UNC-Chapel Hill Cheerleading

Last updated

The University of North Carolina has run cheerleading teams since 1914, performing at Tar Heels sports events. They have frequently participated in cheerleading competitions at the national level. Currently there are two teams: JV (Junior Varsity) and Varsity.

Contents

UNC cheerleaders UNC CHEERLEADERS (6851291112).jpg
UNC cheerleaders

History

In 1914, Frank Porter Graham was the first student to organize cheerleading at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. According to The Daily Tar Heel, Graham said, "I was trying out for the baseball team, but I didn't make the regular squad. As a substitute I got in the habit of leading the cheering when I wasn't needed. The next thing I knew I was a cheerleader." [1] Graham was succeeded by Charlie Coggins, Kay Kyser, Billy Arthur, Vic Huggins, Norm Sper and other notable university figures. In 1940, the university officially approved the program's transition to a co-ed team. [2]

National recognition

The UNC cheerleading team was ranked fifth in the nation by ICF in 1974, and third in 1975. [3] It won the CBS National Collegiate Cheerleading Championship in 1978 and was runner-up in 1979. Later it won the 1994 UCA Division I-A National title and 1997 NCA Division I-A. This cheer team is part of the National Cheerleading Association, which was created to ensure the safety of cheerleaders across the world. In order to have a cheerleading squad at a university, the team must be associated with a national cheer association. This will not only provide credibility to the team, but will ensure the safety of the cheerleaders. The National Cheerleaders Association has rules in place, such as concussion testing, spotters, and medical care to the cheerleaders in order to prevent injury [4]

Teams

The UNC cheerleading program consists of two co-ed squads: JV and Varsity. Both teams cheer for home football games and Varsity travels to away games. In the winter, the JV squad cheers at all home women's basketball games and Varsity at all home men's basketball games. Both squads cheer on their respective teams during the ACC and NCAA basketball tournaments.

Varsity

The Varsity squad is generally composed of 15–20 members with 6–8 couples of male bases and female flyers, as well as 2–4 female tumblers. Varsity members include seniors, juniors and few sophomores.

Junior Varsity

The 2012 JV cheerleading team had about 40 members. The co-ed team is also composed of male bases, female flyers and female tumblers. In addition to participating at home football and women's basketball games, members of the JV squad attend UNC volleyball matches, men's soccer games, and gymnastics meets. Generally speaking, members are required to cheer at least one year on JV before moving up to Varsity. The majority of members on JV are underclassmen. One of the reasons behind the creation of a JV team is for squad members who are not yet ready for the skill levels or leadership of a Varsity team. With the JV team, cheerleaders are still able to get a similar experience of a Varsity cheerleader but at a less intense level. At many schools, the JV team is used to prepare squad members for future Varsity experience.

Practice schedule

Varsity and JV practices are held twice weekly, and there are additional weight sessions. Before home football games, the UNC cheerleading program practices with the Marching Tar Heels on Navy Field to coordinate the football pre-game show.

Community outreach

The UNC cheerleading team regards itself as an integral part of the Carolina community. Each year the team is committed to giving back to the town and campus. In the past, members have made visits to local hospitals, appeared at numerous charity events, volunteered on campus and made appearances on behalf of the athletic community. The Carolina cheerleaders have recently participated in local 5ks (Get Heeled, Fitness World of Durham), UNC Dance Marathon, and local elementary schools health and book fairs.

Coaching staff

Tryouts

Cheerleading tryouts are typically held in the fall during the second week of school. Tryouts are also held in April. High school seniors are eligible to try out in April if they been accepted to the university for early admission. Those who make the team in the spring are required to participate in summer workouts in preparation for the upcoming season. During the tryout process, the coaches determine each athlete’s skill level, potential, leadership abilities, and crowd presence. The coaches tend to look for experienced flyers and tumblers. Tryouts last about three hours and all prospective athletes must have the required paperwork filled out and approved by Sports Medicine prior to tryouts. Two tryouts are held during the year: fall and spring tryouts. During the fall, tryouts are typically held during the second week of school. In the spring, high school seniors are eligible to try out in April and May if they have been accepted into the university. One of the major parts of tryouts is the tryout attire. Athletes should come dressed prepared to work out. Girls should wear their hair half up half down or all the way up in a ponytail. Appropriate cheer shoes will be worn at all times.

