Cheerleading is no longer the exclusive club of the ditzy, blonde, leggy girls, as portrayed in Hollywood. Today, real cheerleaders have curves, they hail from all ethnic and economic backgrounds, and most of all, these girls love Willow Glen High School.

When considering the stereotypical cheerleader, the girls roll their eyes. "People at our school base us on those stereotypes, we're not like that," says Willow Glen High School junior Shawnae McKown.

And her teammate Willow Glen High School sophomore Courtney Arndt adds, "I hate that."

Last week's weeklong homecoming festivities kept the Spirit Squad at center stage, culminating in Saturday's win against Andrew P. Hill High School. To junior varsity cheerleading captain Rebecca Murday, homecoming is not only the biggest event of the year, but also the one event that unites the school.

Devoted to school spirit, homecoming week kept the 32-member squad busy doing a whole lot more than cheering. There was the Nov. 10 night rally, building the spirit float that the girls rode in the Homecoming Parade down Lincoln Avenue on Nov. 12. There was manning the Ram Kissing Booth at the football game and cheering for the high school varsity football team. The squad also helped with a Mickey Mouse pancake breakfast fundraiser on Homecoming Day.

But these girls don't have to vicariously live through the victories of the football, volleyball or basketball teams, they've also got competitions of their own. Coach Robin Bigger, who came from Bret Harte Middle School two years ago, has brought a competitive edge to the squad. On Oct. 10, the competition squad placed second in its division for the United Spirit Association Northern California regional championships.

The team's victory at regionals earned the cheerleaders an invitation to the National High School Cheerleading Championship. The team attributes its success to a sense of sisterhood and hard work.

Desire to Cheer

Many of the girls turned to cheerleading as an opportunity to dance, to follow in their older sister's footsteps, or to show pride in their school.

JV member Courtney Arndt has wanted to be a cheerleader since she was 3 years old, spelling out words to cheers, Arndt says.

This attitude, which goes beyond the aesthetics of cheering is what matters most to Bigger. When 40-year-old Bigger was on her high school squad, cheerleading lived up to its stereotype—being pretty and popular—as the key elements to making the team. This bothered her as a teenager, when her friends told her that they wanted to try out but knew they wouldn't be picked.

Bigger wanted to change that.

This year, every girl who came to three days of tryouts was subjected to a different sort of judging. Cheering experience they had and the ability to perform complex stunts were not the primary criteria for making the team. It was their strong desire to cheer. All 32 girls who tried out were selected for the Spirit Squad, and now perform on one of the squad's four teams—varsity, JV, competition, or dance.

Kayla Phillips, a bashful sophomore with no prior cheering experience, says, "I didn't think I could make it. I watched them cheer and it looked so hard."

And her teammate Kaleaha Maldando, who is physically limited because she had heart surgery that required a pacemaker, works on stunts and attends all the practices. Her mother, Annette, is also part of the squad as an assistant coach.

For Jacquelyn Paredes, overcoming the cheerleader stereotype was something she learned in middle school with the help of her mother, Lori Garcia. Paredes wanted to try out for the middle school's cheer squad, but refused to go to tryouts, telling her mother, "Mom, I'm Mexican. They're not gonna pick me."

Garcia called the school to find out the date and time of tryouts. When the day arrived, she told her daughter they would go out exercising, and to change into workout clothes. Garcia took her to tryouts and told her daughter, "If you let them step over you now you're going to let them step over you for the rest of your life."

According to Garcia, her daughter cheered her heart out that day and placed second on the team. Now, in high school, Paredes is a petite and eager cheerleader. Her younger sister, Nicollette, has also joined the team.

The team's diversity also enhances the girls' high-school experience by meeting classmates they would otherwise not meet. For junior McKown, that means getting to know freshman.

"If I wasn't a cheerleader, I probably wouldn't hang out with these freshman," she teases.

Among the girls, the bond is obvious. When they're not on the field, there's chatter, hugging, playing with each other's hair and playful teasing.

"We're like family," Arndt says.

Strong Connections

Like other teams and clubs at the high school, the sense of family is a byproduct of spending so much time together. The girls practice consistently throughout the year, only taking a month off in the summer.

