There is quite a pervasive disinterest in varsity sports on this campus, and I think much of it has to do with being school spirited out after all those mandatory pep rallies we attended in high school.
Come to remedy the situation here at UR is the cheerleading club, inspiring enthusiasm without the forceful tactics popular with Adolf Hitler.
For me there was always something a little too Nazi-esque about those pep rallies in high school, and seeing my rather rotund principal bouncing around like a hypnotic lava lamp makes me wonder if the Fhrer himself ever did jazzercize.
Oh, but I digress.
Though the football season ended Nov. 6, the cheerleading squad is all revved up and ready to go for UR men’s basketball beginning this Friday.
The cheerleading season starts right along football in September and runs until the end of the basketball season in March. They hold tryouts twice a year, once in September for football and again in November for basketball.
Last Thursday’s tryouts for basketball resulted in further expansion of the team to nine girls and two guys, and prospects look good for the rest of the year.
“Tryouts went very well,” Team President and senior Shari Cuomo said. “We are very excited about the upcoming season.”
The squad encourages those interested – both female and male – of all skill levels to join, but does require that everyone go through tryouts.
Be prepared to trade in your pompoms and upgrade your literacy past reciting the alphabet because you will definitely be in for some rigorous routines and dramatic stunts.
Practicing Mondays and Thursdays from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at Goergen Athletic Center, the team, led by captain and junior Chelsea Fiduccia, sets aside some Saturdays for weight training as well as those days they will cheerlead at a home varsity game.
It has been over two and a half years since they last participated in a competition. In March of 2002, the squad went to a national competition in Indianapolis and placed an impressive second.
“We may return to competitions some time in the future, but it probably will not be this season,” Cuomo said.
The squad has taken on the dual responsibility of raising school spirit by encouraging attendance to UR basketball and football home games while improving their performance of their own team.
So go check out a UR basketball game – you get twice the talented teams in the same amount of time and, unlike in high school, no one’s twisting your arm or forcing you to attend another prep rally.
Troyer can be reached at mtroyer@campustimes.org.
