The sun has yet to rise over the Sandias, but the UNM Spirit Program has already been practicing for an hour. Four days a week, essentially all year round, 73 members of the Spirit Program spend the first two hours of the day tucking, stunting and risking their lives in elaborate spins, jumps, throws and catches.
The Spirit Program, a large and energetic group seen throwing each other around in a very literal fashion at most UNM sporting events, consists of three teams: the Lobo Dance Team, the Large Co-Ed Cheerleading team and the Small Co-Ed Cheerleading team, each with two coaches.
Of the students involved, 25 women are on the Dance Team, nine men and 10 women belong to the Large Co-Ed Cheerleading team, and the Small Co-Ed Cheerleading team is composed of five men and 24 women. The primary concern of the UNM Spirit Program is cheering on the sports teams, and as such all three groups cheer at the football games and rotate responsibilities for the men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball matches.
Kelly Grice, the Spirit coordinator for the last two years, is quick to drive at the core of the stigma that exists around cheerleading.
“I think the one bad part about cheerleading and dance is that it just has a stigma,” Grice said. “That stigma is so far from the truth. Look at them: they work their tails off.”
In addition to the rigorous morning practices where timing, trust and teamwork are tested stunt after rehearsed stunt, there are optional evening practices, and the same exercise expectations that personal trainers applying to the UNM sports program adhere to.
“I would like everybody to know how hard they work, and how athletic this sport is,” Grice said. “Dance and cheer is extremely athletic. I think that’s what goes unnoticed. They get hit constantly and they don’t have pads.”
A moment later, a woman who was meant to be caught atop the pyramid is thrown into the air, but the catch is missed. Several of her male teammates rush to catch her, one of whom takes an elbow to the brow.
“They get elbowed constantly,” Grice said. “If you’re a base, you risk your life to catch these girls because you have to. It’s much more dangerous for the girl who is up in the air, so they literally risk their lives to catch (her), and then as a result they get beat up. I think that we make it look good at the game most of the time, so people don’t understand the work that went into getting there.”
Achieving the fluidity at sporting events and the ability these teams demonstrate to “hit” the big stunts such as rewinds, is something that takes countless run-throughs to accomplish, she said.
Kevin Keith, a senior on the Large Co-Ed team and a member of the Spirit Program since his freshman year, is well-versed in what it takes to be a successful cheer team.
“In first year, it seemed to most people like we were just there to have fun,” Keith said. “But I want this year to be the year where everyone’s like, ‘wow,’ and notice we’re really making a big difference by improving our skills, how we interact with the crowd during games, and just the whole aspect of going to nationals and being successful.”
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Getting to such a point takes teamwork, something Kyla Ortega, a junior member of the Small Co-Ed team, is quick to emphasize.
“Some of the best relationships in my life are ones I’ve had with my teammates,” she said. “We grow so close so quickly, and I think that really benefits the team. You can have all the talent or skills that you want, but if it’s not built within the team, then you’re really not going to succeed.”
In a sport that relies entirely on precision and the perfected contributions of so many individuals acting together, those bonds are imperative, she said.
“These are the best people I’ve ever been around – definitely some of the nicest – and they keep pushing me to better myself, and I want to push them to get better,” Keith said.
Josh Lane is a freelance reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
