{"id":1035,"date":"2018-12-07T18:55:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T18:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/sweatmag\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2019-05-22T17:59:22","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T17:59:22","slug":"athlete-by-nature-cheerleader-by-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/athlete-by-nature-cheerleader-by-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Athlete by nature, cheerleader by choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ross Lopes <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

For almost four decades, David-Lee Tracey \u2013 or \u201cTrace\u201d – has been coaching cheerleading. He was a cheerleader for six years. Now, he owns Power Cheer Gym in London, Ontario and coaches the Western Mustangs cheerleading team. Fanshawe College students approached him years ago and asked if he could find them a coach for their team. After many years of saying no to coaching them himself, there was an opening at his gym.  He decided to give them a try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was 11 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Amanda Wyrzykowski is held up by Michelle O’Shea and teammates practicing at the Power Cheer Gym \u2014 owned by Coach David-Lee Tracey \u2014 in London, Ont. (Photo by Ross Lopes)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Now, Fanshawe is only college in Ontario that offers their students cheerleading as a sport. However, Coach Trace says the team is not associated with the athletics department of the school. Western University\u2019s team, on the other hand, is \u2014 and Western isn\u2019t the only Ontario university that offers cheerleading as a sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn no way does cheerleading have to be associated with football, there is very little relation in this point of time.”<\/p>– David-Lee Tracey, Cheerleading coach<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to Cheerleading Canada Inc., 25 universities offer cheerleading as a sport \u2014seven of them in Ontario \u2014 as opposed to only three Ontario colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trace says one way to boost the profile of collegiate cheerleading would be to have more clubs involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are cheerleading clubs, hundreds and hundreds of them around the country that are very robust and are great training centers,\u201d Coach Trace says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Trace says the clubs don\u2019t always recognize college teams as viable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know one of the bigger problems that the clubs have is that they will say \u2018Hey, we don\u2019t have the space, we\u2019re full [all afternoon]\u2019, and say, \u2018We can\u2019t. We\u2019d like to, but we can\u2019t,\u2019\u201d Trace explains. \u201cI made it a priority at our gym to make sure that Fanshawe College had space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two sides to cheerleading: competitive cheerleading and sideline cheerleading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mario Carito is currently one of the stunt team captains for the CFL Toronto Argonauts cheerleaders, and was a Humber Hawks cheerleader for three years. He has experienced both styles of cheer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompetition [cheerleading], we would practice our skills, work on our timing, work on being in sync and that\u2019s how we are scored in competitions,\u201d Carito explains. \u201cIn sideline cheerleading, we keep our skills basic since there is a lot of repetition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term \u201cskills\u201d in cheerleading refers to the moves cheerleaders perform. Skills include handspring, handstand, roundoff, tumbling, and many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trace says cheerleading originated with sideline cheer at football games, which universities offer. Since the college system in Ontario does not offer football, college cheerleading did not have that same starting point that university cheerleading did. However, Trace says the sport can move away from where it started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn no way does cheerleading have to be associated with football, there is very little relation in this point of time,\u201d Trace says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While schools could have a team that goes to games, Fanshawe came along as a purely competitive cheerleading club. Before them, Trace says the most successful team was Humber, cheering for the Hawks basketball team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Humber Hawks cheerleading program ran for five years, ending in May 2015. Kristina McCahon was the head coach for all five years. She says they competed provincially and sometimes internationally. She says they ended on a perfect season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe won a couple national championships under [McCahon\u2019s] belt there, which was pretty incredible,\u201d Carito says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Humber offered cheerleading, the sport was associated with the athletics department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe school did \u2026 the usual backing they would do if we went [on away games], and our accommodations were taken care of,\u201d Carito says. \u201cWe got the usual varsity athlete traveling package.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, since they were a competitive team doing sideline cheering, there was simply no space for them at basketball games, McCahon says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey could stay in the front [of the court], but they couldn\u2019t stunt,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is easier for university cheerleaders to showcase their skills when they go to football games, since universities have access to a football stadium with a track, McCahon says. They can perform their stunts there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPerhaps this is one of the downfalls for the colleges who don\u2019t have football. We don\u2019t even have stadiums for our rugby teams,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the Humber cheerleading team stopped going to games or making school appearances. On top of that, Carito says, when a new athletic director came in, the benefits started to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith my first two years, it was really great with the athletic director we had,\u201d he says. \u201cBut when there was the switch \u2026 the new athletic director said [cheerleading] is something we have to cut.