Striving for Respect

While Harvard students all over campus are finally buckling down and working on their academics, one group of students has decided to get serious about something else.

For the first time in their 10-year history, Harvard's cheerleaders are taking steps to become more professional and earn the respect of athletes, fans and the Athletic Department.

Most of the 12-member squad say they agree that an image problem is the biggest obstacle facing the group. Since the cheerleading squad's formation in the late 1970s, it has been ridiculed--sometimes deservedly so, cheerleaders say--and has received very little official support from the University.

"At Harvard, it's very 'high school' to be a cheerleader," says Ellen M. Wrchota '89, a veteran member of the team. "In fact it seems like [people think it's] almost a contradiction in terms to go to Harvard and be a cheerleader."

"The biggest obstacle we face," adds squad member Kristin M. Daly '89, "is the image that all we want to do is date football players. It's seen as a very 'high school' thing to do."

The obstacles, however, go beyond the image problem. The squad of six men and six women does not receive full funding from the Athletic Department. As a result cheerleaders must pay many of their own expenses.

"All that they give us is a van with gas," Daly says. "We have to pay the rest out of our own pockets."

The rest, as the cheerleaders will tell you, includes accomodations for the away football games, food, sweats and uniforms. The uniforms alone cost around $200 for many of the members.

The lack of official support means that the cheerleaders have never had a coach and therefore have not been able to perform difficult routines. The squad's lack of expertise only hurts its image and last year resulted in a serious injury to one cheerleader, cheerleaders say.

But squad members say they are beginning to solve some of their problems. The Athletic Department has hired Katherine Wrend, currently a cheerleading coach at American University, to train the squad beginning this fall. The cheerleaders are also trying to improve by holding spring practice sessions, something they have never done before.

At their weekly sessions, squad members warm up and practice lifts. They will not attempt more advanced moves until next fall when their coach officially begins working with them.

"Kathy will be a big help next year," says Daly. "She will be able to teach us new routines and standard forms for the routines which we already do. Also, she has encouraged us to set our own personal goals for next year and to go to a camp this summer where we can train."

"Kathy will be great," says Wrchota. "She can help us be less of a high school cheerleading squad and help us look more professional."

"To bring in someone who knows about the techniques is great for us," says Millard Rice '89, a one-year veteran of the team, adding that he thinks the fans will notice "a major difference" in the talent of the squad in years to come.

Wrend's influence and the spring practices, according Daly, "mean that the squad should be better than [it has] been in past years."

Group members say they plan to do more intricate and difficult routines next year. The group, says Rice, has been working on double stunts and pyramids in preparation for next year.

The extra training will also make the stunts less dangerous for participants.

"Most of the stunts we do aren't dangerous," says Wrchota. "They've been practiced, and we don't do them unless we are good at them. If you know what you're doing and people are serious about the routines, then its safe."

But risk has been a serious concern, especially after Daly last fall fell off the top of a pyramid and blacked out when she hit the ground. Although she left the field on a stretcher, she suffered no permanent injuries.

Squad members say they are also attempting to deal with their money shortage.

The team currently raises cash by working for Harvard Spirit, a student-run group which sells, among other things, the class banners that hang in many undergraduate rooms.

Next year, team members say they plan to do more fundraising. For instance, they have already planned a T-shirt fundraiser for incoming freshmen.

"When you don't have any money," says Daly, "it takes a lot of organization."

The Athletic Department says it, too, is making an effort to help the cheerleaders. "Two years ago I came on board [at the Athletic Department], and they were just sort of there," says Robert Malekoff, who acts as a liason between the department and the squad. During the last two years, says Malekoff, the department has "helped them out logistically" with transportation to away games.

"The problem is that we are in the business of intercollegiate athletic teams, and they clearly aren't that," says Malekoff. He adds that while "their support is clearly appreciated...the department can't be all things to all people."

Looking to the Future

Members of the cheerleading squad say they believe that if they can reach a level of athleticism and expertise that previous squads have been unable to achieve, then the department might support them. But department officials say they doubt the cheerleaders' level of support will change any time in the near future.

"We cannot at this point give them equal support" as the department gives to intercollegiate athletic squads, Malekoff says.

Even if the cheerleaders do not receive as much official support and respect as they would like; members of the team say they will continue to participate simply because they enjoy what they do every Saturday afternoon during the football season.

"Personally, I don't find [fan ridicule] frustrating," Rice says. "I take it as a given [for a school that focuses on academics]. I find building school spirit a challenge." He adds that cheerleading is taken much more seriously at other schools around the country.

And not everyone ridicules the cheerleaders, squad members say. "In public they laugh at us, but in private they will tell us that we're good," Daly says.

Wrchota says that the alumni and the fans from other schools do give the cheerleaders some "positive feedback...They seem less embarrassed about getting into it," she says.

"The word that you could use to describe us is 'fun,'" says Wrchota. "We have fun on and off the field."