Eligibility

Those eligible to join the cheerleading teams are full-time students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who maintain a minimum 2.0 GPA and remain in good academic standing with the university

Scholarships

Although the university does not award scholarships to members of the cheerleading team, the program participates in fundraisers to offer book scholarships to each senior cheerleader.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheerleading</span> Athletic sport based on cheering for a team

Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for competition. Cheerleading routines typically range anywhere from one to three minutes, and contain components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Williams (basketball coach)</span> American basketball player and coach (born 1950)

Roy Allen Williams is an American retired college basketball coach who served as the men's head coach for the North Carolina Tar Heels for 18 seasons and the Kansas Jayhawks for 15 seasons. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubert Davis</span> American basketball player and coach (born 1970)

Hubert Ira Davis Jr. is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 1988–1992 and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and New Jersey Nets from 1992 to 2004. He is the nephew of Walter Davis, another former Tar Heel and NBA player.

Cheerleader Nation is a reality television series based on the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School cheerleading team's ups and downs on the way to Nationals, of which they are the three-time champions. The show also explains how cheerleading is an intense physical activity. It takes place in Lexington, Kentucky. The team is on a quest to win a third National Championship. It was broadcast on the channel Lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Carolina Tar Heels</span> University sports teams

The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel State. The campus at Chapel Hill is referred to as the University of North Carolina for the purposes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was chartered in 1789, and in 1795 it became the first state-supported university in the United States. Since the school fostered the oldest collegiate team in the Carolinas, the school took on the nickname Carolina, especially in athletics. The Tar Heels are also referred to as UNC or The Heels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rameses (mascot)</span>

Rameses is the ram mascot of the North Carolina Tar Heels. Three versions of Rameses appear at UNC sporting events. One is a member of the UNC cheerleading team in an anthropomorphic ram costume; the second is also an anthropomorphic ram costume, and the third is a live Dorset Horn sheep named Rameses who attends Carolina football games with his horns painted Carolina blue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Carolina Tar Heels baseball</span> American college baseball team

The North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team, commonly referred to as Carolina, represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in NCAA Division I college baseball. They compete in the Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels play their home games on campus at Boshamer Stadium, and are currently coached by Scott Forbes.

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Spirit Squads comprise the cheerleading organization at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. Being the first program ever to form worldwide, the University of Minnesota is consequently considered the "Birthplace of Cheerleading". Today, the Gopher Spirit Squads consist of four separate squads: a cheer squad, a dance team, a hockey cheer squad, and the school's mascot, Goldy Gopher. The squads consistently perform well at national competitions including 19 national championships in dance since 2003, a 2nd-place finish for All-Girl in 2013, a fifth-place finish in 2017, and four-time national champion Goldy Gopher in 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2018. The current head coach is Sam Owens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer</span> American college soccer team

The North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA Division I soccer. The team has won 23 of the 27 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, and 21 of the 40 NCAA national championships. The team has participated in every NCAA tournament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Bay Packers cheerleaders</span> Review of the topic

Several Green Bay Packers cheerleading squads have performed in Green Bay Packers' history. The Packers became one of the first professional football teams to have a cheerleading squad, having first used cheerleaders in 1931. The squad performed for 57 years under three separate names. In 1988, it was decided that the team would cease having a professional squad cheer for them. Since 1988, the team uses collegiate squads in a limited role to cheer during home games.

The junior varsity basketball team at the University of North Carolina is a two-year program that gives non-scholarship students the opportunity to continue their basketball careers at the collegiate level. Tryouts for the J.V. team occur every year prior to the beginning of basketball season in October. Players are only allowed to play on the J.V. team for two years and then they are given a chance to try out for the varsity team as a walk-on. With a valid physical examination, any student that attends the university can try out for the J.V. team. The J.V. team is coached by assistant varsity coaches, who are given the opportunity to gain head coaching experience while fulfilling their assistant duties at the varsity level. Hubert Davis, prior to his promotion to head coach for the varsity team, was the head coach of the J.V. team. Since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down sports in spring 2020, the J.V. team has not competed, putting a pause on one of the most cherished traditions in Chapel Hill. The team did not return for the 2021–22 season, and instead tryouts were held to add walk-ons to the varsity team, due to the continued need for COVID-19 safety protocols.

