Sweat dripping down their faces and hair loosening from their ponytails, the girls run to sit down at the edge of the blue dead mats, their coach had news for them.

 
Head coach at the time, Crystal Rice informed the Heritage High School cheer team that the state of California accepted cheer as a sport for 2017. The cheerleaders were ecstatic, finally having their team recognized.

 
“I think it’s about time. It has been qualified as a sport for a really long time. The girls train and work really hard and a lot of them have been training since they were little,” said Allison Cardoza, current coach of the cheer team.

 
Most students at Heritage made it clear that they did not accept cheer as an official sport. The cheerleaders believe that the perspectives of the other students shouldn’t be based upon one individual.

 
“Many people tend to label cheerleaders as ‘dumb’, ‘disrespectful’ or whatever derogatory term they choose, but you can’t label an entire team based on a few people. Judging an individual doesn’t define who they are, it defines the individual who was quick to make assumptions,” said China Matthews (12), a JV cheerleader.

 
The change was made by National Federation of High School Sports, and they say that the reasons for this was because it has been an ignored activity that has yet received the recognition it deserves.

 
The cheerleaders were happy and grateful they will get the recognition. Vanessa Wagenaar (9) JV cheerleader, explained she believes cheer is fun but it has its hard moments, you need to be fit and have a good memory. Matthews explained you work just as hard if not more than any other athlete, and it should be recognized as it really is.

 
Amongst the other dance groups (the dance team, hip hop group, etc.), there is an expected tension because of this change. The order of rallies may change, different rules, competitions, all these may create tension and the other dance groups may want recognition as well.

 
The coaches have explained the criteria to the team, but rules and tryout information has not yet been released. The cheerleaders have been working and training very hard since day one of the school year, and they are anxious for the announcement to be finalized in 2017. ‌