It is more appealing to the human eye that things are symmetrical. That symmetry means opposites being as similar as possible and putting unique things in the middle. If you have a small senior team with 19 platinum blonds with pale white skin and one girl who native american, dark skinned and dark brunette hair and you her one off the center it will be noticed. No, it will not be 'punished'. But as cheerleading is all about visuals and being visually appealing something like this can distract the judges for a second away from the task at hand. Anything you would do visually that would make people think about something other than what is being performed I would try and avoid. The same goes for crazy hair styles or tattoos. Individuals on teams like to think of themselves as special and want to stand out in a performance. That is exactly the opposite of what wins. The more homogenous a routine looks and is performed the better it will do.
