Dear Editor, This letter is concerning the July 2
“Poeter in Motion” column in the Times sports section. In reply
to the heading, “Absolutely,” cheerleading is a sport. If Damon
Poeter thinks that this dispute can be settled with his ignorant
antics, he’d better be ready to receive the backlash.
Dear Editor,
This letter is concerning the July 2“Poeter in Motion” column in the Times sports section. In reply to the heading, “Absolutely,” cheerleading is a sport. If Damon Poeter thinks that this dispute can be settled with his ignorant antics, he’d better be ready to receive the backlash.
Since when does cheerleading have anything to do with a gardening trawl? Not only was cheerleading compared to activities such as gardening and spelling bees, but I was especially offended by the mention of wet T-shirt contests.
It would take a vulgar male to make a correlation between tasteful cheerleading routines and crude events that objectify women. If your daughter was a cheerleader would you want men to look at her and think wet T-shirt contest?
According to Poeter, sports are those activities requiring specialized shoes. I’m sure if he had done any sort of research on the subject, he would have found that Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and many other companies make specialized shoes for cheerleading. Cheerleading? +20 points.
As for the judging, cheerleading judges are very rarely “corrupt,” “drunk,” or “corrupt, drunk judges.” To say that the only way of measuring the performance is by a panel of judges, just ask any cheerleaders who have dropped an important stunt. Cheerleading? + the 10 points originally taken in the article.
And while cheerleading did start as a way to get the crowd on their feet, cheerleading has become a competitive sport. “The world of cheer no longer means sideline squads that exist solely to support other teams,” wrote Erik Brady, USA Today sports writer. There is now the NCA, the National Cheerleading Association, which I am secure in saying, would not go out of business without football nor basketball. Cheerleading? +1,500 points; the original 1,000 taken and another 500 for all those who are in agreement with me.
Allison Manthey, San Benito High School senior, varsity cheerleader
