CALGARY—After Jesse Cooney made the jump from gymnastics to cheerleading in Grade 6, he remembers other kids questioning his sexuality and calling him a girl. "People were like, 'Why don't you try a real sport?'"
But he stuck with it because he loved it, he says. Now, as the head coach at Perfect Storm Athletics, a Calgary cheerleading club, he said he works to inspire confidence in all the kids who excel at the sport and to encourage them to take it further. Cooney says as the public becomes more familiar with the sport, "I feel like a lot of those stigmas (for boys) have been lifted."
Owen Germsheid, 13, works on his handstand and Carson Williams, 13, on his bridge as Jesse Cooney, head coach and choreographer at Perfect Storm Athletics, looks on.
(Christina Ryan / Star Calgary) Part of the changing tide? The growing visibility of male cheerleaders in professional sports.
Seven out of nine CFL teams in 2018 fielded co-ed cheer teams, the NBA's Toronto Raptors replaced its all-female dance team with a 25-member squad featuring 11 men, and most notably, the cheer team for the Los Angeles Rams made history in February as the first squad to have male cheerleaders on the field at the Super Bowl. Two donned the Rams' blue and gold colours to pump up the crowd in Atlanta at one of the biggest sporting events of the year.
More teams are noticing what a co-ed team can bring to the table, Cooney said. He teaches what's called all-star cheerleading, which focuses more on gymnastics skills, like tumbling and stunting, combined with dance and cheer segments.
Many CFL teams have switched gears from traditional dance teams to stunt teams with more acrobatic routines. On these squads, men who can toss teammates higher bring a different dynamic to the choreographed acrobatics, he says.
Read more:
Alouettes look to incorporate men into dance team
Hamilton Tiger-Cats ditch cheerleaders for 'performance team'
The level of training required is still a barrier for some teams, and one of the two CFL teams without a male cheer or stunt team is the Calgary Stampeders. According to a spokesperson, the Stamps' cheer team, the Outriders, have been open to men joining for years, but none have tried out. But they're not ready to add a stunt team alongside the Outriders just yet. Head coach Kyla Findlay said she wants to see the stunt community develop and train more athletes in Calgary before they form a team.
"We pick dancers who are already trained and already know how to learn the choreography. So we would do the same thing with a stunt team, which is why we'd need the community to already be there, because we're not in a position to train the stunters," Findlay said.
Helping to fill part of the void is the University of Calgary, which welcomes men on its cheer team, holding open auditions for men and women each year. The team performed at some U of C Dinos' football games last fall, but mainly it competes in cheer competitions separate from the U of C's other sports teams.
Spencer Luong, 19, is one of two men on the University of Calgary's cheer team this year. He took up cheerleading in high school after failed to fall in love with football or soccer. He noticed how exciting cheerleading looked in the movies, and had a hip-hop dance background, and soon felt more at home on the sidelines.
"Every time that we were lifting someone up in the air, when we do a stunt successfully, I feel more confident in myself in terms of strength. In football and soccer, when I tried really hard, there were others that would excel substantially further than me," Luong said.
"I found my outlet in cheerleading because it felt like I could be myself."
Owen Germsheid, 13, works on his tumbling as Jesse Cooney, head coach and choreographer at Perfect Storm Athletics in Calgary looks on.
(Christina Ryan/ StarMetro Calgary) Opposite to Cooney's experience, Luong found the bullying he experienced in school seemed to stop once he was in high school and on the cheer team. He hasn't felt out of place as one of the U of C team's two men. Instead, he's disappointed at the slow pace of co-ed cheerleading to get a foothold in Calgary.
"I think co-ed is amazing because the teams that I've seen practise on YouTube from the U.S. (are) ... stunning. But I think here in Calgary, it's held back because people do tend to think cheerleading is a female sport," Luong said.
Dan Belisle is a 46-year-old cheerleader who broke into the sport at the age of 40 in Calgary when his daughter, Kendra, tried out for a team.
(Courtesy Dan Belisle) Some men are getting into the sport now, having missed out when they were younger. Dan Belisle fell in love with cheerleading, but not until he was in his 40s, and not until he attempted to stop his daughter from trying it six years ago.
"I told her that she should do something I thought would be more productive for her later in life, such as dance or music lessons," Belisle, now 46, said.
"I remember the first competition that we went to and thinking it was really cool and well-organized. It was a great team-bonding sport for her. And then I saw the open team come out, which was more older athletes, and I was blown away by how good it was."
