The Long Beach State cheer team will begin defense of its USA Collegiate National Championship title when competition season begins in January.
The squad has been working hard to perfect its stunts, tumbling skills and jumps in its routine. Coach Eric Anderson and assistant coach Michelle Hardaway assembled this year’s squad.
The cheerleaders started training for their competition in July and work all the way until December.
“This is one of the only sports that are year round,” Hardaway said.
The team consists of 28 members, 20 of which make up the competition squad.
“There is a good mixture of seniors and freshmen,” Anderson said. “This year, the team looks a lot stronger than the previous year.”
The members come from a wide variety of majors, such as political science, interior design and nursing.
The cheer team performs at LBSU men’s and women’s basketball home games, as well as men’s and women’s volleyball games. In the spring, members focus on their own routine.
“We have amped up our tumbling and made our stunts more elite,” Anderson said.
This team is sought after by many students and every year during the summer, Hardaway evaluates potential members’ tumbling, jumps and stunting skills.
“We usually look at 50 to 60 people during that time,” Hardaway said.
Hardaway said her main job is to recruit and look at athletes that may potentially contribute to the teams.
This year, the routine takes on a greater degree of difficulty. The stunts have cheerleaders, known as “flyers,” start off with round-off back handsprings before jumping into another team member to be caught and thrown into the air.
The routine finishes up with the flyer balancing on one foot, while holding a heel stretch.
Many universities in California do not compete on a national level. Teams at USC and UCLA keep to the standard of not fielding competition teams, sticking to the more traditional side of cheerleading.
LBSU is attempting to represent the more athletic side of cheerleading and where cheerleading’s future could be headed.
“Cheerleaders have to be full athletes, their bodies are their instruments,” Hardaway said.
The 49er cheer team won last season’s USA Nationals, hosted in Anaheim, Calif.
“By winning this title last year, it gave us a bid to be able to go to Daytona, Fla. to compete with more schools,” Anderson said. “Teams such as [Michigan] and Texas are their biggest competitors.”
Daytona Fla. is where the best of the best go to compete for a first-place win. Many of the team members expressed their excitement to head out to the competition.
The team also does a lot of work for Hollywood. The 49er cheerleaders have been featured in movies such as “Bring it On 4,” “Bring it On 5” and the upcoming “Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel.”
“Sometimes, Screen Actors Guild pays the members individually,” Hardaway said.
The team will perform their routine for the first time on Jan. 31, 2010 at the Pyramid where it will host the first competition.
“The cheerleading team at CSULB is the one to beat from the west coast,” Anderson said.
