Cheerleading: A Sport That Deserves Recognition
Editorial written by Mallory Raymond
What is cheerleading? According to Britannica.com, Cheerleading is a team activity in which elements of dance and acrobatics are combined with shouted slogans in order to entertain spectators at sporting events and to encourage louder and more enthusiastic cheering. Competitive cheer teams compete against a host of other teams and must perform a high-entry 2.5-minute routine, encompassing gymnastics, stunting, baskets, pyramids, jumping, dance, and chanting.
Everyone has asked me my entire life, “What sport do you play?” I was always hesitant to say cheer because many people don't believe cheer is a sport.
Cheer to me is more than just a sport. Cheer has given me family. The trust that I have to have in my team and they have to have in me is beyond trust in any other sport. To go out on the mat and know that my team is going to catch me and perform the routine correctly is how our bonds are built. I have to also trust myself and have confidence to know my team is the best.
What makes cheerleading a sport? A panel of three to five judges use a point system for judging the teams on the proficiency of their skills and the difficulty of the skills. This takes a lot of stamina and strength, along with bravery and confidence.
Cheer requires the same physical demand and athleticism found in other sports.
Cheerleaders may not always get the credit they deserve as athletes, but the sport requires a great deal of physical and mental strength and bravery that all other sports require.
According to Britannica.com, although cheerleading is predominantly associated with femininity today, the original cheerleaders were men. Cheerleading was connected to the emergence of gridiron football at Ivy League colleges and universities in the United States in the mid-1800s, and the growth and formalization of cheerleading paralleled that of football.
Women began joining cheer squads during the 1920s and 1930s as collegiate sports. Women and people of color were excluded from cheerleading and sports.
I have been doing cheerleading since I was 6 years old. I strongly believe that cheerleading is a sport due to all the work and dedication I have put into it.
The money, the time, the work, the effort, the skill, the hurt, and the joy.
Some viewpoints from people are stronger than others. David Harrison, another avid sports fan, held a different view. He says, “Yes, I consider cheerleading a sport because a sport is all about competition. They all scored and won differently. Cheerleading has competitions, and they score and win just like any other sport."
Lily says, “Cheerleading is definitely becoming a sport. It used not to be nearly as intense, but it is now much more competitive. Just like soccer and football, cheerleading teams require just as much practice to learn all of the crazy stunts they do. In order to be a cheerleader, you need to be very flexible and coordinated, which you don’t need to be in many other sports. If cheerleading becomes an official sport for women in college, I think that it will become a bigger sport in high school and junior high. Being able to have a cheerleading scholarship would help many with the opportunity of going to college and pursuing their dreams.”
In conclusion, cheer meets the criteria for a sport. It requires physical training, teamwork, strategic planning, confidence, bravery, stamina, and personality, similar to other sports. Cheerleaders demonstrate remarkable athleticism and dedication, along with other sports. Cheerleaders deserve acknowledgment and credit for the mental and physical toll that it has on an individual.
The negative effects that the early start time of school has on adolescents
Editorial written by Patricia Dorrance
The alarm clock goes off and it's time for my day to start but my body and my brain are not ready. I am supposed to get up and get ready for school. Because of this early alarm, I go through the day tired and unfocused.
Throughout the years, high school and middle school students’ academic success has been negatively impacted due to the early time that school starts.
When kids are tired, they are not able to focus on what is being taught to them. A lack of required sleep is detrimental to adolescents' brain function. Students who get a better, more healthy sleep, are more likely to have improved memory and learning capabilities.
If a student doesn’t get a good night's sleep, they are more likely to fall asleep during class which makes them miss the lesson being taught to them. If students don’t hear the lesson, they will fall behind in the class and their grades will suffer from it.
Instead of going home after school and being productive by studying for a test that is the next day or doing a homework assignment that is due in the morning, students are more likely to go home and sleep because they are so tired. This is another thing that can lead to students falling behind, missing work and not being prepared for tests.
