Popular cheerleading chants, like “S-U-C-C-E-S-S! That’s the way we spell success!” or “Go! Fight! Win!” have rarely been used in cheers or per-
formances on the Masters campus. Just as Masters has never had a football team, the school also does not have cheerleaders to energize crowds during sports games.
Instead, students in Muse, a student-led dance group at Masters, perform at some basketball games. Muse Leader and student-athlete Dara Akinwande ‘27 said she believes performances help students get excited about games and encourage them to come.
“I know that for a lot of games, like soccer, there’s lots of instances where people don’t want to walk all the way up to Clarke Field or all the way down to Greene Field [to watch a game]. I think having cheerleaders during half-times could bring the hype [since] it’s not just a game, [but] there’s a performance, too.”
Before creating a cheerleading club, students would need to coordinate with coaches and the team managers to work out logistics, as Muse leaders do before performing at games.
Kate Anderson ‘27, a dancer in the Masters Dance Company (MDC), said she believes cheerleading could also be considered a sport. MDC is a co-curricular offered after school to students enrolled in a Masters dance class. Dance classes focus on technique, while the co-curricular develops choreography.
“Because there’s a range of people coming into this company, it’s important that everyone has at least this basic technique class that can keep them strong and can also help teach them how to act in a choreography setting,” she said.
Like the dance classes offered at Masters, Anderson said a cheerleading class in addition to a co-curricular could help the team focus on their movements and skills.
“Maybe [there can be] a sort of practice in the day, like a class that can train people to do gymnastics. If it is just people simply bringing school spirit, I think that leads to more of a club area, but if [cheerleading] does show the same athleticism as a sport, I think it should be considered a sport if they’re obviously going to be doing it after school and are committed,” she said.
Whether a team or club is formed, cheerleaders could greatly affect sports spirit, drawing in athletes and non-athletes from the Masters community.
Akinwande said, “Cheerleaders could hype up a game and make it more exciting, especially for [the] people who are watching. It [would] make people want to come and support everyone else.”
