The Shippensburg University cheerleading team spread Raider spirit with energetic chants and performances. Yet team members feel their positive energy is tested from battling stereotypes and lack of recognition. 

Before COVID-19, the SU cheer team would practice for game days three times a week to perfect their performances. Members of the team are expected to have skills in stunting and tumbling.

Tumbling is the advanced gymnastic side of cheerleading where members use their bodies to flip and roll.

SU cheer member Danielle Diehl wants people to understand that cheerleading is more than putting on a smile and shaking pompoms. She expresses that college stunting takes massive amount of skills, muscle and body control. 

“College and high school [cheer] is completely different,” Diehl said. “[Members] must have body control. If they don’t people can end up getting hurt.”

The cheerleading team perform for both football and basketball seasons. With comparing the two, the team prefers football season due to the electrifying atmosphere of dancing to the SU marching band and having more fans attending games. 

Even though the squad enjoys cheering and supporting sport teams, they wish to branch off and become a competition team.

Competing is the main goal for the SU cheer team. Last year, the team participated in an exhibition at Waynesboro High School to get its name out there. But due to lack of funds and consideration from university officials, Diehl says have stalled the team’s process of achieving their goal. 

The team tried to raise money last year with an event called “Pie a Cheerleader” to fund their compettion dreams. According to Diehl, the team has tried other fundraising events but with the amount they made it is not enough to support their dreams. 

 “I believe [the university] should show more support,” Diehl said. “We would love to compete but it’s too expensive.”

In the meantime, members are told to represent the team in a positive manner to avoid backlash and more budget cuts. 

Senior SU cheer member AnaBelle Hippensteel expressed that the cheer program is underappreciated and underacknowledged by the athletics department, feeling that cheerleaders are nothing more than props. 

“We are not taken as seriously as other sports teams, which I get to a degree, but we work just as hard. It is frustrating to see my team’s efforts get overlooked, we try our hardest to support and motivate the athletic teams on campus, that’s our job as cheerleaders,” Hippensteel said. 

Since her first year on the team Hippensteel and other cheer members have been advocating to be placed in the forefront of sports and to be given the equal financial and emotional support from the athletic department. 

“I do think the university should show some consideration helping us reach our goals because ultimately it only makes the university look even better when we as cheerleaders look great and achieve goals that the university can be known for,” junior member Diamonte Brooke said. 

Officials canceled the current football and cheer season due to COVID-19 coronavirus social distancing concerns. This put a strain on the squad’s preparations for any possible cheer competitions. The team’s original plan was to train well-enough to compete in the National Cheerleader Association (NCA) Collegiate Championship in Daytona, Florida. 

Hippensteel wanted the team to raise enough money during the 2020-21 school year to represent SU at the NCA Championships in April 2021. 

With the coronavirus still on the rise and limited funding, the SU cheer team continues to reach their dream of competing at a national level in the future. 

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