The North Carolina Tar Heels men's lacrosse team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's lacrosse. North Carolina currently competes as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and plays its home games at Fetzer Field and Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Their main rivalry series is with fellow ACC member Duke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerod Haase</span> American college basketball coach

Jerod Albert Haase is an American college basketball coach, currently the head coach for Stanford Cardinal men's basketball. Haase played college basketball at the University of California, Berkeley from 1992 to 1993, and then transferred to the University of Kansas to play under Roy Williams from 1994 to 1997. Haase was a Naismith and Wooden Award candidate while at Kansas. At Kansas, he only missed two games out of 101 and averaged 12.5 points per game, scoring 1,246 points over the span of his career. He was a member of the Big Eight all defensive team as a junior, and played at the World University Games in 1995. He then spent 13 years as an assistant under Williams at both Kansas and North Carolina before starting his own head coaching career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010–11 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2010–11 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The head coach was Roy Williams. The team played its home games in the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 29–8, 14–2 in ACC play to win the conference regular season championship. They advanced to the championship game of the 2011 ACC men's basketball tournament before falling to Duke. They received an at-large bid in the 2011 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament where they advanced to the Elite Eight before falling to Kentucky.

The North Carolina Tar Heels men's soccer team represents the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in men's NCAA Division I soccer competition. They compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Tar Heels won the NCAA championship in 2001 and 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1923–24 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 1923–24 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team was the fourteenth varsity college basketball team to represent the University of North Carolina as a part of the Southern Conference for the NCAA season. The head coach was Norman Shepard, coaching in his first and only season with the Tar Heels. Their fast play and defense earned them the nickname the "White Phantoms", use as an alternative nickname for the Tar Heels into the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014–15 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 2014–15 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team represented the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team's head coach was Roy Williams, who was in his 12th season as UNC's head men's basketball coach. They played their home games at the Dean Smith Center as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They finished the season 26–12, 11–7 in ACC play to finish in fifth place. They advanced to the championship game of the ACC Tournament where they lost to Notre Dame. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament where they defeated Harvard in the second round and Arkansas in the third round before losing in the Sweet Sixteen to eventual runner-up Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Gregg</span> American soccer coach and retired soccer player

Lauren Gregg is an American soccer coach and retired soccer player who played as a defender or midfielder. She made one appearance for the United States women's national soccer team in 1986. She was the first-ever female assistant coach for any of the United States' national teams between 1987 and 2000, and was interim head coach of the United States women's national soccer team in 1997 and 2000. As head coach of the women's soccer team at the University of Virginia from 1986 to 1995, Gregg was the first woman to lead a team to the NCAA Division I Final Four and to be named NSCAA Coach of the Year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1910–11 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team</span> American college basketball season

The 1910–11 North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team was the first varsity college basketball team to represent the University of North Carolina. The school created a committee to determine if the school should go forward with forming a team as there was increasing pressure from students, the student run newspaper The Tar Heel, in-state schools that fielded teams who wanted to form a state league, and the University of Tennessee inquired about scheduling a game in February 1911. Equipment was purchased and installed at Bynum Gymnasium after a period of uncertainty of where the team would play its home games. Then track-and-field head coach Nathaniel Cartmell – who had little experience with basketball – was chosen to coach as there were no funds to be allocated for hiring another coach. After choosing players for the first team, Cartmell finalized the schedule in January, which was limited as many other programs had already created their schedules before the Tar Heels made their team.

References

  1. "Organized Cheering At Carolina First Begun by Frank P. Graham". The Daily Tar Heel. Chapel Hill. 1932-06-03.
  2. "Co-eds Approved As Cheerleaders". The Daily Tar Heel. Chapel Hill. 1940-02-10.
  3. Marsha Lamm (1975-06-02). "UNC Cheering Squad--They're No. Three". The News and Observer. Raleigh.
  4. Alison Lawrence (1994-04-15). "Return to California Sweet for UNC Cheerleaders". The Daily Tar Heel (102 ed.). Chapel Hill. p. 9.

Sources