Trinity freshman Peter Weld entered Cameron Indoor Stadium Thursday night hoping to exit as the varsity cheerleading squad's first male member in more than a decade.
And although he failed at the attempt, his efforts raised several issues with both members of the team and administrators.
"It would be really cool" to have male cheerleaders, said cheerleader and Trinity sophomore Molly McShane, prior to the announcement of next year's roster. "It would open up the possibility of stunting."
Currently, the University is the only school in the Atlantic Coast Conference without a co-ed squad, on which men's primary role is to assist women in performing stunts. But Tom Butters, director of athletics, grounded the University's team during the mid-1980s following a number of stunting accidents at a variety of colleges and universities across the nation. Although Weld said he did not know the place or exact date of the incidents on which Butters based his decision, he said one woman was killed and another was paralyzed.
Although a man's presence could have resulted in marked changes to the squad, Teresa Ward, cheerleading coach, and many team members said they supported Weld's tryout. "I think it is a great opportunity for our squad," said Trinity senior Sandra Duncan, captain of the team, in an interview prior to Thursday night's cuts. "If there is an interest for guys who want to cheer, I think they should be able to."
Weld, whose involvement in cheerleading began three years ago at the North Carolina School of Science and Math, said after the cuts were posted that he plans to fight the single-sex nature of the squad. "I don't get to dance next year, but maybe I can get to stunt. This is definitely not the end of the story," he said, adding that he hopes to mobilize University students in an effort to reform the current ban on stunting.
"This was a good way to go," Weld said. "I tried to change [the team] from the inside out, but now we have to change from the outside in."
At other institutions with co-ed squads, tryout procedures and requirements often differ for men and women. For example, at North Carolina State University, prospective male and female cheerleaders have the same tryout structure but different requirements, said RaShawn Croutch, one of the captains of N.C. State's squad.
Ouida Bell, N.C. State's cheerleading coach, said that whereas prospective male cheerleaders perform some of the same tricks as the women, they do not dance. She added that most of the men who participate in cheerleading competitions against N.C. State do not take part in the dancing aspects of the performance. Some collegiate teams, however, do permit their men to dance if they so desire.
Weld's tryout requirements were the same as the women's. "We're not going to change the rules just for him," said Joe Alleva, associate director of athletics, who compared Weld's tryout to a woman trying out for a baseball team-the rules of the game would remain the same.
Weld said the current tryout dance has a "feminine flare," which he worried could prove disadvantageous for him. "All these girls-this is what they've done forever," he said. "This is new to me."
Trinity sophomore Jen Chancellor, a member of this year's junior varsity team and next year's varsity squad, agreed with him, saying that the female nature of the dance was to Weld's detriment. "He had to try out the exact same way as females did," she said, "and I think that [was] a disadvantage."
But Duncan and Ward, two of the tryouts' judges, said before tryouts began that they hoped other judges would not evaluate Weld differently because he would be a man performing a feminine dance. "Everyone is doing the same thing," Duncan said. "They're all being looked at the same way."
As long as stunting is not a part of Duke cheerleading, men can expect similar terms of evaluation as their female counterparts. And because of stunting's dangers, no change to the policy is imminent. Still, although safety concerns are present when performing stunts, Bell said the N.C State squad takes every precaution to ensure women's safety. The team learns to perform stunts in progression, starting from the easiest and working toward the most difficult.
In response to the prior stunting accidents, McShane said the National Cheerleading Association improved safety standards for the sport; the NCA has established rules for performing stunts, she said, including the presence of additional people responsible for catching cheerleaders.
Despite these changes, the University has maintained the stunt ban. "We have been told that as long as [Butters] is here the policy will not change," Duncan said.
McShane, however, believes that stunting would add to the overall performance of the team. "The athletic department seems set in its ways," she said. "I'd love to see a change. I really don't think it is necessary to ground us."
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