Give me an "H"

The rivalry between Harvard and Yale extends far beyond The Game, far beyond football and the Ivy League, far beyond academics. But does it stretch to the sidelines of Harvard Stadium, where the Harvard cheerleading team will try to help carry the Crimson to perfection?

“Cheerleading is encompassed in the rivalry between other aspects of the schools,” says senior Travis LaVoi, one of four men on the 18-member squad. “There’s no bad blood between the cheerleading teams, and we practice good sportsmanship. But it will be much easier this weekend to get audience participation, since the level of intensity is definitely increased.”

You don’t need to tell the Harvard cheerleading team about intensity. The squad has been to every game this year, home and road, yelling chants, shouting into bullhorns, and performing acrobatics.

But cheerleading is much more than just fun and games, much more than girls waving pom-poms and dressing up in skimpy outfits to attract football players.

“All cheerleading is actually really different,” freshman Molly O’Gara explains. “The old stereotype of a cheerleader is the ditzy blonde, but cheerleading is a lot more intense than anyone that doesn’t know it gives it credit for.”The football players aren’t the only ones who get banged up.

“It’s a very dangerous sport,” O’Gara continues. “You get hurt a lot.”

LaVoi is one of a number of cheerleaders coming off injuries. He is battling back from a sprained ACL, but vows to be back for The Game.He was also involved in an injury to tri-captain Stephanie Wilka during a game against visiting Northeastern.

“It was rainy and slippery outside,” LaVoi says, “and we were putting up a pyramid and it slipped. Steph landed on her ankle, and then I landed on her ankle. It was really sore and bruised for a while. But Steph’s a soldier—she walked it off.”

To add insult to injury, the cheerleaders often have trouble obtaining the medical attention they need.

“We don’t have sports status,” sophomore Doug Jamieson laments. “We try not to get hurt because we get no love from the trainers.”

“They offer us an ambulance to UHS,” LaVoi adds.

Once football season ends, the cheerleaders switch over to basketball, and attend every men’s and women’s home game.

“It’s a long season,” tri-captain Deddeh Ballah says. “It’s hard, you get fatigued, you get injured. At the end of the season, you’re run down.”

In addition to the busy game and travel schedule, the team practices three times a week, from 6:50 am to 9 am. Nevertheless, the cheerleaders love what they do.

“It’s a lot of fun,” says junior tri-captain Shirley Veronica Cardona when asked about the long road trips. “Sometimes we go overnight, and it’s fun to stay in hotels. It’s like a mini vacation, until we have to cheer in the cold the next morning.”

Outsiders unfamiliar with cheerleading sometimes criticize the sport for the fact that, at least superficially, it involves cheering for other people rather than proactively accomplishing something for oneself. Yet the Harvard cheerleaders defend and relish their roles.

“I think one of our other captains articulated it best the other day on the van to Dartmouth,” Cardona says. “She said, ‘The football players always come up to us and say ‘Thank you,’ or they IM us and say, ‘Thank you for cheering, thanks for standing in the cold.’

“I really wish I could tell them, ‘Thank you for thanking us, but this is our equivalent to your football. We do it because we love the sport; we don’t really do it because we’re cheering for you,”’ Cardona continues.

“Even if there were no football games,” Ballah adds, “we would still be cheerleaders. A lot of us have competed before, some at high schools that didn’t even have football or basketball teams. But we do love cheering for the team.”

“They’re awesome,” Ballah continues, “they’re undefeated, they’ve played really well and they deserve people there cheering them on. We wouldn’t want to cheer for anyone else.”

There are lots of perks for the cheerleaders. For Cardona, one of the greatest is the adoration of the little kids who attend the games.

“When we cheer at home,” she says, “a lot of the Boston inner-city youth programs come, and all the little girls and all the little boys love us to death and make us feel like we’re rock stars. They yell our names out all day long, and at the end they run down and have us autograph their magazines.”

“They ask for hugs—and numbers,” remarks another cheerleader. “The little boys don’t realize how old we are. But we love being stalked by 10-year-olds.”

Besides cheering at the football and basketball games, the cheerleading team plans to begin competing this year. They hope to participate in a regional competition in December.

“We’re really excited,” Ballah says, “and we’re hoping to build our reputation more, and show people how serious and athletic we are.”