Running Low on Good Cheer

Cheerleader Mandy Strohmyer, 16 years old, is contemplating her future at Cypress High School, one without back handsprings, flips, pyramids or leaps. No leaps even. Can you believe that?

And the much-beloved basket toss, the one that sends petite Darcy Fardette up some 10 feet in the air and into the waiting arms of the other squad members? It’s best not to even think about if you don’t want to get depressed.

“So we’ll just be rah-rah girls standing there as ornaments ,” Mandy is saying, disgust dripping from her every word.

You may have heard about the cheerleaders at Cypress and the other seven schools of the Anaheim Union High School District. The district has cut them off at the knees. Well, maybe mid-thigh. Whatever.

“Pop Warner cheer can do more than we can now!” says 16-year-old Jessica Shook, who coaches the elementary school girls who cheer at Pop Warner baseball games. “ They can do double base stands and shoulder stands.”

A quick survey of other area high school cheerleading squads shows that they, too, can do the athletic stunts that are so prized at Cypress High.

And even though the Cypress squad never does any stunts more than two people high--in accord with the rules of the National Cheerleading Assn.--other schools up that to at least three.

But the Anaheim district says it’s a matter of what it considers risk, that it just doesn’t want the big girls getting hurt. It says 10 district girls have filed accident reports, although no legal claims.

Keenan & Associates, risk management consultant to about 1,000 self-insured school districts statewide, says it gave Anaheim Union its standard advice on cheerleading: Cut down your risk if you don’t want to get sued.

“We give them advice to protect the taxpayers’ money,” says Graham Grice, Keenan & Associates vice president.

Thus, enforcement of the district’s kinder and gentler cheerleading rules was put into effect. An occasional knee sit or shoulder sit is now as risky as it may get.

“They stopped doing that in the ‘40s,” sniffs Cypress cheerleader adviser Paul Ortega.

The cheerleaders demonstrate what this means with a less than rousing rendition of “Are You Ready?” There is a brief flurry of precision arm movements, then two of the girls hop up to brace their feet above the knees of four others.

Ta-dah! That’s it. In other words, with a bit of warm up, I could do as much.

Meaning that the cheerleaders of Anaheim Union High School District can kiss competition goodby. And Cypress, especially, was into competitive cheerleading in a very big way.

For the past five years, the 10-member varsity competitive squad has been California state champion. Two years ago, it was ranked No. 2 in the world after a competition in Japan. The squad was hoping to pick up a national title in Dallas next month.

And Katella High School, the other district school hoping to compete in Dallas, had already paid its registration fee.

But since the district got in the business of underwriting the terms of the sport, parents of cheerleaders at both schools have been busy trying to arrange separate insurance coverage for the competition. There is no definitive word yet.

At school games, however, the district’s ban on stunts and gymnastics will stand.

“It’s also kind of like discrimination,” says cheerleader Shari Brookler, 16. “What about football? They have their rules and we have the NCA. These are followed nationwide. They don’t even know what we do !”

“ We are not the ones always getting our wrists and ankles taped,” gripes Teri Smith, also 16.

And Cris Stuart, the L.A. Rams stunt team member who has coached the Cypress squad for nine years, says he’s never had a cheerleader get hurt.

“This is just devastating for us,” the man says. “Whenever we go places, people know who Cypress is. It’s a really big name in cheerleading.”

So, naturally, I wanted to see the squad strut its stuff. But, alas, these are good girls; they were worried about doing any illegal cheers while on school property the other day. There was talk of the cheerleading police.

So I confess that I led them astray, to a nearby park where I might witness them in flagrante delicto myself. And I declined to make a citizen’s arrest.

“What about our uniforms?” wonders one of the girls.

“Well, we paid for them!” says another.

“Yeah, we could be Cypress trees for all they care!” a third pipes up.

This gives you an idea of the prevailing mood. The girls did some stunts, but the look was pretty grim. So how’s the school spirit among those charged with revving it up?

Try sis-boom-blah.