Countywide : Cheerleaders Star in This Big Game

It’s not just shaking pompons and yelling “Go, team!” anymore.

With national competitions and magazines devoted to cheerleading, it’s considered a sport by the 4,000 cheerleaders from more than 300 schools across the United States and Canada who descended Friday on the Anaheim Convention Center.

They’re here for the two-day, ninth annual USA Nationals Competition.

As in team sports, cheerleading has junior varsity and varsity levels. And there are the injured bench-warmers and teary-eyed teammates frustrated with their performances.

“These girls take it very seriously,” said Kenny Wardell, a spokesman for the United Spirit Assn., which sponsors the competition. “To them it’s a sport.”

The evidence is in the participants’ training, performance and attitude, Wardell said.

But compared to other sports, cheerleading involves a lot of glamorizing and accessorizing.

Friday, for example, many of the teen-agers’ heads were smothered in big pink foam curlers. They had been wearing them all day so their ponytails would sport springy curls.

They came with their best faces on--their smiles and make-up glowed for yards as they performed their high-spirited, brief routines.

Gestures have evolved from simple arm movements, tumbling and tossing, and standing on teammates’ shoulders in arabesques. Now there are soloists and props, including tennis racquets and stuffed animals.

The complexity of the shows requires work and patience--cheerleaders from Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo said their coach trains them for 25 hours each week.

To compete in this weekend’s event, the Trabuco Hills squad first had to qualify in a regional competition. This is the squad’s first trip to the national competition.

For 16-year-old squad member Shanna Alexander, dancing is the best part of being a cheerleader. Like many competitive athletes, she said that while waiting to perform she would “worry” and “see what the competition is doing.”

Becky Harkins, one of Alexander’s teammates, could not compete Friday. She hurt her knee skiing a month ago and the squad has had to re-choreograph some of its routines.

But Harkins--with a big brace on her leg--suited up in her blue and white sweater and short skirt anyway, to support her teammates.

Their slogan: “Blue, gray and white, let’s fight, all right!”

According to former cheerleading judge Paul Marks, athletics are important in deciding who wins. Uniformity and strength of the movements, choreography, and recovery from any mistakes also count, he said.

Tonight, the winning junior varsity team from Friday’s competition will give an exhibition, and the top varsity finalists will compete.

Winners will take home trophies and prizes from sponsors.