The University of the Philippines Pep Squad win in the Team of the Year category of the InterAKTV Awards is surprising to say the least. The team defeated more heralded squads that had been more prominent in the media throughout last year: the Azkals, SMART-Gilas Pilipinas, the Cobra-PDBF Dragon Warriors, the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters, and the Ateneo Blue Eagles.
To illustrate the acclaim for the team, there were more votes cast for the UP Pep Squad than each of the other categories combined. It’s a curious case: the crowd cheering the cheerleaders.
This acclaim, of course, is not undeserved. UP Pep won the championship in the National Games last summer before defending its title in the UAAP cheerdance competition last September. The team wrapped up its charmed year with a bronze medal finish at the 6th Cheerleading World Championships in November.
And yet, despite the obvious popularity of the UP Pep Squad (as evidenced by the votes for them) and their even more obvious success, there will still be people who would be moved to ask, “Is cheerleading even a sport?”
When a person asks that questions, he or she (more often, it’s a he) wouldn’t usually be asking if cheerleading is a sport per se; he is asking if cheerleading is a sport on par with football, basketball, and even dragon boat.
And that question — a wrongheaded one — is even being asked because the asker still holds in his mind an archaic notion of an athlete, and what an athlete should look like. And most members of the UP Pep Squad don’t conform to that stereotype, at least with how they look.
It’s silly because when one moves past the bleached blonde hair (and the shaved armpits), it’s easy to see just how much Pep Squad members are just like any other athlete in any other sport. They juggle their commitments just like any other varsity sports members, and they train for hours with their teammates, to try to perfect their strategy, precision, and execution. When they tire, they sweat the same sweat as other athletes, and when they fall, they break the same bones.
And the results — they’re breathtaking. The UP Pep Squad’s routine at this year’s UAAP cheerdance competition was as exciting, if not more so, as anything that any other Filipino athlete or group of athletes did in 2011. And along the way, they ended up winning their fair share of hearts.
“Is cheerleading even a sport?”
Is that even a question?
source by Jaemark Tordecilla, InterAKTV - image by InterAKTV/Markku Seguerra and Hana Belo
0 comments:
Post a Comment