Dan Belisle is a 46-year-old cheerleader who broke into the sport at the age of 40 in Calgary when his daughter, Kendra, tried out for a team.
(Courtesy Dan Belisle) The fast-paced stunts of the older team made Belisle think he'd missed the boat by not trying cheerleading when he was younger. But when a coach at Perfect Storm found out about Belisle's background in football, powerlifting, and bodybuilding, he invited Belisle to join a stunt team for parents.
Belisle has since competed with an open-aged team just like the one that stunned him in the first place. At first, tossing around people half his age was tough to get used to, and he struggled to keep up with the dance steps. But now he's teaching other parents who want to try the sport.
"I'm training a dad right now on basic stunts and he said he wasn't very competitive when he was younger. But as he's gotten older, had kids and watched his kids get into sports, it interested him more," Belisle said.
"It's a great way to get into, and stay in, great shape. Of course, at my age, a lot of people don't take care of themselves, and this is a great way to do it."
After several years in the sport, Belisle is still disappointed by how much more of a hub Edmonton is for cheerleading than Calgary. His city is slowly catching up, but Belisle hopes the Stampeders will eventually change their mind and field a co-ed all-star cheerleading squad just like their northern rivals, the Eskimos.
With two competitive all-star cheerleading clubs in the city, Perfect Storm and Calgary Stars, Cooney believes the sport is on its way to mature past its infancy in Calgary. This development hasn't been helped by the fact most schools in the city don't offer these more acrobatic cheerleading teams.
"In Calgary, there hasn't really been the infrastructure in cheerleading to actually hone in on the talents of these older athletes," Cooney said. But he's hopeful for the future.
It used to be normal for Cooney to see an Alberta cheer team and not see a single male cheerleader. But as the sport grows, Cooney is proud to see it's becoming rarer to find all-female teams. And he's hopeful about how cheerleading can build the confidence of the guys who pursue it.
"It forces people to take the middle of the stage and really learn how to perform in front of an audience. I've had athletes that are the quiet and shy little dude in the back of the classroom, and then after one or two years of cheerleading, they're at the forefront of everything."
Andrew Jeffrey is a reporter/photographer for Star Calgary. Follow him on Twitter: @andrew_jeffrey
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CALGARY—After Jesse Cooney made the jump from gymnastics to cheerleading in Grade 6, he remembers other kids questioning his sexuality and calling him a girl. "People were like, 'Why don't you try a real sport?'"
But he stuck with it because he loved it, he says. Now, as the head coach at Perfect Storm Athletics, a Calgary cheerleading club, he said he works to inspire confidence in all the kids who excel at the sport and to encourage them to take it further. Cooney says as the public becomes more familiar with the sport, "I feel like a lot of those stigmas (for boys) have been lifted."
Owen Germsheid, 13, works on his handstand and Carson Williams, 13, on his bridge as Jesse Cooney, head coach and choreographer at Perfect Storm Athletics, looks on.
(Christina Ryan / Star Calgary) Part of the changing tide? The growing visibility of male cheerleaders in professional sports.
Seven out of nine CFL teams in 2018 fielded co-ed cheer teams, the NBA's Toronto Raptors replaced its all-female dance team with a 25-member squad featuring 11 men, and most notably, the cheer team for the Los Angeles Rams made history in February as the first squad to have male cheerleaders on the field at the Super Bowl. Two donned the Rams' blue and gold colours to pump up the crowd in Atlanta at one of the biggest sporting events of the year.
More teams are noticing what a co-ed team can bring to the table, Cooney said. He teaches what's called all-star cheerleading, which focuses more on gymnastics skills, like tumbling and stunting, combined with dance and cheer segments.
Many CFL teams have switched gears from traditional dance teams to stunt teams with more acrobatic routines. On these squads, men who can toss teammates higher bring a different dynamic to the choreographed acrobatics, he says.
Read more:
Alouettes look to incorporate men into dance team
Hamilton Tiger-Cats ditch cheerleaders for 'performance team'
The level of training required is still a barrier for some teams, and one of the two CFL teams without a male cheer or stunt team is the Calgary Stampeders. According to a spokesperson, the Stamps' cheer team, the Outriders, have been open to men joining for years, but none have tried out. But they're not ready to add a stunt team alongside the Outriders just yet. Head coach Kyla Findlay said she wants to see the stunt community develop and train more athletes in Calgary before they form a team.
