Cheerleading is not a sport? Think again. On October 7th, Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 949 that classifies cheerleading as an official competitive sport in the state of California beginning in 2017. What does this mean for the cheerleaders at Rocklin High?

¨Now that it is an official sport we’ll probably create an entire competitive team for Rocklin High in the near future; I think that would be really cool,” said junior varsity cheerleader, Savannah Morales.

“I think next year there will be a full competitive team with a lot of girls, and I’ll probably join because I’ll be more experienced and ready for it. Cheerleading has always been an official sport to us though, no matter what anybody says,” said JV cheerleader Morgan Waltman.

Competitive cheer extends beyond leading traditional sideline chants. Cheer teams will attend competitions and compete for placings against different teams. Rocklin High currently has a competitive team that goes by the name All Girl 5. They consist of one stunt group that comes up with elite stunts, and the routine is usually about two minutes. Mrs. Devinna is the cheer coordinator, but usually Coach Ashley Berry runs the competition team.

¨In All Girl 5 we stunt instead of doing tumbling, dancing, and jumping, and stunt is just basically where we throw people,” said varsity cheerleader and member of All Girl 5 Emily Black.

Competitive cheer is purely for winning a competition and excelling all the way to nationals, not unlike a real life Bring It On.

“Competitive cheer is like joining another cheer team. You must learn a more difficult stunt, and take part in an extra day of practice. You must also be able to participate and travel to all the competitions. It is definitely more challenging than the sidelines,” said JV cheerleader Abby Connell.

Competitive cheer is more advanced and time consuming, but they have an objective, the cheerleaders are in it to win it. Rocklin High School cheer has always had the potential, but now they have the opportunity.