Cheer!

Reviewed By Stuart Nachbar
 

Last week, as research for a new book, I attended the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Association boys and girls basketball finals at Penn State. Sitting courtside near the spirit squads and cheerleaders was an eye-popping experience I had never gone through in my non-athletic high school days. The quality of play, as well as the quality of cheering was beyond my expectations. 

I never got to know any cheerleaders in high school outside of school and I never met any who cheered for the universities where I received my undergraduate and graduate degree. I just thought they were in a different world, and that I would only be an alien presence inside it. 

Cheer! by Kate Torgovnick, a former journalist for Jane magazine introduced me to the inner sanctum of competitive college cheerleading. Cheer! follows three college cheerleading squads: Southern University, Stephen F. Austin State University and the University of Memphis in their quests for a national cheerleading championship. 

In Torgovnick’s story, it is interesting that colleges become confused as to whether cheerleaders are athletes or entertainers. There are anecdotes in Cheer! about split scholarships and cheerleaders asked to support revenue sports that their schools do not invite them to cheer in. And while cheerleaders are subordinated to the athletes in the events they do participate, they must raise their own money, or rely on their competitive association—the NCAA does not recognize cheerleading as a sport—to go to cheerleading competitions. 

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