Three cheers, kids learn to shout it out

There's nothing like some shouting to get people in a good mood.

I'm not talking about grumpy old men. I'm talking about cheerleading, that wonderful American tradition of arm raises, leg kicks and sock-it-to-them enthusiasm.

It's gymnastics with a voice.

There's nothing quite like it as I found out the other day after Joni signed our kids up for a cheerleading class in Cape Girardeau.

Our daughters were among a handful of girls, ages 6 to 12, who showed up last week at the Osage Community Centre for the first class.

Their teacher, who had just finished leading an exercise class of adults, jumped right into the cheerleading without having to catch her breath.

Joni and I, along with other parents, sat on the carpet as we intently watched Cheerleading 101.

I was intrigued with all this cheerleading stuff. Sure, I've seen cheerleaders on Sportscenter, but this was different. This wasn't the big-hair, NFL variety that has little to do with cheers and everything about looking good.

This was the honest, good-old-fashioned cheerleading.

Of course, the first thing the group had to do was pick a mascot. You've got to have something to cheer about even if it is in a room where there are no players, scoreboards, referees or teams.

The entire class dismissed any talk of lions, eagles, comets or bears. They preferred tigers, clearly a popular choice in the Cape Girardeau public schools.

After settling on a mascot, their patient instructor, Janet, began teaching them basic arm positions, jumps and, yes, even a few cheers.

When you're going to cheer, the teacher told them, you can't have limp wrists. Clenched fists look good.

"J-U-M-P, J-U-M-P, Jump Up," the kids shouted to the encouragement of the teacher.

They worked long and hard on that one before moving on to the Cookie Monster cheer. Becca and Bailey and, for that matter, all the kids seemed hungry for that one.

I've seen Big Bird and all those Sesame Street characters, but I don't recall the Cookie Monster cheer. The Rams cheerleaders haven't used that one. Maybe they should. It could be a real hit at the Super Bowl today.

Of course, Becca, Bailey and the rest of the girls in the cheerleading class weren't thinking about football. They just wanted to cheer.

"The Cookie Monster says that the Tigers are É the great big cookies at the top of the jar. The Cookie Monster says that the Eagles are É the itty bitty crumbs at the bottom of the jar. Eat 'em up, eat 'em up, crunch, crunch," the kids chanted. "Eat 'em up, eat 'em up, crunch, crunch." Decades ago when I was in high school in suburban St. Louis, the big chant was "Go back, go back, go back to the woods. Your school is OK, but your team is no good." It helped that our cross-town rival high school really was surrounded by a bunch of trees. You couldn't call it a forest. The school still was an urban school, but it did have trees to hide it from major thoroughfares.

There's nothing like organized shouting to get people rooting for their team.

In their first cheerleading class last week, the girls shouted cheers back and forth.

The teacher encouraged them to get louder and louder as the lesson wore on. Becca and Bailey loved it.

At home, I'm always telling Becca and Bailey to lower their voices. Here was an adult telling them to shout it out. They couldn't have been happier.

The class meets only once a week. But, of course, Becca and Bailey are happy to do a little extra practicing at home.

No sooner did they get home from their first lesson than they were doing cheers in the living room.

No one kept score, but we had plenty to cheer about.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.