“Everyone today wants instant gratification, and that’s not how cheerleading works at all, ” says Chelsea Skidd, head coach of AISB’s cheer team with 25 years in the cheer industry. “You need to show up to practice. You need to be prepared to fail. You need to be prepared to get hurt.” 

Day after day, cheerleading is underestimated by those who base their opinions off of stereotypes that create an idea that it’s incredibly easy. But, cheerleading is so much more than that. From gymnastics to stunts to basket tosses to dances that make you feel like you can’t breathe after you finish a routine, cheer becomes something most people aren’t cut out for unless they give it all.

As a member and initiator of the school’s cheerleading team, I decided to reach out to people inside and outside of the cheer community in order to gain more insight on how the sport is viewed at AISB.

In this first-person narrative, I hope to raise awareness of cheer as a sport and recognize its popularity worldwide, aiming to get as many people to try it out as possible.

Throwing People Into The Air

According to Frontiers of Public Health,  “In the United States, over 3.5 million adolescents participate in cheerleading.”

It’s about time that cheer opens the eyes of those who diminish it in order to make the team stronger than ever.

Cheerleading is a professional sport that originated in the US, being declared an olympic sport in 2021. In essence, cheer consists of elements like:

• Gymnastics
• Human Pyramids
• Basket Tosses
• Dance

Generally, an overall maximum two and a half minute routine consisting of all of these different aspects.   The range of levels go from zero to seven and after that comes collegiate and pro-league cheer as skills advance.

To go more into depth, cheerleading consists of stunts and stunt groups which have one or two bases, a backspot and a flyer who is the person being carried which standing on the palm of their hands. 

Cheerleading teams often do not have a specific number of members and can range from 5-40+.

“90% of specific elements in our sport consist of high lifts and throws and in order to execute them the team must trust each other completely,” states KOT founder and coach, Laura Roman, in an article posted on Red Bull’s website.

The Origins of Cheer at AISB

Let’s dive in more locally, how did cheer start in AISB?

It all began when I had watched a TV show on Netflix (Cheer) about the college cheer team: Navarro. After viewing the show with my mom, I got the idea that it would be incredible to take part in a group like that. So my mom and I emailed Alexandru Sota ( Head of CCA and Sports at AISB) to possibly start the initiative. After he reached out to teachers, he found Chelsea Skidd, the previous all star cheerleader throughout high school and college who was thrilled to coach the activity. 

Every time we throw a full out routine, I am out of breath even in the middle at times without the pure adrenaline in competitions. Sometimes, it can even be frustrating when we don’t do every single element right. 

As a backspot at times, I try my hardest to catch the girls on our team, often catching them moments before they hit the ground.

I have served many different positions, such as being a flyer, a tumbler, a backspot, or a base. You really get to try anything. 

I also believe that my background in gymnastics and dance has helped me and the team as a whole to succeed in cheer.

Since our first practice in 2021, the team has started growing its number of participants and its difficulty within skills, although it fluctuates based on the team. 

We have participated in the Cheer Up Winter Cup for two years in Cluj-Napoca, winning first and second place.

This year (2026)  we went to our biggest competition yet: The German All Level Cheerleading Championships hosted by Varsity in Dusseldorf, Germany. Thousands of cheerleaders participated, and it gathered teams from all around Europe like Paris and other cities in Germany. We competed at Level 2.

The championship was really good because it was really fun to see other teams participate.And we also talked a lot with other teams and got to know each other. It was a really fun team event. I really liked performing because it finally felt like after a year of practicing a routine that it all came to something.

Grade 7 student Meagan G., flyer of two years

Common Misconceptions: An “Easy” Sport

Throughout the years, cheerleading has been viewed as simple dancing with pom poms. A lot of people tend to confuse cheerleading (stunts, pyramids, gymnastics) with majorettes which is the actual sport of that type of dancing. 

According to Grady New Source, “Male cheerleaders made up 21.5% of all cheerleading participants in 2018, according to a Sports & Fitness Industry Association report. A UCLA study reported that this percentage rises to 50% for collegiate teams.”

The amount of physical effort that cheerleaders put into a routine that is only around two minutes trains endurance and actually develops your muscle mass to a great extent. Think of it as going to the gym, but you are lifting actual people as your weights. Harder than it looks, right?

Cheer has also been set aside as a sport only for girls since some people think of it as “girly”, “easy”, “simple” (just like stereotypes within ballet or gymnastics) but it’s so much more than that. In fact, cheerleading actually started as an all male activity, but the history of cheer will be discussed later in the article. 

After we performed at the opening ceremony for the boys basketball tournament, one of the basketball coaches of our school came up and he goes, ‘I don’t think any of the guys, really understand what just happened out there.’

AISB Cheer Coach Chelsea Skidd

Additionally a lot of boys do have a more developed muscle mass or endurance than some girls due to their participation in other heavily trained sports which makes them the perfect candidates to try out being bases during pyramids.

Let’s hear from the first guy to ever try cheerleading at our school:

I think it’s important for guys to join the team so we have stronger people. So that more people can try and be flyers.

