Cheerleading at University of Louisville

[tigerlillydownunder]

Cheerleading is now recognised as a competitive sport--has been for some time. I think it should be. It's not as easy as people make it out to be!

I personally can not comment on which is a better one to pursue (U of K, or U of L) but having gone to school with a few girls who cheered for one or the other, I can tell you that it's incredibly tough to get into, very tiime consuming, and you have to be able to maintain a strict balance between academics and the social and training time required for cheering.
2 of them were "headhunted" by U of L--both cheered for 2 years until one blew out her knee and that was all she wrote and the other transferred to another college and I don't know whatever happened to her.
The 3rd went to U of K on her own, and barely made it through the try outs, but she managed to win a place on the squad. She cheered one season and then let it go because she was having trouble with that balance and found it hard to maintain her GPO.

That was back in the late 80's and early-mid 90's, so things have probably changed a little--I'd go as far as to say it's become even more difficult?--but like someone else said, if your daughter hasn't been headhunted yet, she might look taking up another sport or activity, or setting her sites on a less "prestigious" group. WKU or EKU, maybe? Both good schools, but I have zero knowledge of cheering there.

Of course, that doesn't mean that your daughter isn't a thoroughly outstanding cheerleader. I'm sure she's terrific! Even high school cheerleading is not as glamorous as a lot of people think, so kudos to her for being able to maintain the balance. Most of my cheerleading friends in middle school opted NOT to continue when they got to high school because it was so all consuming.

Good luck!