College Football Games

[stuntaholic]

I have never been to a college football game and consequently have not seen college cheerleaders cheer at one. I wanted to know what cheerleaders do at a football game in college. In general how it differs or is the same as what is done at most high schools across the nation (Generally do a ton of sideline cheers with motions and occasionally stunt).
Thanks for all of your help

 

[Ashley]

It's going to vary depending on what college you go to. We'd usually have to arrive 1-2 hours before the game started. Our school had kind of pre-game fun-zone area and we would usually go out there and do a few cheers, hang out, greet people etc.

When the game was starting we would run out with the football players with flags and line up for the national anthem. We would do a basket toss on every kickoff, a pyramid between every quarter, sideline cheers obviously, stunts or a pyramid during time outs. We had dances to song the band played so we would do that with them. Half time was our down time, the band performed and we would usually watch or get a snack or just chill.

It's not that different than high school, just on a bigger scale.

 

[ScottyB]

It's not that different than high school, just on a bigger scale.

Basically yea. In college you mainly do sideline chants rather than cheers like a lot of HS games. There is pressure from the athletic department to bring the volume up in the stadiums so stunts, baskets, signs are used a lot more to get the crowd's attention.

 

[stuntaholic]

Is there really any motion work involved with the chants like you would have in traditional high school sideline cheer?

 

[Ashley]

Is there really any motion work involved with the chants like you would have in traditional high school sideline cheer?

We did sideline cheers that had motions, yeah. Even our chants had simple motions.

Are you a guy? The guys motions were basically non-existent. They got to bang on their megaphone a lot.

 

[stuntaholic]

I am a guy. But this isn't for me. I am a high school coach and dislike the standing there and doing sideline cheer. I will be taking over for the head coach this upcoming year would like to make changes to the program. I want to be able to prepare all of my athletes to cheer in college and don't want to put them at a disadvantage by eliminating the traditional sideline cheer from our high school team.

 

[stuntaholic]

Do you think I could eliminate the traditional sideline cheer and not put the kids at a disadvantage when trying out for a collegiate team?

 

[cheerheart4life]

Do you think I could eliminate the traditional sideline cheer and not put the kids at a disadvantage when trying out for a collegiate team?

Eliminating sideline would put them at a disadvantage. The more experience they have cheering in front of a crowd and for their school the better!! College cheer focuses a lot on their athletic program and being spirited!!

 

[stuntaholic]

I want them cheering in front of a crowd and leading a crowd. I am saying eliminate the standard say a cheer and stand there and do motions. I feel like from what I have heard from college cheer it is more using signs and chants.

 

[Audrey]

I'm not sure how true this is for other colleges but I've found at my school games are a lot more time consuming than they were at my high school. At my high school we just got there an hour before my game and warmed up and cheered. Here we get here hours before the game so we can warm up, greet the team off their bus, adjust hair and makeup, help out at the tailgate, run on the field with the team, national anthem, kickoff, etc. Then the games tend to be a bit longer because of tv timeouts.
Other than that, it's pretty much the same thing. I think it's more exciting though.

 

[cheerheart4life]

I want them cheering in front of a crowd and leading a crowd. I am saying eliminate the standard say a cheer and stand there and do motions. I feel like from what I have heard from college cheer it is more using signs and chants.

You could give them signs to use and have them intergrate them with cheers and chants. I would also have them stunt and jump!

 

[Kentucky Girl]

I know that the University of Kentucky squad performs the Wildcat Pyramid (just like my avatar) in which the Wildcat mascot goes up in an extension prep and then stunts are put up on both sides with the arms overlapping. The entire pyramid then rotates 360 degrees while the Wildcat Marching Band performs the 2001: Space Odyssey theme. The only difference is that in football games, the cheerleaders do not use the flag than they do at basketball games.

Cheerleaders also perform pyramids that you don't see in competitions which include the table top pyramid and the diamond head. These type of pyramids that too much time to execute.

 

[Ems]

I don't think it's so much a big deal about the style of cheers, whether it's sideline or chants, as it is getting used to the college style.
The biggest difference I went through is stunting during games. We stunt during every other cheer, pyramids and baskets during quarters and time outs, and you have to be ready for it all. You want to get the crowds attention and have them cheer with you. A lot of the cheers are so simple so people can follow.
I think another big thing is the collegiate "look." Everything you do is sharp and you are always smiling. If you're holding a sign, whenever you move it, it has to hit just like a motion would. Same if you're flying, you need to be sharp and hitting your motion and smiling, even if the stunt is moving underneath you. I'll go watch high school games occasionally and I always notice how sloppy they are, they're standing all relaxed and talking to other teammates about their weekend plans, fiddling with their hair, or god forbid chewing gum. Even though I'm totally guilty of doing those things in high school, in college it's like a sin.

 

[Ashley]

I want them cheering in front of a crowd and leading a crowd. I am saying eliminate the standard say a cheer and stand there and do motions. I feel like from what I have heard from college cheer it is more using signs and chants.

It's both. Some schools probably have different ratios of cheers to chants, but we definitely had our repertoire of cheers that we had to learn the sometimes complicated motions for. Try to incorporate more chants and signs and so forth, but the cheers will definitely help them with motions.