Also, a later start time to the school day would help improve attendance and tardiness. When school starts at such an early time like 7:35 a.m., students are more likely to skip the first period in order to get more sleep, leading to a high number of tardies.
In 2016, there was a study done that observed eight schools that delayed their start times from 7:20 a.m. to 8:35 a.m. and 8:55 a.m. This study showed a decrease in tardiness in all eight schools. One school even cited as high as a 66 percent decrease in tardiness.
Attendance is also a problem due to the early start time of school. When adolescents’ alarms go off at such an early hour of the morning, instead of getting up, they decide to sleep and skip school because of how tired they are. This is seen more in students who are not academically motivated.
If these students are given more time to sleep and get ready in the morning, it is predicted that attendance will approve. This can help adolescents to be able to get a good sleep and have time to get ready, making them feel more productive.
Adolescents' mental and physical health are directly impacted by a lack of sleep and an early wake up. When adolescents get the proper amount of sleep, they have a greater ability to cope and manage stress. If adolescents are sleep deprived, not only are they not able to manage their stress well but they are easily aggravated, have frequent mood swings, and more behavioral problems develop.
After exploring the connections between sleep and mental health in a study of 620 teenagers in 2018, it was seen that teenagers who have sleep struggles are more likely to be struggling with mental health issues than those who get the proper, healthy amount of sleep.
Not only is mental health affected by early start times in schools, but so is physical health. Sleep helps reduce the chances of developing things like diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. Sleep is crucial because it gives your body time to repair and heal.
When adolescents don't get the proper amount of sleep and are forced to wake up early in the morning, they become less energized which can lead to less exercise, unhealthy food options, and they become reliant on energy drinks which all very negatively affect a person's physical health.
Students are very reliant on caffeine. When students are forced to wake up early without being able to get the proper sleep needed, they turn to caffeine to boost their energy which is only a temporary solution.
When adolescents consume caffeine late in the day like they do to stay awake and try to be productive, it impacts their sleep, which makes it much more difficult for them to wake up at the required time for school. This becomes a revolving cycle putting a lot of dependence on caffeine to keep them awake and functioning.
Caffeine is also particularly dangerous for adolescents. It can lead to many negative outcomes such as anxiety, dehydration, heart complications, hitters, nausea, and like said before, sleep disturbance.
Adolescents' learning capabilities and energy levels are heavily impacted by the early wake up alarm of school. School starting at around 8:30 a.m. can help reduce the negative effects that come from waking up so early.
Source: https://www.sleepjunkie.com/benefits-to-starting-school-later/
Former Police K-9 transitions to House Pet Life
Feature Story written by Alyssa Grogan
Most in the workforce consider the “retired life” a dream, but this reality looks much different for police K-9s. When New York State Trooper Kevin Grogan retired from the NYS Police in August 2020, his K-9 partner, Roy, retired with him. Grogan states that retiring with his dog was a given for him, and he recalls his dog's behaviors and accomplishments while on the job.
In 2016, Roy, a Belgian Malinois, was trained in Cooperstown, N.Y., and then served with Trooper Grogan for five years. The training process varies between dogs and handlers, typically taking six months, but Grogan completed the feat in only three months, crediting Roy's remarkable personality. He was trained as a full patrol dog responsible for handler protection, tracking, and explosive detection, and he could engage on command.
"Each dog has different attributes, but Roy was the best well-rounded dog I ever worked with," Grogan says, explaining that Roy excelled in nearly every part of his job. As Grogan's third dog through his 18 years on the K-9 unit, he had experience with several breeds and training methods but still remarks that Roy's performance set him apart.
"He was a very friendly dog, but when he had a task, he was extremely focused," former Trooper Grogan explains. Roy's most notable case occurred in 2018 when he tracked down evidence for a homicide case. While completing a grid search, Roy found the suspect's cell phone, ultimately breaking open the case after further tracking.
However, Roy wasn't just known for his remarkable performance. He also had a unique quirk, his signature teeth "clanking." Whether searching a building or tracking down a suspect, Roy would snap his teeth together out of excitement.
