How is Cheer a Sport?

As we wrap up the school year our cheer team is celebrating another national champion title, and the title of undefeated league champs. Now, a common question regarding our school's cheer team is what is the difference between each cheer season/sport?

Sideline Cheer

The Sideline Cheer team works tirelessly throughout the summer break and multiple times during the school week to perfect their skills.

They kick off the school year with sideline cheer. Sideline cheer is where the girls put together different cheers, chants, and dances to rally up both the football and basketball teams. They perform their cheers on the sidelines of the football field and basketball court, then perform their dance routines during halftime on the football field for everyone to enjoy. They also perform very entertaining and skillful stunts to give their audiences a sense of appeal. These athletes work tirelessly throughout the summer break and multiple times during the school week to perfect their skills. The athletes describe this season as the most laid-back and relaxed one, seeing as most of it is basic skills.

Competition Cheer

After the sideline season comes Competitive Cheer. Competitive cheer takes place during the winter and requires a completely different tryout process. The girls who try out for this team require a more elite set of skills than those required for sideline season. Once the athletes for the competition season have been chosen, the team must put together and perfect a two-minute and thirty-second-long routine that consists of stunting, tumbling, jumping, and dancing. They then take this routine and compete at many different competitions, including a nationwide competition in Las Vegas.

Patriot Cheer Team Winning National Sideline Champions 2025

The hard work of Patriots athletes is shown through the fact that our cheer team has won eleven national titles since 2010. Seeing as they have held different national titles for so long, many added pressures come with performing. To cope with this pressure, the athletes use things like peppermint essential oil, team huddles, and prayers to remain calm. When faced with losses, they have learned how to take them as a team and to never let them define who they are as athletes. Not only does competition season require its athletes to be physically strong, but also mentally strong; it requires a very well-balanced mindset to ensure they never give up on themselves.

Competitive cheer requires a more elite set of skills than those required for sideline season.

STUNT: The Sport

Following the competition season comes Stunt season. Stunt the sport is still a very new sport, seeing as it was created in March of 2013. Stunt takes place in the spring and is the cheer team's CIF sport. In this sport, schools compete against each other in minute-long routines that consist of stunting, tumbling, and jumping. This team is the same one from the competition season, as the sport requires the same set of elite skills. In this sport, the whole point is to see who can be more perfect, which inflicts loads of pressure and nerves onto the athletes, seeing as they feel they can not mess up. However, these girls have been doing this for long enough that they can recognize that a mistake is nothing but a learning experience. This season, our stunt team went undefeated in league, played Division I in CIF, ranked 3, and made it to the third round. The love and determination these girls have for their sport are shown through all three of their seasons and are extremely recognizable. Patriot can not wait to see what cheer has in store for the 2025-2026 school year.