Views like these about cheerleaders have been prevalent for decades. But cheerleading has evolved from just stirring crowds at games into a screaming frenzy to becoming a featured event on ESPN.

In fact, the girls don't even use pom-poms anymore, according to Saratoga High School coach Cecilia Granado. Over the last 10 years, Granado has seen how the girls are breaking away from the stereotypical image of sideline supporters at football and basketball games to becoming athletes in their own right.

These days, the 22 members of the Saratoga High School spirit squad—which combines varsity and junior varsity girls—are so busy refining their latest song and dance routine that they have to schedule time for making posters and endorsing other sports besides their own.

Every girl on the squad can quote lines from movies like Bring It On, starring actress Kirsten Dunst. The film is about two rival squads on a quest to become national champions. The reason the sport glorified in the movie is becoming more attractive than ever to high school girls is because of the competition.

"I think we all remember our high school experience where it was maybe just a small group of girls cheerleading at games," says Bill Zelina, co-owner of South Bay Elite, a professional cheer and dance company in Campbell. "But the girls can now be looked at as athletes as in any conventional sport."

While there is still a social and school-spirited aspect to the squad, the girls say they are working hard to have cheeleading become recognized as a sport. Cheerleading involves "full contact" just as in wrestling, football or water polo. The girls suffer injuries on a frequent basis—bruises, bumps on the head and knocks to appendages after getting kicked by teammates. There are also less common injuries—torn anterior cruciate ligaments, lost teeth or broken arms, legs and toes. As a precaution, there is always ice available for the girls during practices and performances.

Their bodies become mechanisms for lifting, spinning, tumbling and catching, and there is loads of conditioning. Cheerleading is becoming more gymnastics and dance routine­based, rather than simply sideline cheering.

"It actually requires a great amount of strength and agility—and they have to make it look easy," Zelina says. "They have to train like they would with any other type of sport."

There's a new excitement this year because it is the first time in at least four years the squad has qualified for national competition—on its first try. At the opening regional competition of the season, the United Spirit Association Regional Spirit Competition in Santa Rosa on Nov. 16, the squad took fourth place in the high school division. To qualify for nationals, the team had to place over 80 on a scale of 100, on average from each judge. This meant the spotters and bases (girls on the ground) and flyers (girls raised and tossed in the air) had to be flawless. Zelina says they had to show uniformity in their motions.

"We've never fallen during competition," Granado says. "I don't know what it is, the adrenaline. Somehow they pull it off."

The squad will compete against the best of the best at the USA Spirit Nationals from March 19 to 21 at the Anaheim Convention Center, conveniently located across the street from Disneyland. Between rounds of competition, the girls will be able to go on rides and perform for fun in front of crowds at the amusement park.

The squad's choreographer, Roy Lucas of South Bay Elite, has created the performance for nationals to a mix assembled on the computer—from hip-hop and cheer to high-energy songs—cut with 50­60 sound effects. Lucas, who has worked in choreography for the past 12 years, has sat in studios with professionals like Ray Jasper and Mark Bryant, who mixed the music for Bring It On.

He describes the squad's intense practices for two hours a day and three hours at games on Friday nights as true athleticism, especially for the girls on the ground, who dead-lift their weight with that of the flyer above them.

"The only difference between us and football is that there are no pads," Lucas says.

The less-than-three-minute routine for nationals must meet regulations such as not stepping out of bounds or dropping flyers. The girls will be judged on execution, choreography skills and difficulty, showmanship and performance, fluidity in transitions and their overall effect and crowd-leading skills.

"They've come a long way," Lucas says. "They are improving tremendously."

When it comes down to competition, Lucas says the girls work together as a team, putting on their "facials," or animated expressions, when they perform for an audience. The squad's four flyers include Elisa Sabes, Monica Lempert, Amber D'ercole and Aileen Shon. It takes at least four girls to hold up a flyer, and the girls are constantly changing their routine with the help of Lucas, making it more difficult for each upcoming competition.

"They have to be very limber," says parent Gigi Peebles. "They have to balance. It's incredible, the strength they have to have to perform."

Five girls form a stunt group. There is a back spotter, front spotter and two bases on each side, but it's the lighter, smaller girls who are sent flying into the air.

"It's a huge thing when you are flying," says Sabes, a petite, junior flyer who is in her third year on the team. "You have to trust the people beneath you. You try your hardest when you know they'll catch you. You need to trust your bases."

At times there's a mistake during practice and a pyramid of girls collapses. The tumble is usually followed by girls apologizing all at the same time. "Sorry. That was totally off," they remark to each other in frustration.

Shon, a sophomore, and the other flyers are fine-tuning a stretch by practicing on an elevated wooden block before they try it in the air. The move, known as "the scorpion," requires the girls to grab one toe behind their backs, while supported on the other foot in the air by their spotters and bases.

Lempert, the head captain and only senior on the team, says the drawbacks of practicing and competing so much are that she stays up late doing homework, while trying to juggle applying for colleges and the Scholastic Aptitude Test. She says this is the first time the entire squad will attend nationals, although smaller groups have represented the school at the competition in the past. The school mascot along with Lucas will most likely be joining the squad at nationals.

"I'm not as worried about how we place, but just doing our best," Lempert says.

Peebles says that she sees how participating in competitions gives the girls—including her daughter Mallory, who is in her third year on the team—much more confidence.

"That's how they can rate themselves against other teams and schools," Peebles says.

While there are no boys on the team, there have been in the past. Members of the squad say male cheerleaders are often shot down, belittled by their peers. But Zelina says male cheerleaders are becoming more accepted in the South Bay, even though it's a barrier that still has not been completely broken.

Peebles adds that Saratoga High School is regarded as a tough academic institution, where many parents place importance on their children being accepted into top colleges and universities.

"Sports are not held up quite as high as academics," she says.

Granado says that cheerleading is not sanctioned as a sport by the school, and the athletic boosters program does not compensate the team—rather, it is a parent-funded endeavor.

Peebles indicates that making the spirit squad equates to about $2,000 per girl, not including an extra $700 to attend national competition. Parents are expected to pay for stunting clinics, tumbling lessons, travel, airfare, hotels, competition-related enrollment fees, passes and uniforms.

Parents also pay for professional advice from Lucas, as well as for the use of South Bay Elite's facilities every Monday. The rest of the week, cheerleaders conflict with other sports teams trying to use Saratoga High School facilities. There the girls practice on wrestling mats, which Lucas says are dangerous for cheerleaders because the mats absorb the spring of a fall, causing wear and tear on the girls' joints. Zelina says the girls request to use better, specialized facilities at South Bay Elite because it improves them for competitions where they must perform on springboard floors.

Whether cheerleading should be considered a sport is a tough question for Saratoga High School Principal Dr. Kevin Skelly. And it is one he has faced many times in the past. His answer is that cheerleading is termed "an activity."

"They are not part of our athletic league," he says.

Assistant Principal Karen Hyde, who oversees the squad and was once a cheerleader herself, says the group is not something the school has authority to deem as a sport; rather, it's the Central Coast Section that monitors all sports and determines what is and is not a sport. Because the squad does not compete in "interschool competitions," it is not viewed as a sport.

But Skelly and Hyde acknowledge the squad does train extremely hard, while boosting the self-esteem of the students and the school. The cheerleaders are required to provide school spirit at athletic events.

"They do a lot in terms of generating school pride," Hyde says. "They are no longer the adjunct fluff squad. They are a team."