After many patient years, cheerleading will make its debut amongst the panel of C.I.F. sports starting in the 2017-2018 school year. Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 949, presented by Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), on Oct. 7 to classify competition cheer as a C.I.F. sport.
C.I.F. is currently striving for a United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Title IX compliance designation for competition cheer. 117 out of the 583 schools in the Southern Section must already play the sport in order to compete in the championship event.
C.I.F. hopes to develop guidelines that schools can implement while meeting the standards of Title IX. Starting in the 2017 school year, cheer team sizes, practices, try-out dates and choreography will be compromised according to the restrictions placed by C.I.F. for performances.
“Cheerleaders are getting the credit we deserve. It’s pretty frustrating that we are perceived as typical cheerleaders who buy the football players gifts. Every day we throw, lift and flip for two to three hours and sweat and train just as much as anyone else.”
— Senior Maria Manjarrez
“I don’t think this change will make our practices more rigorous because our practices are always challenging, but it will definitely encourage our team to push ourselves harder and try new challenging stunts.”
— Junior Mercylia Susantono
“I think cheer becoming a C.I.F. sport is a huge step in the positive direction. As a four-year Varsity Softball player, I can without a doubt argue that cheer requires just as much physical and mental strength as any other sport.”
— Senior Bailee Weisz
“It’s just nice to finally have people around us appreciate and accept all the hard work we do. It is so exciting and such a great feeling because cheer takes a lot of hard work and dedication. It deserves to be accepted as a sport.”
— Junior Lauryn Torres