Word: sponsored
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cheerleaders from Henderson Middle School in East Texas are sitting on the grass at Southern Methodist University looking glumly at their sneakers as they're sized up by their "sponsor," who serves as unpaid coach, chaperone and shoulder to cry on. "Stunts, good. Cheer, good. But your spacing was off," says Tangela Washington. Her tone isn't angry, though it might sound harsh to a 13-year-old. The squad is about to face its first evaluation at a three-day summer camp run by the National Cheerleaders Association. "We've got to work like a team," Washington stresses...
Some requirements for cheerleaders haven't changed. They are still expected to be well-turned-out fashion plates, hair pulled into a tight ponytail, uniform just so. Tans--from a bottle or a tanning salon--are a must. "The girls have to be picture perfect," says Euless cheer sponsor Kelli McDaniel. Monica's mom Daphne Brigham keeps a sharp eye on her daughter at the S.M.U. camp, monitoring her for slips.--and, naturally, finds one. "Didn't we talk about this?" she asks Monica, pulling her aside for a wayward bra strap. "If your top is pink, your...
Rivalries within the squads are inevitable--between those with boyfriends and those without, between those with money and those with little, between the flyers and the earthbound, between those who can do a standing backflip and those who can't. Beth Hammack, a Euless cheer sponsor, swears that most of the fights revolve around boys: "Junior-high kids are just hormones running around in tennis shoes, "she says with a knowing look. Then there's the perennial friction from freshman "fishes" lording it over the lowly eighth-graders. "My flyer and me got into it again today," says Breanna, whose...
Meddling moms, or moms who are just being protective, create problems too. Everyone remembers the Texas cheerleading mom who killed off the competition, thereby providing the story line for two TV movies in the early '90s. "Parents really do get crazy," says Henderson cheer sponsor Washington, who sees some parents pushing girls to perform stunts they're not ready for. "I think the parents like to get involved more than the coaches," observes Breanna. "It's like they want to be a teenager again...
...buff 5-ft. 2-in. frame and sculpted biceps. "I started tumbling when I was, like, 4 or 5," she says. "You have to train and be committed to the team." Besides school practices, she takes lessons with a private coach, who also happens to be her cheer sponsor, Washington--a point not missed by some of the other girls' moms who have complained about favoritism...