Is Cheerleading actually a big thing in American High Schools?

I started writing an episode story and I thought ‘hey let’s make the main character a cheerleader’ but then I got thinking about stuff, so if anyone can answer my questions that’d be great.

So I’m British and here when we have a school related sports matches like rugby or hockey or something we have the occasional parent come to watch, in American schools do you actually have bleachers for people to sit on and do people actually go and watch the matches? or is that just in the films and stuff?

Also we have cheerleading here, but people only really do it competitively and separate from school, so do you actually have cheer teams for football teams at high school?

Furthermore, are the ‘football jocks’ and cheerleaders actually the most popular in High School?

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I’m not American, but I do think that they do have Cheerleading in American High Schools. My aunt lives in the US, so yeah, um,

Yes, they do.

Tbh, in my opinion, I don’t really think it is the most popular, I mean there are other sports that are popular than football. Like soccer, and basketball. But I’ll say that all sports can be popular, it really doesn’t matter which one is.

But all of this is just my view, I may be right or wrong.

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I’m in marching band, and I know when there was football games going on, there’s the varsity cheer squad who try to hype the crowd up. I know they do competitions outside of the games, and there are bleachers for parents, students, administrators, and the band to stand on and watch the game. Regarding popularity, that’s kind of more subjective than actual fact.

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We do have cheerleading here, but as Lana mentioned it’s not always considered the “popular” sport. I did cheerleading for three years in high school, and let me tell you, my experience with it differs very greatly from pop culture depiction. :joy: That being said, I also grew up in an insanely small town, so the entire high school only had like 70 people, and I’m sure that had an effect on sports. I’m not really sure what it looks like in larger schools.

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Bloody Hell, I can’t believe people actually watch the matches :joy:

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I feel as though it depends on what school you go to. In my school, they weren’t popular because they were cheerleaders, and the people who played football weren’t popular because they played football either-- in fact; the people who played sports weren’t popular because of the sport they played.

Yes, indeed they do.

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Most people are watching the football games, but I imagine there’s probably parents who watch the competitions. I know I have to watch those football games for a grade while standing for most of the time.

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Thank you @lanafrazer_episode @Phoenix_11037 @SeleneXO @Almond for replying

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i live in america and yes, cheerleading is a thing. people do sit on bleachers while games are going on and the crowd cheers a lot as well.

are all people on the football team/cheerleading squad popular?
well i guess it depends on who you are, although most popular people are known for being good-looking, playing sports, etc. so most people on the football team/cheerleading squad are pretty popular

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No problem! If you have any more questions, DMs are always open!

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Okay, yes we do have bleachers and people do come to watch the sport ( students, parents, even grandparents) to support and cheer on their team.

Cheerleaders and Jocks are popular in the general sense (as people see them and know who they are) but they aren’t the most popular with everyone. Each group has their popular kids- there are the theatre/drama kids, jocks, artists, goths etc and every grouping has their ‘popular’ kids.

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Wait do you actually refer to groups as artists, jocks, goths, drama kids?

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:joy:
I was just giving examples of the types of labels there are. I was a Tripp Pants wearing, theatre kid who was also a cheerleader and loved to paint. Not everyone fits into a single mold or group. I certainly didn’t when I was in school and I was considered pretty popular with most of the usual cliques.

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Oh cos where I’m from we literally just call them all ‘friendship groups’ no special names :joy:

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Here they are refered to as cliques. Usually their “names” are given by people outside that group- they don’t actually call themselves the Jocks or the Goths. It’s more that people label others based on their activities, style, talents. I’ve never met a single ‘jock’ that refered to themselves or friends as “We’re the Jocks, most popular kids ever.”

Mostly a person popularity and reputation depends on how they treat others and the good or bad things they do.

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Thank you for telling me that, I thought people were only referd to as those ‘names’ in films

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Movies exaggerate the labels but yes, people generally are labeled by others as one thing or another- that doesn’t mean that they themselves call themselves by a label. Some cheerleaders are total stuck-up twats and there are some that volunteer and talk to everyone no matter what their ‘clique’ is.

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I guess… I live here in america and there is also cheerleading in both middle and high schools.

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Do the cheerleaders support other sports like basket ball or is it just football they support?

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Some schools have cheerleaders for all sports (Soccer, American Football, Lacrosse, etc.) while others only have cheerleaders for Football/Basketball seasons then they compete in cheer competitions the rest of the year.

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