Retired for nearly five years, Roy's life and routine look very different now, and several of his behaviors have changed. Once a generally quiet dog, Roy barks more often despite shedding his constant alert mode.
"He's so much mushier now, like a lap dog; he was always on edge before," says Tricia, Grogan's wife. Roy's is also more relaxed overall, becoming a typical house pet. Grogan says he'll even be caught snoring sometimes, a drastic comparison to rarely sleeping during his working days.
Adjusting to retired life wasn't a hard transition for Roy, as he spends just as much time with his partner, just in a different role. His social and friendly personality made him a great worker in the field and now makes him a perfect companion at home. The shift from Roy's earlier days of police work is certainly significant, but it's a well-earned reward of peace and quiet.
There are not enough hours in the day
Blog post written by Ryan Morrow
As spring arrives and the gloom of winter passes it feels as if we have dived head first into a frenetic whirlwind. Sports are back, final preparation has begun, AP tests are soon, concerts and plays are put on, thousands of hours of effort are beginning to bear fruit and it's impossible to keep up with it all.
On top of it all graduation looms large over it all. The last play, test, game, session, meeting, concert. Everything is important because it's the last. Days are starting to drag but weeks are starting to fly. Now we are committing to plans and what they want to do with our lives. We are looking both forward to the future and back to the past, so rapidly it makes my head spin. It's out with the old and in with the new and we are both the old and the new.
We know so much and are realizing we know so little. We have become big fish in a small pond and for the first time we get to choose where we want to go, creak, river, ocean, lake, the possibilities seem endless. However it feels the walls of life close in just as the roof is removed. Real responsibilities have emerged, things we can’t ignore or run from. We have jobs to go to, family to take care of, situations unique to us that others simply couldn't understand.
To make it worse we are expected to fit everything into just 24 hours a day. Whenever we seem to be wasting time the clock freezes and the hours slowly pass but then when we do something meaningful the clock becomes our greatest enemy and the hours pass so quick you can't even read the clock. So I say we need more hours just for us.
Dog Songs- Mary Oliver, pg. 3
Blog post written by Izzy Dulay
I attempted to find a poetry book on my shelf that caught my eye; I failed. I decided to explore new authors to expand my collection. I searched through reviews and videos of popular, but deep thoughted poets. I came across Mary Oliver, a poet that writes poems similar to how I do. Her style of writing is simple, but it always has a deeper, underlying meaning. Her work allows readers to create their own interpretations and opinions of what the poem is trying to express, one of the things I find beautiful about poetry. I settled on one of her books, “Dog Songs” since there is something so sweet about the everlasting love a dog has, but this love is not always reciprocated by a human.
Oliver talks about the needs a human has based on societal expectations. We are expected to follow a religion because some find it easier to have a plan for the afterlife, or we have been told it can bring great miracles. Then, when we don’t experience these miracles, we sway away from religion, until we are filled with hope again.
We find security in a job that makes us money, keeps a roof over our heads, and keeps us satisfied. That is until we get tired of long shifts, baggy eyes, and stained shirts; we begin to long for the traveling life, living in the country-side life. We try to live more freely, less tied down. We try to explore a life without employment and viewing the world behind a window, we long to see it up close.
We become so engulfed in the idea that we have to stay busy to avoid problems, thoughts, and stress, though this only builds our stress more. We start canceling dinner plans, stop sending morning and evening messages, forget to plan a movie night and all of a sudden we’re alone. We become disoriented, yet ignore it because this isn’t only a personal feeling, but one felt worldwide. We long for everything we can’t have. We long for the only things a dog possesses: everlasting loyalty, dedication, and love.
We can’t comprehend what it is like to love someone unconditionally and always want to be there for them, no matter what they’ve done; dogs do. They are the most genuine things this world has to offer, and they have shown us what this love does. It pushes and motivates us to be better, kinder, gentler, and more sure of ourselves. Oliver puts our perspectives of, “a man’s best friend” perfectly into words, while also incorporating social expectations instilled by society.