Cheering everybody up

The walls of the gym echoed with the smack of feet landing from back handsprings as the Glendale Community College cheerleaders team practiced late on a recent evening.

Team members grunted and grimaced while trying to perfect their lifts.

“You’ve got to stay tight. You’ve got to keep your arms in,” Coach Jessica Moorehead called out. “Protect your body.”

Now in its fifth year, the cheerleaders squad is working hard to supply plenty of spirit at the college’s football and basketball games, while also gearing up for national cheer competitions.

Many of the team members dig deep into their own pockets to purchase uniforms and pay for cheer camps, but amid tight economic times, their finances are limited. Community sponsorships from local businesses and organizations have become even more important to the team’s continued growth and competitiveness, team organizers said.

During practice, nearly three dozen team members gather on thick blue mats, with male teammates hoisting their female counterparts high in the air.

Frank Molina lifted a girl, grasped her right foot with both hands, his arms extended straight above his head. She teetered trying to find her balance, but couldn’t hold the position and jumped down.

“Is anybody getting this?” Molina asked, looking around at the group with good-natured frustration.

Molina, 21, is a second-year student considering a career in criminal justice. Though male cheerleaders are sometimes the object of derision, Molina has no qualms about their role.

“We’re basically the foundation of the building,” he said. “The girls might look pretty in the air, but we’re the foundation.”

Although cheerleading doesn’t qualify as an official sport in many circuits, cheerleaders at Glendale Community College say the physical requirements are on par with many sports.

“It takes as much energy, endurance and dedication as any other sport does,” said Briana Castro, 18, a first-year business administration student.

The team’s mats are thanks to a $10,000 investment they were able to make thanks to their creative fundraising and the community donors.

“We’re completely self-sustaining,” said Moorehead, pointing to the team’s myriad activities each year to raise cash to purchase uniforms and participate in competitions.

She said contributions from local organizations play an integral role in keeping the team afloat.

“We definitely wouldn’t exist without our community,” she said.

The adrenaline-inducing thrill of competing regionally and nationally against bigger schools with more established cheerleading squads drives Moorehead and her team, but she said she’s also motivated to earn her best teammates cheer scholarships to four-year universities.

“I don’t care if I get first, fifth or ninth [place],” she said. “If a bunch of my kids go off to college, then I did my job.”

But as with any serious athletic endeavor, she admits they’d prefer more trophies for first or second place. An hour into their three-hour practice, a girl tried to spring off her teammate’s hands into a double twist, but her landing in Molina’s arms wasn’t quite polished.

Molina quietly dashed off to the restroom to wash off the blood that dribbled out of his nose. Within minutes, he was back on the floor, grinning and ready for the next stunt.

“It hurt, but oh well,” he said. “It happens here and there, but it’s how you deal with the situation, I guess.”