Cheerleading, 2

 
 
 

Vocabulary

 

cheer	ancient	heating up
lose (2)	initiate	spectator
streak	reinvent	dominate
all-star	athletic	execute (2)
squad	private	widespread
gain	sideline	competition
train	variety	grow/grew/grown
allow	complex	year-round
focus	strict	specialize
stunt	combined	criteria
judge	invent	cartwheel
hire	heart (2)	make a difference
end up	attitude	bad/worse/worst
ethic	respect	work ethic
team	amazing	all the time
elite	nervous	impressed
expect	at once	associated
double	announce	adrenaline rush
go away	mistake	floor (2)
excited	butterfly	butterflies in my stomach

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Video, one

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

For most of its history, cheerleading has been a sideline activity. In Ancient Greece, spectators cheered for runners in races held during the Olympic Games.

In 1898, John Campbell, a student at the university of Minnesota, initiated the first organized cheer at a football game to help pull the team out of a losing streak.

By the 1920s, university cheerleaders began to incorporate gymnastics and tumbling into their cheers.

A sport originally dominated by men, cheerleading quickly reinvented itself after World War Two.

In the 1970s and 80s, cheerleaders began executing more athletic moves, adding gymnastics and tosses to their routines.

In the 1990s, private all-star squads began gaining widespread attention, and competitions began heating up.

All-star cheerleaders began training in private clubs, not associated with a school. In 2000, private cheer gyms in the United States grew from 250 to more than 2,000.

Unlike high school cheerleading, all-star cheerleading allows for specialized, year-round training, more complex stunts and a strict focus on cheerleading as a performance.

Squads are judged on a variety of criteria, including tumbling, tosses, stunts, pyramids and dance.

For these athletes, cheering is more than a sport: it’s their life.

Aubrey Ellis: I started cheering when I was eight. I started Pop Warner, and then I decided that I really liked the competition part of it.

So I came to All-Stars.

I couldn’t even do a cartwheel; now I can do round-offs, carts and fly-in-the-air.

Coach Sue Stanczyk: We can teach anyone how to cheer. I mean that’s why we’ve been hired to coach. We can teach anybody how to cheer. We can teach them everything. We teach them to tumble. We can teach them a stunt.

But we can’t teach them to love it. And if they have the right heart and the right attitude, it makes all the difference in the world.

Coach Kelly Vergamini: Some of our worse cheerleaders came in, they would have never made an all-star squad. They came in and ended up being the BEST because they tried so hard and they listened to everything the coaches told and fixed everything.

We told them they needed to fix—and they ended up begin the best.

Team member Randi Flansburg: The difference between a good and bad cheerleader is WORK ETHIC. If you’re a good worker and you work hard—all the time. And everyone sees that, then they really respect you.

If you don’t work hard, you’re not a good cheerleader. If you do work hard, you’re an amazing cheerleader.

Team member Maurice Jones: I used to think cheerleading was for girls. Now I see cheerleading more than just for girls; it’s a team sport, just like football, basketball, hockey. Cheerleading is not a one person sport—it’s a team thing.

Coach Nicole Barzee: The competition is very hard. It’s getting harder year by year. You have to double everything to be part of the top elite.

When I first started coaching in cheerleading, it was impressive to have a backhand spring if you had a top girl.

Now everything is getting difficult, not just the tumbling, but the stunts. Backhand stunts and tuck are expected, and you need full-twists and front tumbling, not just the simple back hand spring or back tuck.

When I was in high school, you did a cheer and then you did a tumblings section of a routine. Now everything is combined into one and then there is stuff happening all over the floor; not just cheer and not just stunts…it’s all everything at once.

Coach Kelly Vergamini: Right before you are about to go on the floor, right before they are about to announce your name, it’s the most nervous I ever am.

Once you go on the floor, it all goes away. Right before I think, “what if I make a mistake?” Then the adrenaline rush is building up and you’re getting real excited and you have a little butterflies in your stomach, but then you do a really good job.

 

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 Questions

Soccer (Football). Cheerleading is a modern sport. Is this true or false?

Volleyball. Have females always dominated cheerleading?

Basketball. Is cheerleading always connected to football and basketball?

Tennis. Has cheerleading changed over the years? How has cheerleading changed over the years?

Ice-Hockey. Anyone can become a top cheerleader — they only have to be very beautiful. Is this right or wrong? What is the secret to winning and succeeding in cheerleading?

Wrestling. Does cheerleading consist only of dancing movements?

American Football. The cheerleaders are nervous in the beginning, but then it becomes exciting. Is this correct or wrong?
 
 
Bicycling. Is there cheerleading in your city? Is cheerleading popular?

Rock Climbing. My classmates or friends would like to do cheerleading. Yes or no?

Skiing. There are many dance troupes, clubs, and organizations for children, teens and adults.

Lifting Weights. Are dance and other talent performance, displays and shows popular?

Swimming. What will happen in the future?