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humber\u2019s former athletic director Doug Fox, retired. His replacement, current director Ray Chateau, had a different direction for the athletic department, McCahon says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Fox] was of to the belief that we should include as many athletes and athletic teams as possible; if we can support more teams \u2026 let\u2019s do it, let\u2019s add them to varsity,\u201d McCahon says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCahon says Chateau wanted more of a streamlined approach to the athletics department and cheerleading is not currently recognized by the OCAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s part of the reason we saw the program dismantled,\u201d she continues. \u201cIt moved from a varsity status to a club status, and then it [moved] from a club status \u2026 to an extramural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Chateau says the decision to take a streamlined approach to the athletics was made before he took the position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat move was made by Doug Fox prior to me coming on board as the athletic director. And I didn\u2019t see any need to reverse it,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the biggest thing we did is that varsity sports \u2026 needed to be competing within the OCAA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end of the Humber Hawks, under McCahon\u2019s understanding, came down to money. The sport requires a fully sprung floor of nine mats plus training materials. The Humber team trained two or three times a week at Humber, but sometimes the need for certain equipment meant they had to go to off-site \u2014 which would come out of the athlete\u2019s pockets, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McMahon says the Hawks came from an environment where almost everything was fully funded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMoving away from that to an environment where they were given still the use of gym space but not necessarily a priority \u2026 and then simply not getting funding for clothing and things like that, [it] became harder and harder to run the program,\u201d McCahon explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe program came to a natural end because it was such an expensive program to run and the athletic department \u2014 in my understanding \u2014 was in a time of budget cuts,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Chateau says this was not the reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy number one issue with cheerleading was the health of the students,\u201d he says. \u201cFor student athletes, we were dealing within an extremely high rate of injury, particularly concussions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chateau says during discussions with the athletics head therapist as well as clinic and athletic staff, they found the injury rate and the extent of the injuries unacceptable. They decided they weren\u2019t comfortable keeping cheerleading at the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey had the highest concussion rate of any team,\u201d he says. \u201cThey had more concussions than all of our varsity teams added up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chateau says he believes a Humber sport needs to be competing within the OCAA and be attending championships. He says that if there was enough interest\u2014 meaning five teams, to be qualified as an OCAA sport \u2014 then he would be willing to bring cheerleading back as a varsity sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fanshawe\u2019s athletic department doesn\u2019t have the same ideology as Humber. When Trace first approached Fanshawe\u2019s athletic department, he says they were supportive but told him they couldn\u2019t give him money or space for the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat lasted for exactly one year, and a year later they said \u2018You know what, it\u2019s not a thing that we need to spend our time on, so you\u2019re on your own,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trace says the relationship between the team and the athletic department is positive, but says since the team is not officially affiliated with the school \u2014 even though it\u2019s completely made up of Fanshawe students \u2014 the school has to pretend the team isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat bothers me because these kids bust their assess off for that school and they are deeply proud of their relationship and are Fanshawe to the core,\u201d Trace says. \u201cBut they don\u2019t get any official recognition or even a thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the Fanshawe team\u2019s exile from the athletics department, the Western Mustangs cheerleaders have the benefits of being associated with the university\u2019s athletic department. Michelle O\u2019Shea has cheered for both teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Shea says the Mustang cheerleaders get to attend a lot of events at the school. They are involved in all the football games, both away and at home, and even go to international games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared Mustang cheerleaders, O\u2019Shea says Fanshawe gets nothing. The Fanshawe team isn\u2019t really a part of anything with the school, and O\u2019Shea says that makes it harder to get people onto the Fanshawe team. She says most students don\u2019t really know about the team at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the school would recognize it as a sport [and] if it was connected to the school, that would probably make it a little bit more beneficial,\u201d O\u2019Shea says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though the Falcons aren\u2019t the official cheerleaders for Fanshawe, O\u2019Shea says she still loves the environment the team offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always new skills to learn, we\u2019re all working together for the same goal of hopefully winning and improving ourselves, and being able to bond in that team atmosphere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fanshaw\u2019s Coach Trace says we use athletics as a vehicle for maturity, responsibility and physical training. It\u2019s not just about the cheerleading, he says \u2014 it’s more about the team development, the social skills, physical skills and discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat’s always what has motivated me as the coach,\u201d Trace says. \u201cIt`s about watching that growth [and] seeing them succeed at the other side … I love seeing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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