Cheer becomes a California Interscholastic Federation Sport

In California, people have debated for a long time whether cheerleading should be recognized as a sport. Only nine states officially recognize cheerleading as an official sport. However, at the end of the 2015 fall sports season, California Governor Jerry Brown announced that beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, cheer will be considered a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) sport.

“The CIF looks forward to bringing competitive cheer into the family of CIF sports,” a CIF media release stated. “The CIF will immediately begin the process of developing policies for the implementation of competitive cheer as a CIF sport.”

This is a memorable event in the history of cheerleading and is exciting for cheer teams throughout California.

“This legitimizes cheerleading as a sport,” sophomore junior varsity cheer captain Hope Reveche said. “We do just as much work as any other sport and, to be honest, I think it should have been considered a CIF sport years ago.”

Despite this news, the question of how Peninsula cheerleaders will compete remains unresolved. With a multitude of sports at Peninsula, it may be difficult for the school’s gyms to accommodate all of the teams.