Cheerleader

Back in 1986 cheer squads with males were unheard of in Utah County, if not Utah. Kaye Woodward, the cheer advisor at Orem High School thought that some big strapping boys could add dimensions previously unknown to her squad. The thing is, unless she got the right boys, she might end up with some dimensions that she didn't really wish for. Think about it. If she held a tryout, who do you think would show up? There were actually three or four guys in our school that I think might have tried out. I'm pretty sure that they couldn't lift, let alone toss a girl in the air. As things turned out my girl tossing didn't turn out so well either. But that is the subject of the next story. Needless to say, Kaye did not hold a tryout. She went recruiting.

I don't know if she had this inspiration at the end of the football season, or if she calculated it that way. At any rate, she went after football players that weren't playing a winter sport. That made me a candidate. I, however, was not having any of it. I had some pretty rigid gender roles set in my mind so when she asked me if I would be a male yell leader on her squad, I responded curtly "No way, I'm not a fag." Given this comment, I think it is ironic that of all the guys that ended up as yell leaders at Orem High for the basketball season during the winter of 1985-86, I was the onlly one that did not end up playing college football. Mike Lewis played at Utah, John Nichols played at Dixie, Joe Herrick played at BYU, all state quarterback and outside linebacker Ryan Beckstead could have played just about anywhere but got a Benson scholarship at BYU and and I can't recall where, but I think Gabe Roux played somewhere too. All of these guys readily accepted Kay's offer. Maybe that tells you something about their level of comfort with their masculine identity. It surely tells you that I was really pretty insecure. Kaye petitioned me a few times but when I dismissed her out of hand every time she settled on the above list of guys and proceeded to put her plan into action.

Unfortunately, there was a bump in the road leading to her goal. Ryan Beckstead was also the President of the LDS Seminary. They had a rule that the officers in the seminary could not also be school officers or cheerleaders. So, while he was willing, he was not able. That put Kaye one yell leader short. So, she came back to me again, only this time more desperate. When I continued to say no she must have decided to take another approach and use the back door. She called me one Saturday morning and said that they had a practice and would I please just come and stand in so they could practice their routine. I told her that I would help her this one time if she would just stop pestering me. I went, helped and then started to leave.

"Wait!" she shouted urgently. "You can't abandon us now, we don't have anyone else and you know the routine."

"A deal is a deal." I said in a cavalier manner, and turned to go.

"What can I do to get you to do this?" she pleaded.

I sensed an opportunity for gain here and responded in kind. "Let me take your sportscar to junior prom." I said.

Now it was Kaye's turn to go in for the kill. "Deal!" She exclaimed.

In retrospect, I could probably have gotten a lot more out of her but I was not a polished negotiator and if you saw what I had to drive to the junior prom in, you probably would have done the same thing.

The real lesson here is that, for the most part, cheerleading was a great experience. It also provides the next couple of stories for my blog. Mostly, I learned-too little,too late for high school-that rejecting something because it doesn't fit inside of some warped paradigm, only limits me and keeps me from the kind of learning that opens up future opportunities. In retrospect I wish I had been involved in debate, fbla, choir and even drama. While I still have my limits, I am much more open to new ideas and opportunities.