UC High proudly boasts about its strong athletic programs. UC is well known for its powerful Football Team, hard-hitting Baseball Team, agile Basketball Team, and swift Track Team. However, some groups of dedicated and hardworking athletes are seriously overlooked and deserve the same recognition as these other well-known sports. From the midst of this classic athletic debate, the UC High Color Guard and UC High Cheer Squad prove themselves to be worthy of the title of “sports.”
According to Principal Jeff Olivero, color guard and cheer are not considered, by the district, to be actual sports, but are rather deemed merely “fulfilling physical education requirement activities.” For the past two years, cheer and color guard were not even given PE credit. This year, they were finally awarded PE credit, after many petitions and letters to the School Board.
According to an online dictionary, a sport is defined as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature.” Cheer and color guard fulfill both of these requirements (dictionary.com).
Cheer Advisor Dana Macatantan said, “The types of stunts and pyramids that we perform these days are much more difficult, involving twisting and spinning. We condition them with exercises that help develop the muscles that will enable them to do their stunts.” According to Macatantan, over the past four years, the Cheer Squad has competed in Palm Springs, Anaheim, Las Vegas, San Diego and Long Beach. “Three years ago we competed against high school teams from Canada and Texas and won [as] National Champions,” said Macatantan.
According to the UC High Music website, Winter Guard, Color Guard’s winter season, spends 20 to 25 hours a week practicing on a 50 by 70 foot area spinning a three-and-a-half pound rifle, a sabre or a six foot flag. This demands precision, rhythm, coordination, performance, strength and balance (uchsmusic.com). According to Senior Ajae Reyes, the team competes with Marching Band for field season and competes alone for the winter season. “Color guard is the sport of the arts,” said Senior Roxanne Galibut.
Some may say color guard and cheer are not considered sports because, although they are competitive, their main purpose is to display art and entertain. Band Director Cameron Brown points out that color guard and cheer are competitive arts and should not be among the ranks of sports such as football and baseball. Art or not, they are athletic.
Figure-skating, gymnastics, and synchronized swimming are all Olympic sports that have musical and artistic aspects. They too could be considered as competitive arts, and according to the official Olympic sports website, they are among the ranks of sports such as basketball, soccer, wrestling and hockey (olympic.org). These sports have been well accepted in the Olympic community. Not only are they intensely competitive, but they are spectacles of strength, grace, and precision.
The fact that cheer and color guard are not considered sports because they are entertaining, is unfair. Sports are a great source of entertainment. According to the official National Football League website, Superbowl XLVI drew in a record-breaking 111 million television audience (nfl.com). Is that not entertainment? Many look forward to watching popular sports events such as the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, and the NBA Finals.
Cheer and color guard are competitive sports that require strength, coordination and teamwork. They deserve more than the meager title of “fulfilling PE requirement activities.” For those who still disagree and consider color guard and cheer as “girly” or “inferior,” try spinning rifle or doing a split leap in the air. It isn’t as easy as it looks, trust me.