As any good Wesleyan tour guide would hammer into the impressionable minds of young pre-frosh, the University boasts an extensive athletics program and a slew of extracurricular offerings. However, one activity has been markedly absent from campus in the past. Now the Wesleyan Cheerleading Team, a nascent organization headed by Maggie Feldman-Piltch ’14, is making its debut.
Feldman-Piltch envisions the team as a unique group dedicated to supporting students in the variety of endeavors they undertake. While she promises that the squad will be present in uniform at football and basketball games for a halftime show, she also hopes that the squad can simply be additional bodies—in street clothes—in the audience at arts events.
“Part of the reason I chose to come to Wesleyan is because I’m a singer and I love it,” Feldman-Piltch said. “I want [us] to be a group of students who want to see other students on campus do what they love and cheer them on by clapping. It would be kind of ridiculous to show up to the Center for the Arts in uniform.”
The team, which encourages the participation of students with and without cheer experience, plans to practice for several hours every Wednesday and Saturday starting this week. According to Feldman-Piltch, this practice schedule should prepare the team to cheer at any and all sports games as well as provide support at arts events, and even club activities this spring.
“The way that I cheered for four years [in high school] was to go to every sports event,” Feldman-Piltch said. “I have cheered at golf. I have cheered at tennis. I have cheered at water polo. We cheered at chess once. That was an experience.”
Feldman-Piltch encourages the student body to abandon preconceived stereotypes and consider the Wesleyan Cheerleading Team as a way to physically energize the school’s population.
“Someone asked if we’d be willing to cheer outside of finals,” Feldman-Piltch said.
Many students have welcomed the idea of a cheerleading team as a beneficial addition to the already vibrant student community.
“I think it’s a mode of expression and also athleticism,” said dancer Katherine Clifford ’14. “If it generates inclusivity, school spirit, enthusiasm, and supports our athletes, then it will be a positive thing.”
Football athletes in particular have expressed enthusiasm about the emerging cheerleading squad.
“I’m excited, honestly, because this year not having cheerleaders, it was very different,” said Ernest Wingate ’14, a football and track athlete. “In junior football and high school football we had cheerleaders. It kind of makes the whole experience seem complete.”
“How could a football player not be excited to have cheerleaders?” added his football teammate, Michael Mattia ’14.
While Wingate admits that it would be unconventional to have cheerleaders supporting him during his track meets, he nonetheless embraces the possibility.
“I’m always up for trying something new,” Wingate said. “I’ve never heard an actual chant or a cheer directed at track, but I welcome it. More enthusiasm, more people at meets. Let’s do it!”
A few athletes, however, have remained less supportive.
“I would vomit while I was on the field if they showed up at a women’s soccer game,” said a member of the women’s soccer team who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I feel like cheerleading is just an excuse for girls to think that they are doing a sport when they aren’t.”
In actuality, the cheerleading team’s current roster includes 13 males and 10 females.
Perhaps the biggest question that students have raised is regarding the utility of a cheerleading team.
“I think that if it was necessary, it would already be in place,” said the women’s soccer player.
Many student athletes said that they believe the best support comes from Cardinals fans.
“Support from cheerleaders is contrived,” said the women’s soccer player. “I like support from normal fans and people who come to the game because they wanted to, not because it’s their ‘sport.’”
However, Feldman-Piltch believes that with hard work and dedication, she and her cheerleading squad can prove to the University that cheerleading can have its place on campus.
“It’s a good time,” Feldman-Piltch said. “Cheerleading at my high school was not what people typically associate with cheerleading. I just think it’s fun.”
Feldman-Piltch also said that a cheerleading team is simply an outlet through which to channel the school spirit that many University students feel.
“The first thing they teach us here is the fight song,” Feldman-Piltch said. “You go to Wesleyan, you should be excited about it. I’m excited about it.”