But that’s changed.
Cheerleading has evolved and is viewed as a sport, just like baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer and other activities.
On a recent January night the National Sports Center (NSC) became pom pom central, as a group of young girls showed up to a cheerleading class.
“It’s an eight-week program that we have here,” said Ellen Jones a Sports and Rec Coordinator for the NSC. “Every week the kids learn a different cheer. They might learn a different dance. We incorporate tumbling into the class and every week they also learn a different jump.”
Jones teaches the course and is the perfect person to promote this activity.
“I love cheerleading,” Jones said. “I’ve been doing it since I was really young.”
Jones has seen cheerleading grow.
“Cheerleading has advanced so much from just being on the sidelines and jumping around waving a pom pom,” Jones said. “People will tumble, we will stunt, throw people up in the air, jump. It’s come a very long way from what it was and it’s only getting more advanced as we proceed.”
Youngsters in the class range from 4 to 10 years old and they get a chance to discover a sport that is trending up.
“I’m learning how to do a cartwheel and the splits,” said Brady, one of the students in the class..
The future cheerleaders get an up close look at what goes into this activity.
“We get to do mostly exercises,” Brady said. “We get to talk and sometimes we get to show moves to the class and we get to learn little cheer moves and to dance.”
“It’s really fun for me to get to introduce it to the new kids and to see other kids grow a passion for it,” Jones said…”There’s two sides of it – there’s all-star cheerleading and there’s sideline cheerleading. Our program focuses more on the sideline cheerleading. It is growing in popularity. Typically kids don’t get exposed to it until they reach the later elementary school or middle school level. Then they go into high school, so it’s nice that we can introduce it to the younger kids who are 4 and 5 years old so they’re more ready when they get onto those elementary school teams.”
Impressive cheerleading credentials
Jones has impressive cheerleading credentials and a passion for the sport.
She cheered competitively for the University of Minnesota and the Gophers went to the nationals in Orlando multiple times when she was at the U of M.
“We got fourth my senior year in our game day routine,” Jones said. “We also got fourth the year before in our traditional routine. Cheerleading actually started at the University of Minnesota, so I’m very proud to come from that school and it’s really cool that the state in general has so much history with cheerleading and we can show that at the National Sports Center.”
Cheerleading can be fun and it also can teach kids the value of team building.
“It’s a team sport,” Jones said. “You have to work together with everybody and build a lot of trust.”
Another cheerleading benefit is that it keeps these youngsters active.
“It’s a cardio workout and it’s a strength workout,” Jones said. “When we’re doing different dances or cheers it may be more on the cardio side. When we’re doing stunting and jumps and tumbling that’s strength. It’s also working a lot on flexibility, working all of your muscles and just strengthening all over to make yourself a better athlete.”
The intro to cheerleading classes at the NSC started in the spring of 2024.
