State will allow cheerleaders at prep games
Days after the California Department of Public Health explicitly spelled out a ban on cheerleaders at prep sporting events, the state has reversed its decision. Cheerleaders will be permitted on the sidelines at football games, after all, state officials said Friday morning.
“Sideline cheer is considered comparable to competitive cheer as a moderate-contact sport and should follow all requirements of other outdoor moderate-contact sports,” a spokesperson for CDPH said in an email. The department will update its Youth Sports Q&A that was issued Tuesday to clarify the change, the spokesperson said.
Return-to-play leaders were taken by surprise this week when the CDPH Q&A said in no uncertain terms that cheerleaders were not allowed on the sidelines at football games. The Q&A posted Tuesday said that “Sideline cheer, band, drumline or other supporting groups are not allowed to attend sporting events at this time.”
The change Friday will reclassify sideline cheer from a supporting group to a recreational sport, subject to the same rules as outdoor competitive cheer, which is a red-tier sport in the state’s recreational sports guidelines. CDPH said only cheer guidelines would be updated Friday, not those for band members or other supporting groups.
A number of teams, including local powerhouse De La Salle, opened their long-awaited football seasons last weekend with masked cheerleaders on the sideline. De La Salle’s opponent, St. Mary’s-stockton, even transported its cheer squad the 60 some miles to Concord.
When De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh saw the ban on sideline cheer and other supporting groups this week, “my jaw hit the floor,” he said Thursday in a text message. “The natural question is — WHY? What is the reasoning behind this? It is safe to play sports but not to play the drums?”
In a text message Friday, Alumbaugh said, “My reaction to all of it has been disbelief. It has been done completely safely and bringing joy to a ton of kids — male and female. I haven’t seen any rationale as to why this came out.