[PvilleCheerAlum]

Good afternoon everyone. Kentucky is a huge cheerleading state on the national level. Greenup, Dunbar, Pikeville, Madison Central, North Laurel, Tates Creek, Henry Clay, Graves County, Reidland, University of Kentucky, Morehead, Kentucky Elite etc. dominate on the national level at UCA. Also, University of Louisville, Gymtyme, DuPont Manual, etc. dominate at NCA.

Now. The reason that KHSAA does not need to make cheerleading a sport is because none of these schools will be able to compete on the national level. If you are sanctioned as a sport on the state level, national competition is no longer allowed. All of the schools listed above (minus colleges) will fight tooth and nail to prevent this from happening.

If your school wants to have a competitive cheerleading squad, fundraising is mandatory. Most of the other state sanctioned sports (football, basketball, track, etc) all fundraise. Booster clubs are created for this purpose. At Pikeville, I sold wrapping paper, candles, poinsettas, and even wrapped presents at the walmart entrance. You do what you have to do to raise all the money you need. There were plenty of girls on all of the Pikeville squads who were not rich, yet they worked hard and raised all of their money.

KHSAA created KAPOS in order for the state of Kentucky to have a regulating board for cheerleading. They are sufficent and they do their job well. I have been KAPOS certified as a judge and it is a tough process. Most squads in the state use these certified judges for their tryouts, and the judges come from other parts of the state as to prevent politics.

sport
n. 1. a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. (KAPOS, and nationally AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators)
b. A particular form of this activity.

2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
3. An active pastime; recreation

Sounds like a sport to me. Also, as I was told by doctors when I broke my back from cheerleading, "We get more girls in here for cheerleading injuries than we do guys with football injuries". Obviously there is some serious hard work going on here.