Cheerleaders at Toledo game

[OrangeSocksFalcon]

Are you really going to complain and criticize the fact that neither a mascot or cheerleaders were at the BG/UT game? Honestly I've been cheering here for a while now and I can tell you that when Eastern brought cheerleaders to Anderson it was the first time in my years of cheering for BGSU that an opponent brought cheerleaders other than WNIT when Dayton and IU both brought cheerleaders. Other than football we never travel anywhere for basketball except for post season tournaments... Ex: MAC tourney, NCAA, WNIT. Other than that, we don't travel. Maybe when we are able to offer scholarships to the spirit squads you can expect to see them travel, but until that point find something better to complain about. We do alot for next to nothing as it is.

Yes, I am going to complain. I was in marching band and I had to PAY for that class that I got 2 credits for but spent 10 hours a week practicing for and weekends supporting a football team that rarely won. But it was a privilege and an honor to represent my university, and if I had to do it over again I would. Maybe you should re-evaluate the reason you chose to give spirit to the teams as it seems as though maybe you are only in it for a monetary reward. That being said as I mentioned I haven't been to an away game in quite a few years so I was no aware that the spirit squads didn't travel much anymore. I can see the squads not going to all away games but the UT game and a huge game for the women would seem like a no brainer to me.

[Peregrinner]

Are you really going to complain and criticize the fact that neither a mascot or cheerleaders were at the BG/UT game? Honestly I've been cheering here for a while now and I can tell you that when Eastern brought cheerleaders to Anderson it was the first time in my years of cheering for BGSU that an opponent brought cheerleaders other than WNIT when Dayton and IU both brought cheerleaders. Other than football we never travel anywhere for basketball except for post season tournaments... Ex: MAC tourney, NCAA, WNIT. Other than that, we don't travel. Maybe when we are able to offer scholarships to the spirit squads you can expect to see them travel, but until that point find something better to complain about. We do alot for next to nothing as it is.

Yes, I am going to complain. I was in marching band and I had to PAY for that class that I got 2 credits for but spent 10 hours a week practicing for and weekends supporting a football team that rarely won. But it was a privilege and an honor to represent my university, and if I had to do it over again I would. Maybe you should re-evaluate the reason you chose to give spirit to the teams as it seems as though maybe you are only in it for a monetary reward. That being said as I mentioned I haven't been to an away game in quite a few years so I was no aware that the spirit squads didn't travel much anymore. I can see the squads not going to all away games but the UT game and a huge game for the women would seem like a no brainer to me.

With all due respect, the cheerleaders, mascots, and other spirit crews support the football team at every game even when they're not very successful, too. They also (depending on which group we're talking about) have to work/perform at every home basketball game, volleyball game and hockey game, football and basketball postseason games, and practice frequently throughout the week.

Obviously money isn't the deciding factor. It's silly to think it would be. The spirit crews, just the same as most people in the band, are in it because they love it and they are spirited.

The reason money becomes an issue is that all of the work and all of the hours make it pretty difficult to have a job as well. Once you start asking the students to pay out of pocket to go to the "big" close away games you're talking about some serious cash out of these students' pockets.

Additionally, for the cheerleaders to go and have any sort of presence, there need to be enough of them available that they can actually do something, which may not have been possible.

In an ideal world, would the spirit groups travel with all teams to all games, especially big games? Sure, but it's not realistic. And I realize you're not saying they need to go to every big game, but still, it's not as easy as you make it sound.

Regardless, this whole conversation has a very negative tone from both sides, which isn't really necessary and doesn't do anyone any good.

[vwfalcon]

Are you really going to complain and criticize the fact that neither a mascot or cheerleaders were at the BG/UT game? Honestly I've been cheering here for a while now and I can tell you that when Eastern brought cheerleaders to Anderson it was the first time in my years of cheering for BGSU that an opponent brought cheerleaders other than WNIT when Dayton and IU both brought cheerleaders. Other than football we never travel anywhere for basketball except for post season tournaments... Ex: MAC tourney, NCAA, WNIT. Other than that, we don't travel. Maybe when we are able to offer scholarships to the spirit squads you can expect to see them travel, but until that point find something better to complain about. We do alot for next to nothing as it is.

Yes, I am going to complain. I was in marching band and I had to PAY for that class that I got 2 credits for but spent 10 hours a week practicing for and weekends supporting a football team that rarely won. But it was a privilege and an honor to represent my university, and if I had to do it over again I would. Maybe you should re-evaluate the reason you chose to give spirit to the teams as it seems as though maybe you are only in it for a monetary reward. That being said as I mentioned I haven't been to an away game in quite a few years so I was no aware that the spirit squads didn't travel much anymore. I can see the squads not going to all away games but the UT game and a huge game for the women would seem like a no brainer to me.

You had to pay to get your two credits, great. We don't get a class credit. Also you said you practiced for 10 hrs a week, first semester only... we practice 7 hrs and 2 hrs of workouts plus games first semester and then 4 hrs and 2 hrs of workouts plus games second semester. We also travel at least 8 spirit squad members to every away football game regardless of the distance. Often it would not be uncommon to have practice for nationals and also do games. We also would have Football and Basketball both overlapping first semester increasing our time commitment for the week. We cheered for the same football team that rarely won as you say, and even the struggling men's basketball team as well as the successful women's basketball team. Throw on top of that the various events we have requests for appearances. I don't believe that some people understand the time commitment that goes with the territory.

As far as you trying to say that I am not doing it for the right reason? If I wasn't doing it for the right reason would I have stayed with it after all these years even knowing that I wouldn't get any kind of monetary reward for it? I love BGSU cheerleading and would not trade in my memories for anything. I was just saying that we already had other commitments and had to cheer a HOME game that night so it wasn't possible to have a group up there. One of our coaches was out of town for a wedding and the other had prior commitments that made it possible to only be at the night game at home.

The last point I will make is maybe I would be more excited and jump at the opportunity to travel if our crowd would actually get into it a little more at away games, because our crowds are painful sometimes. It often seems like they don't even care, and it's that way at home sometimes too which is a shame.

[falconwomenbball]

vwfalcon: How many away women's basketball games have you gone to? A lot of the times we have more fans there than the home team. There have been several times when someone in our traveling party has been told to be quiet as she was making too much noise. We get into the game at home and on the road. There were a lot of vocal BG fans at the Toledo game. Let's all continue to positively cheer whereever and whenever we can. Let the team do the rest.

[nwofalconfan]

I think it is time to close this thread.