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Driving down busy Elvis Presley Boulevard, Carl Johnson, a Memphis City Schools board member, said he was heart-broken to see cheerleaders running out into the street in the hot sun begging for money.
"This is when it really struck me," Johnson said. "A change had to be made."
After watching the cheerleaders, talking to people and studying the budget, Johnson said he realized the school board was not treating cheerleaders like other athletes.
Johnson's granddaughter Christin Amos is a senior at Whitehaven High School and captain of its coed cheer squad. When her team won a bid to compete at Nationals, the school did not help finance the trip.
"The school doesn't pay for anything," Christin said. "But if it were the football team, the school would pay for them to go to a state competition. I just don't see how this could be fair."
Johnson asked the district to consider making cheerleading a sanctioned sport. This would allow cheerleaders to be eligible for funding for uniforms, transportation, equipment and insurance.
"When I first brought it up, a number of people seemed to be in agreement that I was on the right path," Johnson said.
But Johnson said these positive comments did not exactly lead to a huge success. When the subject came up at an August board meeting, Johnson found some resistance.
"The board did not whole-heartedly agree to make it a sport," Johnson said.
Johnson said some questioned why cheerleading should be considered a sport now when it had not been considered one in prior years. But Johnson said he believes that cheerleading has evolved over the years into a competitive sport.
"It's in the elementary, middle and high schools. And now cheerleading is coed," Johnson said.
Members of the board also brought up the issue that cheerleading would come under the athletic criteria of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, if the board sanctioned it as a sport. The board decided to investigate further and get the opinion of cheerleaders, parents and coaches.
But for Christin, her mind is set. She said she knows cheerleading should be a sanctioned sport. She has been cheering since the age of 6 and has won a number of awards at the local and state level. She is a UCA All-Star Cheerleader and an NCA All-American Cheerleader. She plans to attend college on a full cheerleading scholarship.
There are also concerns about the injuries suffered by cheerleaders. In Christin's short career, she has broken her pelvis and twisted her ankles.
"We work really hard. This summer, alone, we practiced 8 to noon and 5 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. It takes time to learn cheers. It's not something you can just pick up in one day," Christin said. "We also have to maintain a 3.0 GPA or we will be put on probation."
The school board did make the decision to require that cheerleaders purchase additional insurance from the district. The insurance costs $10 per student.
Christin said she thinks this is progress in the journey toward making cheerleading in Memphis City Schools a sanctioned sport. Her grandfather agreed.
"Eventually one day the cheerleaders will get the same respect as the other athletes," Johnson said.