UCLA lost to Texas 49-20 at the Rose Bowl.
They’re at every football game and every basketball game. They practice and work out all through the week, getting better at what they do. They travel for road games, and the camera is sure to pick up on them.
No, not the players or the coaches. Certainly not the referees. Not the fans and not the commentators.
The cheerleaders.
Things start during the summer, with two morning workouts and three practices a week. Then comes boot camp during August, which is an all-day intensive training camp for an entire week.
During the year, the load goes to three practices and only one workout. Oh, they also have to go to all home games for football and basketball, and six people go to each road game.
All this, and yet the cheer team gets no scholarships, no access to athletics resources like trainers, priority enrollment or training facilities, and no use of medical facilities or academic resources.
“I think everyone wishes we were a little more appreciated on campus,” team co-captain and third-year economics student Sarah said. “I don’t think anyone on cheer expects to have people automatically recognize us around campus. We’re not the football team, we’re not the basketball team. But I wish we could get a little bit more, at least a trainer for when we get hurt.”
For a workload that sounds remarkably like that of a scholarship athlete, the cheer squad gets surprisingly little support. Is it worth it?
“Oh, it’s definitely worth it,” Sarah said.
Hold off on the pity party, folks. These folks choose to cheer, and do it because they love it. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be on the field every weekend.
“It’s been more than worth it,” co-captain Jordan, a third-year computational and systems biology student, said.
What makes it so worthwhile? According to both Sarah and Jordan, it’s the relationships.
“It has to be the sense of family that we have with each other. … All of us on the squad get to be pretty close, and they’re some of my best friends, and I really, really think that was the most valuable part of it for me,” Jordan said.
“Being on a team again, the teamwork aspect, being close with small groups of people, definitely attracted me to cheer. And just the friendship aspect; you get so close on this team,” Sarah said.
This isn’t a friendship like what you would find on other sports teams. Soccer teams, football teams, volleyball teams ““ they all develop friendships and relationships through the year. It’s part of being a team. With cheer though, there is an added element.
On the soccer team, your teammates don’t throw you 15 feet in the air while you do a back flip and then land in the outstretched arms of those still on the ground. That is a whole new level of trust.
“The girls have to have a tremendous amount of trust in us to know that when they go up in the air, … they will come down safely and they won’t hurt themselves,” Jordan said. “Some of the stuff we’re doing can be really dangerous, if not done properly. There is a tremendous amount of trust, but that’s also part of the beauty of it.”
All those cool moves, the cupies, the diamond heads, the rewinds, that’s what the cheer team does.
The Rose Bowl, Pauley Pavilion ““ that’s where they get to do it.
“I never thought I was going to be on the football field at the Rose Bowl, cheering on the Bruins,” Sarah said. “And things like the last men’s home game (in old Pauley) for basketball … being on the floor, with Tyler Trapani scoring that last basket. That moment will probably be forever engraved in my brain.”
Being a part of sports glory is the dream of uncounted masses of people. It’s why fantasy football exists, why UCLA has bountiful intramural sports leagues, and why adult men play the latest version of Madden NFL with their other adult friends. For the cheer team, it’s a reality.
Former cheer captain Jason Wiguna, a fourth-year physical science student, knows this from both sides of the fence.
After his year as captain, Wiguna decided to leave the team to focus on academics in his fourth year.
“I’ve sat in the stands every home game this year, and even painted my chest on the cold Saturday night against Washington State. But being in the stands is very different than being on the field,” Wiguna said. “The whole atmosphere on the field is awesome and cannot be duplicated.”
Luckily for Wiguna, he gets another shot to be on the field. For the UCLA homecoming game on Oct. 29 against California, former cheerleaders will be invited back on the field to cheer on UCLA once again.
But even though Wiguna and fellow cheer alumni get another opportunity to be on the field, it’s still all about the relationships.
“My old teammates are really special to me,” Wiguna said. “I’m excited to be back on the field with them. It’s a homecoming in more than one way for me.”
Maybe it’s fitting that cheer isn’t an NCAA team or a full member of the athletics department. Clearly, this isn’t simply a team.
It’s family.