Her facial expression immediately changed and it lit up as she smiled and described with excitement what it would be like to win a letterman’s jacket.
“You get a championship ring, you win a bunch of really cool stuff, but I really want one of those cool jackets, just to say you’re a winner,” said Andrea Henderson, a cheerleader at Pierce College.
The Pierce College cheerleaders program is offered through a one-unit evening class, Kinesiology Athletics 550-1.
The program is composed of not one, but two teams. The “spirit” or “sideline” squad meets Wednesday nights and the “competition” team meets Sunday nights, according to Jenny Ghiglia, the coach for both cheer teams.
Ghiglia, who is also an adjunct assistant professor of dance and kinesiology at Pierce has been working with the cheer program since 2001 and only created the competition team three years ago.
“The teams that I built before had done what was asked for us to do in a safe manner but not past that,” Ghiglia said. “I had made a strong spirit group who represented Pierce but you can’t be doing stunts in the middle, while a ball was being thrown.”
The sideline squad, who was the original kind of team that Ghiglia created, received its nickname because it is found cheering the Brahmas on from the sidelines during football, basketball and volleyball games sometimes for two and a half hours.
Each team member that is part of the sideline squad is expected to learn approximately 20 chants and more than 54 cheers while using pom-poms, horns and sometimes performing basic stunts, depending on the space.
The competition team, on the other hand, is responsible to learn one routine that lasts only two and a half minutes, which they perform during competitions they attend all over the country.
“Their routines incorporate dance, stunts like the pyramid and the two-man stunt, tumbling, jumps and sequences,” Ghiglia said. “In the competition team your focus is to be the best at what you do over and over and execute each skill until it is perfected.”
Their latest competition, which took place on Sunday, April 13, gave the team the first place award during the Xtreme Spirit SoCal Elite International Championship from the “Collegiate Coed” division, Ghiglia said.
Emmanuel Jefferson, a veterinarian medicine major, and Samira Faal, a nursing major at Pierce, served this spring as captains for the 13-member sideline squad.
Jefferson, 24, who has been cheering for years, said he disagrees with critics who don’t consider cheerleading a sport.
“Cheerleading is really athletic,” Jefferson said. “You can smile and be bubbly but you still need to be fit when you’re raising someone over you.”
Faal, 20, also disagrees with other issues and stereotypes she says are portrayed through movies like “Bring it On.”
“We are not dumb,” Faal said. “Everyone here studies hard and before cheering, our main goal is to give priority to school and work.”
For those who are interested in joining the teams, a minimum grade point average of 2.0 is required, but admission is allowed to both part-time and full-time students. A financial commitment is a must since the average price per uniform is about $400 for females and $250 for males according to Faal.
“You have to be passionate for it,” Faal said. “I gained more confidence and we’re like a family. That’s what I was looking for.”
Until this spring, students could choose to join whichever team they preferred. However, a new rule will be implemented this fall which states that all members of the competition teams must also join the sideline squad, according to Ghiglia.
An informational clinic will be held prior to tryouts for the fall teams. This will take place Wednesday, May 14 from 8 – 10 p.m. in the North Gym.
The official tryouts for the sideline team will be held Sunday, May 18 in the North Gym as well, from 10 a.m. to noon. The competition team tryouts will follow later on that day, from 2 – 4 p.m.
For more information and updates, you can visit the team’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pierce-College-Cheer-and-Competition-Team/328036104118 or follow their Instagram account under the username: “PierceCollegeCheer”.