"We pick dancers who are already trained and already know how to learn the choreography. So we would do the same thing with a stunt team, which is why we'd need the community to already be there, because we're not in a position to train the stunters," Findlay said.
Helping to fill part of the void is the University of Calgary, which welcomes men on its cheer team, holding open auditions for men and women each year. The team performed at some U of C Dinos' football games last fall, but mainly it competes in cheer competitions separate from the U of C's other sports teams.
Spencer Luong, 19, is one of two men on the University of Calgary's cheer team this year. He took up cheerleading in high school after failed to fall in love with football or soccer. He noticed how exciting cheerleading looked in the movies, and had a hip-hop dance background, and soon felt more at home on the sidelines.
"Every time that we were lifting someone up in the air, when we do a stunt successfully, I feel more confident in myself in terms of strength. In football and soccer, when I tried really hard, there were others that would excel substantially further than me," Luong said.
"I found my outlet in cheerleading because it felt like I could be myself."
Owen Germsheid, 13, works on his tumbling as Jesse Cooney, head coach and choreographer at Perfect Storm Athletics in Calgary looks on.
(Christina Ryan/ StarMetro Calgary) Opposite to Cooney's experience, Luong found the bullying he experienced in school seemed to stop once he was in high school and on the cheer team. He hasn't felt out of place as one of the U of C team's two men. Instead, he's disappointed at the slow pace of co-ed cheerleading to get a foothold in Calgary.
"I think co-ed is amazing because the teams that I've seen practise on YouTube from the U.S. (are) ... stunning. But I think here in Calgary, it's held back because people do tend to think cheerleading is a female sport," Luong said.
Dan Belisle is a 46-year-old cheerleader who broke into the sport at the age of 40 in Calgary when his daughter, Kendra, tried out for a team.
(Courtesy Dan Belisle) Some men are getting into the sport now, having missed out when they were younger. Dan Belisle fell in love with cheerleading, but not until he was in his 40s, and not until he attempted to stop his daughter from trying it six years ago.
"I told her that she should do something I thought would be more productive for her later in life, such as dance or music lessons," Belisle, now 46, said.
"I remember the first competition that we went to and thinking it was really cool and well-organized. It was a great team-bonding sport for her. And then I saw the open team come out, which was more older athletes, and I was blown away by how good it was."
Dan Belisle is a 46-year-old cheerleader who broke into the sport at the age of 40 in Calgary when his daughter, Kendra, tried out for a team.
(Courtesy Dan Belisle) The fast-paced stunts of the older team made Belisle think he'd missed the boat by not trying cheerleading when he was younger. But when a coach at Perfect Storm found out about Belisle's background in football, powerlifting, and bodybuilding, he invited Belisle to join a stunt team for parents.
Belisle has since competed with an open-aged team just like the one that stunned him in the first place. At first, tossing around people half his age was tough to get used to, and he struggled to keep up with the dance steps. But now he's teaching other parents who want to try the sport.
"I'm training a dad right now on basic stunts and he said he wasn't very competitive when he was younger. But as he's gotten older, had kids and watched his kids get into sports, it interested him more," Belisle said.
"It's a great way to get into, and stay in, great shape. Of course, at my age, a lot of people don't take care of themselves, and this is a great way to do it."
After several years in the sport, Belisle is still disappointed by how much more of a hub Edmonton is for cheerleading than Calgary. His city is slowly catching up, but Belisle hopes the Stampeders will eventually change their mind and field a co-ed all-star cheerleading squad just like their northern rivals, the Eskimos.
With two competitive all-star cheerleading clubs in the city, Perfect Storm and Calgary Stars, Cooney believes the sport is on its way to mature past its infancy in Calgary. This development hasn't been helped by the fact most schools in the city don't offer these more acrobatic cheerleading teams.
"In Calgary, there hasn't really been the infrastructure in cheerleading to actually hone in on the talents of these older athletes," Cooney said. But he's hopeful for the future.
It used to be normal for Cooney to see an Alberta cheer team and not see a single male cheerleader. But as the sport grows, Cooney is proud to see it's becoming rarer to find all-female teams. And he's hopeful about how cheerleading can build the confidence of the guys who pursue it.
"It forces people to take the middle of the stage and really learn how to perform in front of an audience. I've had athletes that are the quiet and shy little dude in the back of the classroom, and then after one or two years of cheerleading, they're at the forefront of everything."
Andrew Jeffrey is a reporter/photographer for Star Calgary. Follow him on Twitter: @andrew_jeffrey
TOP STORIES, DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.
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