A Wonderful Surprise

I never really planned on being a male cheerleader; it was just something that happened. I needed a way to be able to afford to pay for college and at the time I believed that JROTC would make that possible. There was a physical fitness team that was part of their extracurricular program called The Raider Team. This team was involved in competitions that were made up of running through obstacle courses and physical fitness tests. I thought it would be something that was very demanding physically, but also a lot of fun.

My freshman year I tried out for the Raider Team, but I did not make it. I was determined to make it my sophomore year so I began working out at a gym that just happened to be next door to a cheerleading gym.  I worked out every day and one day Madonna Holladay, who ran the cheerleading gym and was the mother of the high school cheerleading coach, came over and asked if I was interested in cheerleading. Before that day I had never even thought about cheerleading as something that I would be interested in doing.

Madonna showed me how cheerleading could help to pay for college without the requirement of serving five years in the military that ROTC would require. She also invited me to watch a few of the teams do their routine and I saw how competitive cheerleading was. It was not just standing on the sideline cheering on a football or basketball team. Competitive cheerleading was intense and required a lot out of the team members and teamwork.

My sophomore year I tried out of cheerleading and made the junior varsity squad. I learned so much in that year of cheerleading. I learned that if you get frustrated you have to find a way to calm down because when you get too worked up nothing will work. I also learned that at times it is best to just shut your mouth and not argue because women will always be right.

I made the varsity squad as an alternate my junior year. That was when I learned more about true coed stunting and how demanding it was. I was hooked after that. Anytime I could be in the gym working on improving my stunting abilities, I was. It was so exciting the things that were possible by throwing a girl in the air. My team went on to win nationals that year, and I eagerly awaited my senior year.

During my senior year I began to cheer on an ALL-STAR team as well as my high school varsity team. It was one more way to improve my abilities. ALL-STAR cheerleading was completely different from school cheerleading. We would only practice a few nights a week for ALL-STAR, and the team was made up from people from other schools. We would work together so that we could make the team as successful as possible. ALL-STARS and school cheerleading both give a sense of family and everyone motivates each other to do their best.

After high school, cheerleading helped me pay for college because of the scholarships I received. I began cheerleading at Snead State two years ago, and next year I hope to be able to cheer at Jacksonville State University. While most girls grow up with hopes of being a great cheerleader many guys are never introduced to the sport until high school age or at the beginning of college. When guys finally learn all the excitement that comes with being a male cheerleader, endless doors begin to open.

Cheerleading has given me the opportunity to work with athletes that need help improving their stunting or tumbling abilities. I began coaching and teaching tumbling while in high school and have worked at ACE of Gadsden for about a year now. Cheerleading might be demanding and time consuming, but the hard work is more than worth it when you can show all the banners, medals, trophies, and rings that your team won. As more guys become interested in cheerleading, more possibilities open. Having male cheerleaders on a team can make it possible to pull off those more elite stunts. I hope that cheerleading will continue to become a more socially accepted activity for young men, and that way guys will not have such a huge learning gap when they do get into the sport.

-Karl Kiesler
@karl_kiesler