Zenna Bowes, Special to The Denisonian
It should be noted that since the drafting of this opinion piece, Denison Cheerleading has successfully acquired space in the Recreational Gym to utilize throughout the remainder of the 2026 season. The other issues discussed within this opinion piece remain relevant concerns for which Denison Cheerleading requests attention and resources.
The season was going great for the Denison club cheerleading team. We were making immense progress, our skills were growing and we hit many of our goals. Then, all of a sudden, the team no longer had a place to practice. Now, maintaining our skills takes extra effort.
As a cheerleader with six years of experience, I can attest to the athletic vigor of the sport and how, fundamentally, cheerleaders support others over themselves. Strangely, a sport that is based on supporting others is not receiving that same support. Since we put in so much effort, support other teams and are ambassadors for Denison, we deserve a space to practice and grow our program and transportation to travel and support our peers.
There are typically three levels of athletics at every college: varsity, intramural, and club. According to Lynsey Wisner, Director of Budgets, Camps and Club Sports at Denison, varsity teams compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), are a part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and have hired staff for their teams. Intramural sports are programs created for one event only, typically with a compact season and just for fun. Club sports are student-run but can have outside staff, and need to have a president and treasurer at minimum.
Denison Cheerleading is a club sport, as we have traditionally only ever cheered on the sidelines of other varsity sporting events. As a club sport, we do not get the same funding and access to facilities that varsity sports do. This affects the 17 members of the team every day.
Some may argue that because we are just another club, we should not get any special privileges because we are not a varsity sport with conference commitments. But as stated by Olivia Howe, Captain and President of the Denison Cheerleading Team, “Cheerleading is not an easy sport; it takes time and dedication to grow as individuals and as a team.”
We recently started a competitive squad, as well, which is monumental, as Denison Cheerleading has never competed before. This advancement was a long time in the making, involving much planning and logistics behind the scenes, a formal tryout process to choose the members of the team and fundraising to help with the enormous costs of travel. We will make history and compete at the College Classic in April of 2026, where we will get the opportunity to showcase our skills and hard work.
This extra commitment means that we will be practicing an additional day each week and attending off-campus tumbling classes every Sunday. This will result in a total of eight hours of intense training per week, on top of the hours we spend supporting other teams.
We have made much progress with our stunts, achieving new skills that the team has never had before. However, without a place with high ceilings and enough room to roll out mats, we cannot continue to develop these skills and work our way to becoming a varsity sport.
Until now, we have practiced in the Mitchell Fieldhouse, but we no longer have access to that, as other sports take priority. We only have occasional access to the multipurpose room, which we cannot stunt in due to the low ceilings. We deserve a place to practice, to develop our skills as athletes and to prepare for our competition, so we do not lose the progress we have already worked so hard for.
This is a big ask. Creating new practice spaces or facilities would be incredibly expensive and slightly unrealistic. Instead, I suggest that the university allow for more equal sharing of the spaces we already have, like allowing us to use a small portion of Mitchell Fieldhouse, as we did before. Many of the varsity sports already have to share spaces, and cheer should be included in that.
We could even make great use of The Moonies, or a performance space that is not already occupied. As a newly competitive team, we should be allowed the same privileges as every other competitive team at Denison.
Cheerleading developed as a way to organize and increase the energy of fans at sporting events. According to USA Cheer, cheerleading has grown significantly since it was established in 1898, evolving from just cheering from the sidelines to an increasingly athletic sport.
Denison cheerleaders are truly ambassadors for the university and have a positive impact on our school’s community. On campus, not only do we cheer for the football team and the men’s and women’s basketball teams, but we also collaborate with different offices and groups on campus to raise school spirit and get students excited about all Denison has to offer.
For example, we participated in Big Red Friday at the beginning of the fall 2025 semester, an event held by the Office of First Year Experience. The cheerleaders were a big part of this event, helping to jumpstart school spirit early in the school year.
We also recently teamed up with two sororities, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi, to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters in Granville. This was a fun event that connected Denison to the surrounding community and brought some groups on campus closer together.
Also, we plan to hold a youth camp for young cheerleaders to learn skills and help us cheer on a Denison basketball game.
Beyond our local area, we also raise awareness for issues larger than ourselves. For example, we wore pink ribbons to a football game to raise awareness for breast cancer, and green ribbons to a different game in support of Mission 34, which raises awareness for mental health. Additionally, we held a Halloween-themed fundraiser and donated half of the proceeds to breast cancer research.
The Denison Cheerleading team does so not provided with transportation to attend away games. This is a vital resource for us to safely travel and support our fellow student athletes and boost the morale of the players. According to NFHS, one of the main roles that cheerleaders play is that of being a crowd leader, which means that they amplify the fans’ enthusiasm and encourage support for the players. We have already missed five away football games this season because we do not have transportation and we would have been responsible for getting ourselves there. This is a problem because it is not always safe or economical for us to transport ourselves. Many girls do not have cars or do not feel safe transporting others, especially long distances and at night after cheering for many hours. We love cheering on our peers and fellow student athletes at their games, especially when they ask us to be there, but we cannot always support them if we do not feel safe driving ourselves. This problem would be easily solved if Denison purchased a few more university vans, as there are currently not enough to accommodate the demand for them.
We are at a pivotal moment in the history of Denison Cheerleading. Our program is improving and advancing every day and deserves the room to do that. Having competed at the national level four times in the past, I know the potential that this team has, and I have high hopes for the amazing things we will do. Providing more resources now will advance our opportunities to grow, potentially become a varsity sport in the future and further support the university that we are so proud to represent.
Zenna Bowes ‘29 is a biology major from Montoursville, Pennsylvania.