By Roman Contreras and Cindy Cuellar
Staff Writers
Contrary to popular belief, cheerleading is not the feminine sport people may think it is.
The Los Angeles Rams made headlines because of their inclusion of what many believe was the first male cheerleader in Super Bowl LIII. Although, this is not the groundbreaking event some are making it out to be.
“That’s actually not the first time male cheerleaders have been in the Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens have a stunt team and they did it in Super Bowl XLVII,” said senior San Jose State cheerleader Ryan Hale.
It was not until the 1900s that cheerleading became a female dominated sport. Prior to modern day practices, cheerleading teams were all male, and they were called “yell leaders,” according to Spartan Daily records.
“It actually started with guys, and when you get to the college level it’s dominated by men. You have the best teams in the world like Kentucky or Alabama, their teams have like 12 guys and like 10 girls,” said Hale.
Before creating assumptions about male cheerleaders, it is important to note all the different areas cheerleading can encompass. Hale mentioned that there is much more to cheer than pom poms, skirts and dancing.
Performing stunts like tumbling, lifting and tossing people in the air takes incredible strength and agility that only an athlete could possess.
“I think anyone who does like a day in the life of a cheerleader would be like holy moley, this is insane,” said cheer coach Heather Limosnero.
Limosnero cheered for SJSU for about four years before deciding she wanted to come back and coach for the same team.
As far as coaching is concerned, Limosnero does not discriminate.
“I try to train them all the same, whether it’s a male or a female, I look at the group as a whole and say okay here’s your skill level as a group as compared to an individual,” said Limosnero.
“Sometimes it’s easier to coach the males because their muscles might be more developed than a female’s, but I think that’s the only difference” she added.
With the culture of acceptance in the West, Limosnero feels the West Coast is behind in terms of cheerleading. She says she finds it odd that there are not more male cheerleaders here.
Sophomore aspiring business major Gerardo Mendoza said he grew up surrounded by male cheerleaders.
“I went to an all boys school so we called them ‘yell leaders,’ and each time we scored points at a football game they would do one push up for each point.”
Competing in cheer at the college level is a big accomplishment.
“College [cheer] is basically like the top, like we can do things that no all-star team is legally allowed to do,” said Hale.
The SJSU cheer team currently has four male members among 13 female members. When discussing how he got into cheer, Hale explained he started in junior high and hasn’t given up his love for it since.
The decision to continue on to college cheer came after Hale witnessed an SJSU cheer practice.
“They were just about to win their second national championship so they were on fire, and I was just like, ‘I want to do this,’” said Hale.
Both Hale and Limosnero made it clear that they have not received any negative feedback for being a male cheerleader or coaching other males in cheer.
They view it as an important part of their lives and hope to take the skills they have learned from cheer into their futures.
“I’m all about college cheer. I’m graduating in fall 2019, but I don’t see really see myself leaving cheer,” said Hale.
