No longer on the sidelines

The varsity cheerleaders at the University of Maryland form pyramids like any other cheerleaders. And like any others, they flip and tumble and tirelessly practice their routines.

These cheerleaders, however, are made different by one thing they do not do: Cheer at games. The squad, officially known as the competitive cheer team, performs only at cheerleading meets.

Maryland is the only university in the country that counts competitive cheer as a scholarship sport to satisfy the requirements of Title IX, the federal sex-equity law that mandates equal athletic opportunities for men and women.

The all-female competitive cheer team at Maryland is fully funded and will have 12 scholarships and a $357,000 budget when the program is completely phased in for the 2005-06 school year.

The cheerleaders who perform on the sidelines at Maryland football and basketball games are known as the “spirit squad” and do not receive scholarships.

“It’s like cheerleading taken to the next level for people who take it a lot more seriously,” said Mandy Shaw, a freshman from Waldorf, Md., who was recruited for a competitive cheer scholarship. “I don’t like cheering at games, but I love competing.”

Many schools give scholarships for cheerleading ” the University of Kentucky, for example, awards 20 for tuition ” but don’t count them toward Title IX compliance.

Women’s groups have criticized the program at Maryland, saying the school is using cheerleading as a means to satisfy Title IX without adding an established ” and likely more expensive ” sport.

“It’s a slippery slope,” said Mary Jo Kane, the director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota. “If they are going to set the precedent of giving scholarships to cheerleaders, why not the band? They go to competitions. They practice regularly.

“If they prioritize and say we are going to give scholarships to cheerleaders and as a result do not have enough scholarships to allow young women to have more traditional athletic opportunities, that’s not OK.”

Maryland administrators said they worked closely with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights before adding competitive cheer as a varsity sport for the 2003-04 school year.

The school was considering four women’s sports for varsity status. It added competitive cheer and water polo and rejected ice hockey and rowing.

“It is a sport if you are competing,” athletic director Debbie Yow said. “This is not the spirit squad. The spirit squad is busy cheering for our teams and encouraging them. The varsity cheerleading team is competing like all other sports. They are recruiting like all other sports. They are alike.”

Donna Lopiano, the executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation, called the program “disingenuous.” Miss Lopiano cited the team’s schedule as evidence.

The Office of Civil Rights required the Terrapins perform at eight to 10 meets each year to be considered to have held a “season” of competition for Title IX reasons. The team’s Web site lists a schedule of 10 events at which the Terps will perform this season.

However, the Terps did not compete against a Division I opponent in their first four meets this season. The team competed last month in the Maryland Cup, an event attended by junior high school and high school teams but no other college-level squad.

The only other college team at a meet in Baltimore was Division III Salisbury. Maryland won an open competition in December over two “all-star” club teams not affiliated with any schools.

“There is nothing wrong with that being a varsity sport as long as that is what it is,” Miss Lopiano said. “It is just not developed yet, and Maryland is trying to manufacture it. The other [rejected] sports were bona fide competing entities. I don’t know what was going on there. What is wrong with ice hockey? It makes a heck of a lot of sense in terms of meeting the needs of kids than not providing competition for this cheerleading group.”

Terps coach Lura Fleece acknowledged that scheduling has been difficult and said the team plans to travel to more national events with more Division I teams next season.

This season ends in April with the National Cheerleading Association U.S. championships in Daytona Beach, Fla., where the Terps will face about 40 all-female Division I teams. The event will be the only meet of the season for many of the Terps’ opponents, who focus on cheering at games rather than at meets.

Maryland did not compete last month in what is regarded as the largest cheerleading event, the Universal Cheerleading Association (UCA) national championships. That meet requires a tape of cheerleaders performing at games.

“Our whole decision to add two sports was related to Title IX and to ensure our future Title IX compliance,” said Maryland Associate Athletic Director Dave Haglund, the team’s administrator. “We have been accused of doing an end around Title IX. But we are really not. We are held to the same focus of other sports, where the focus is competition.

“Six, seven, eight years ago, equestrian was not an NCAA-recognized sport. It is now. Bowling is the same situation. The next step, hopefully five years or so down the line, is this becoming an NCAA-recognized sport.”

The University of Kentucky has won 14 national championships in the coed division at the UCA championships. The Wildcats’ coach, Jomo Thompson, doesn’t like what is happening in College Park.

“What they are doing with their competition team is not cheerleading,” Thompson said. “The idea of cheerleading is to build support for a team. To completely take what it was intended for and just make it competition-related, I don’t agree with that. … I don’t know the reasoning behind that ” maybe so they could increase female sports participation.

“If that is the only reason they are doing it, are they really trying to legitimize the sport of cheerleading or are they just doing it for their own personal gains?”

Harold Tramel, the cheerleading coach at North Carolina State, would like sideline cheerleading to be classified as a Title IX sport.

“There’s nothing wrong with what [Maryland] did,” Tramel said. “It is a way to get around Title IX to be a sport. Ideally, I would like to see them change the rule. It seems too pinpointed to spite cheerleading.”

Fleece, who coached the spirit squad for 11 seasons before taking over the competitive cheer team when it became a varsity sport last season, fought hard to have the sport promoted to scholarship status.

The former Maryland and Baltimore Ravens cheerleader said it will be a long battle before competitive cheer gains general acceptance but thinks it will happen.

“It is a wonderful opportunity to provide opportunities to women,” Fleece said. “The nature of the industry has really changed. All-star cheerleading [for girls] began in the mid-’90s. Little girls will only compete. All-star teams only compete. They don’t cheer for any games nor do anything besides compete. This is really a natural progression. It has pushed from the ground up.”

Mrs. Yow said, “We are very popular with the high school set now. They look over here at the 12 scholarships, and all those mothers and fathers and those young women are thinking, ’I am going to be recognized for all those years when people have kind of made fun of what I do.’ But they have to choose not to cheer at the games.”

Mrs. Yow said it was not necessary to add women’s sports for Title IX reasons but that she did it to ensure that the university would be in compliance in the future. She said Maryland has more women on athletic scholarships than men for the first time and dismisses critics of competitive cheer.

“I laugh. I don’t take that seriously,” Mrs. Yow said. “We are so in tune with Title IX and lead in so many categories, which shouldn’t be that unusual in having a female AD. It was natural for us to add water polo and this sport. …

“We are not on the cutting edge. [Competitive cheer] is the fourth-leading sport in high school for women. It is recognized by 22 states already as a varsity sport. [Miss Lopiano] would have been fine if we added bowling ” but not this. That’s why I say there is a significant degree of prejudice against cheerleading.”

Mrs. Yow said sailing and equestrian were mocked when they were introduced but now are accepted as sports. She played college basketball at Elon College in North Carolina and coached at the University of Kentucky and the University of Florida. She said those experiences made her feel as if there is nothing to defend about adding the competitive cheer as a sport at Maryland.

“As a female athlete coming up through the ’70s and playing collegiate ball and not having a scholarship, it is all very personal,” Mrs. Yow said. “When you know what you are doing is right, at some point you just have a real peace about it and move on and let other people talk about it.”