The Team: 1990's
Then in the ’90s, there was more information about cheerleaders and some of the activities that they were able to partake in. Most of the squad was female, and uniforms were relatively the same. Of course, the appearance and quality will change as the years go by. I also learned that Trinity did not fund away games, so the pep squad was only present at home games. Also, in 1990, there was no coach, so the head cheerleader organized tryouts, practices, and so forth. Cheerleaders attended a college cheerleading camp in Athens, Texas. This is where they trained and learned new skills to better suit the sidelines. It seems as if they took cheerleading seriously, or that those who were on the team maybe did high school cheer or competitive cheer. They might have also just wanted to develop new stunts and skills to better engage the fans with school spirit.
At the beginning of this decade, however, they were going through a transitional period. One of their head cheerleaders had resigned. The squad was shocked and felt that without her they had never reached their full potential. Many of them realized that cheerleading was never a top priority for people, and at a school like Trinity I can see why. Regardless of this situation and the lack of skill, they had improved over the years, and men being added to the team was a reason for this. Trinitonian points out that “men allow for greater volume at games and for more complex stunting” (Howe, 1992). It is unclear when they stopped letting men on the team, but since the ‘80s came and went with little recognition of male presence except for a bit from the mid-1980s. For the 1992 season, they hope to increase the squad with both men and women. They pushed the date to give more time to acquaint a new squad and come up with new routines and chants for the season.
The reason I point out the fact that cheerleaders could have come from a pre-cheer background is that most of the cheerleaders at Trinity presently, are not. Most of the girls who show up to tryouts do it to be involved in something. This is acceptable, but mostly this is the reason we do not see a lot of male cheerleaders at small schools. To take into consideration as well, Trinity University is mostly made up of student-athletes. Many come for the academics and to continue playing the sport they love. Trinity sports are not as intense as Division 1 schools where am athlete goes for a shot at making it big. Athletes at Trinity sometimes give up their sport to do better in school and get a good career. Some simply cannot manage both. Cheer at Trinity as stated above, can be something to enjoy and participate in to separate themselves from their studies. Competitive cheer is on a completely different intensity level. It involves men because they are used to catch or support. At Trinity, the numbers are not intricate and do not. involve flying, catching, and tumbling. People joining the team for fun is acceptable, but you may see different numbers of men on the team at a larger school who values the core of cheerleading differently.