General

What makes Friday Night Lights so special, in Texas and around the country, is more than just football, says one mom; it is also about cheerleaders, drill teams, and marching bands, whose hard work and talent deserve just as much recognition from the community as the other athletes on the field.

According to a recent survey, cheerleaders are more likely than the average teen girl to volunteer, join an organization, and take leadership positions in their school.

In rejecting the argument that competitive cheer at Quinnipiac Univeristy was a sport, a federal court in Connecticut agreed with the federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights' (OCR) that its criteria for qualifying as a sport - including having a defined season and spending more time competing than supporting other teams - had not been met.