TO ALL THE CHEERLEADERS I OFFENDED BEFORE

I need to ask all the cheerleaders I've known in my life to forgive me.
I realized this the other day as I was sitting there watching my 11 year old daughter cheer.
She went to a one day cheer camp and then had the opportunity to cheer at halftime with the middle school cheerleaders. As I watched her smile and jump, wave her pom poms and cheer, I all of sudden became a fan of cheerleaders; well, at least of one cheerleader! And as I saw her cheer and then saw how much she loved it, I all of sudden was filled with guilt; as though I had possibly offended every cheerleader I ever knew in life. Hopefully it wasn't that many.

So, officially, I apologize for: saying that cheerleaders were not athletes. The fact is that most of them are more athletic than I ever was; saying that cheerleading was not a sport. I'm not sure I could make a great argument for it, but I have decided to make no more arguments against it. Does that count?; joking that cheerleaders are so clueless that when their team is losing by 20 points with 2 minutes left in the game, they are still doing cheers such as "we're number 1, we're number 1"! Perhaps it was me that was clueless. Could it be that they knew some psychological secret about believing in the future, encouraging us to believe as well, and never give up...perhaps...

O.k. My conscience is clear.
So, here's to you cheerleaders:

Raise your pom poms high in air
Kick your leg, bind your hair
Show your smile, make quick strong moves
When you cheer for others, you never lose!