference for aspiring cheerleaders. Seeing so many kids interested in this sport and working to develop their skills warms my heart and I hope one day my community as well as many others embrace cheerleading and soon there will be no question to whether or not it is a sport, the answer will be clear.