– Grade 9 Student, Viktor S

The intense effort that the team puts in to throw girls in the air, construct pyramids, throw flips is all strength, without it our team would not make it. Strength and endurance is often seen in many other sports where boys do participate, so why not cheer?

There are many stunts within the cheerleading world that mostly boys perform like: a cupie. This is where a boy holds one of the flyers in one hand above his head, seen below:

Most of the time they don’t understand why we have boys in our teams. When they announce that we will have a cheerleading team performing, everybody is like, ‘Look at those boys. Where are your skirts, boys?’ Things like this. And when they start to throw the stunts and the pyramids, everybody is shocked.

 Carmen Biris, president of Cheer Romania

How Did Cheer Start: In the World and in Romania

The first cheering chant was at Princeton College in 1884 at an athletic event, marking the subtle beginning of cheerleading but not fully yet.

But cheerleading was truly considered to be “born” when Johnny Campbell (a student) stood up and jumped over the fence to start a united chant at the University of Minnesota. That day is considered the “birthday of cheerleading”, exactly November 2nd.

All in all, since that day more groups got together to make leaders and actually make more chants, lifts and some tumbling, so original cheerleaders were actually mostly men.

According to USA Cheer,  “While women were permitted to be on cheerleading teams, yell leaders were predominantly male up until World War II. With ‘the men going off to war’, women filled the role on the sidelines. Once the war was over, cheerleading remained overwhelmingly a female activity. Today, females account for approximately 85% of participants.”

Cheerleading was a predominantly male sport until WWII. Afterwards, it has been predominantly female.

Over the years, cheerleading got even more complicated, difficult and required more athletic performance, and often began spreading through school programs.

Programs outside of school (private clubs) are named “All Star” and the first one was actually only in the late 1980’s. With the All Star community growing the USASF (United States All Star Federation) was created, having more than 150,000 cheerleaders participating.

Our cheerleading coach shared her experience of competing in important competitions while still in high school within the USA:

So we went to Disney Orlando every single year for competition. We were finalists almost every single year.  We were competing against all the other high school teams in the entire nation.

– Chelsea Skidd

According to Frontiers of Public Health, “In China, the number of participants has exceeded 40 million.”.

But, how about Romania?

The first professional cheerleading club in Romania were the KOT Team also known as the Knights of Transylvania, they compete in world championships representing Romania and different professional competitions.

The two coaches who are the head of KOT used to coach traditional cheerleading but then began to receive influence from the US and other countries, shifting to what cheerleading is today. 

They each used to coach rival teams but decided that in order to make a strong cheerleading team, they could join forces. Their names are Laura Kato and Carmen Biris. They created the team in 2014.

Nowadays, every cheer teams wants to claim achievements. The biggest skills, the hardest skills, go to Worlds, go to competitions, go to big projects. And when they see it’s not that easy as it looks like, they give up.

Carmen Biris, president of Cheer Romania

They have also participated in Varsity-led cheer championships (Varsity is the biggest cheer organization) but the pandemic happened and they didn’t attend this one, and other world and european championships.

After the pandemic hit it was a hard time as they missed training and lost their location but partnered with a student’s house in Cluj and continued on.

Making the Cheer Team: How Hard Can it Be?

Joining a cheer team is all about dedication, commitment, hard work and overall to be fueled by a strong passion for the sport. Anyone can truly join cheer no matter where their background is, skills can be learned and we were all new participants at one point. 

Cheer also taught me that it’s not about me. Yeah, you’re in front of the spotlight, but it’s your team that’s in front of the spotlight. It’s not about you.

Chelsea Skidd

But, once you join you have to know that you want to be a part of the team as even having one person missing impacts the whole team. Stunts include a few people, if one isn’t there it becomes challenging to practice and to actually get it right in time for the competition.

“I would probably say that [new participants] can learn so many new things that can help them in other sports but not only cheer,” says grade 7 student Meagan G. “And it can also help them with being more flexible.”

Every person improves their skills and knowledge in their own time, but motivation is key and so is help. 

We always aim to push ourselves out of our comfort zones and skills in order to become better ourselves, but overall, better for the whole team.

It is always a fight to add new skills and make sure we can become the best version of ourselves together!

I don’t need to go on crazy diets. I don’t need to change who I am. The only thing that I need to focus on in cheerleading is being strong, both physically and mentally, because cheerleading doesn’t just challenge you physically.It challenges you mentally, too. And I think growing up with that kind of perseverance and being adaptable to changes because what happens when someone gets hurt and it changes everything, you need to, you know, fix everything and you’re working with your entire team.

– Chelsea Skidd

Cheer isn’t about looking a certain way or having enough skills beforehand to be able to join, mentality is more important than anything.

We focus on increasing difficulty, cleanness, execution and all of the different things that make our team better than we were last practice.

The second you improve how you’re performing, that’s the minute that the whole team improves. 

Cheer is more about dedication than anything else. You give your all and hope to have a team that gives the same.