"It's the one sport you practice all year-round," varsity captain Courtney Freitas says. "Everybody becomes like sisters."

At an afternoon practice before homecoming, the girls are perfecting the wolfwall, the hardest stunt of all, says Bigger. Piled on top of each other like a deck of cards, five girls are raised in the air by the rest of the team. Suddenly, there's a giggle, and they collapse.

It is in stunts like the wolfwall where teamwork is key. Stunting requires both skill and keen attention to safety. In one stunt, three girls, who form the base, prop up one girl, their flyer, cradling her with their arms. Raised in the air, she's steady, but once she falls, the group is ready to catch her.

Stunting is where cheerleaders can incur injuries. Luckily, Bigger has been trained specifically on stunting safety. In her two years at Willow Glen, only two girls have had twisted their ankles coming down from a stunt.

This aspect of the sport—stunting and tumbling—is symbolic of how cheerleading has changed and a map to where it's going, Bigger says. It's also an area of cheerleading that interested Bigger and she was determined to learn.

Just as she believed learning stunting was essential to teaching it, Bigger also has each girl to understand all the aspects required for stunting. If a stunt group fails, Bigger has the entire group do push-ups or run laps.

Even when she's disciplining the girls, or blowing her whistle to separate two chatterboxes, her cheerleaders seem to respect her. When they're on the field, they're ready to work, even when Bigger is working with another group.

To Arndt's mother, Darla, it's because Bigger is not only genuinely attuned to the girls, but wants to help them succeed.

"Each one is as important as the others, and it helps them treat each other that way," Darla says.

"She's a good coach, she makes it so much fun," says Freitas, a senior who's been cheering for four years.

For Freitas, it's the extra things that Bigger does like arranging for the girls to eat together or the Christmas ride in the stretch Hummer limo that shows their coach cares.

But it's not all fun and games. After school and practice, the girls still have to go home to homework and chores. Each girl's grade-point average is checked on a weekly basis to ensure that they have the required grades necessary to stay on the team. All members must maintain a C average; captains need a C-plus.

Ready to Compete

"Fight, Rams, Fight! 2004, this is our year. Strike and Ready, we have no fear!" the girls cheer at practice.

The seven-girl competition team is gearing up for the 2005 National High School Cheerleading Championship, hoping this will be their year. The competition is held in March at Disneyland. "I'm so excited!" Freitas says.

And there are a number of members who are on the competition team who are looking beyond the championship in 2005.

Freitas, Daisy Hurtado and Bigger's daughter, Kalen, would like to cheer in college. Competing is essential to priming for college tryouts, Bigger says. In some colleges, difficult moves like a backhand spring or a back tuck are mandatory in tryouts.

To improve on these skills, Bigger's daughter takes gymnastics, because tumbling will help her during college tryouts. Other girls do weight training and body building to build up their strength.

But cheering, like most team sports, is pricey. Warm-ups, extra gear, uniforms and sweaters cost each girl $500. Over and above that there are traveling expenses.

This makes it tough on families with tight budgets. So the team relies heavily on fundraisers to help those who need assistance with paying for uniforms and other costs. This year the team began the season team $3,000 in the red.

But Bigger doesn't believe that money should hinder any girl from cheering, and has worked out ways that parents can help pay off the uniforms, mostly through fundraising.

Lori Garcia, a single mother or five, is grateful to Bigger and the school's principle for this flexibility. "My daughter wouldn't be able to have this experience and she loves cheering."

Other parents pitch in any way they can—ranging from attending every game, or volunteering at homecoming's concession stands, to fundraising. The squad plans to hold several fundraisers before March.

For Bigger, despite the long hours and fundraising drives, she receives her greatest satisfaction from the girls. "I love to watch them learn something new. They can only be proud of themselves," she says.

In January, the squad will host a cheerleading clinic for children ages 5 to 12 years old as a fundraiser. The children will later perform at a Willow Glen High School basketball game. For more information about ways to help benefit the Willow Glen High School Spirit Squad contact Robin Bigger at 408.535.6330 or email her at cheerwg@aol.com.