Butler cheer6/30/2023 ![]() Ĭorrales, Newman and Lipscomb are all men of color. It’s something that many people saw highlighted with La’Darius Marshall in the popular Netflix original series “Cheer”. Being blanketed as a monolith is something that not just men cheerleaders face on a daily basis, it’s what BIPOC - Black, indigenous and people of color - also face day after day. One of the aforementioned stereotypes that are associated with being a man cheerleader is that if you cheer, you have to be gay. It’s also to improve the morale of our fans so that our team has something to play for.” “It’s our job to not just to stunt and throw people up and catch them and all that stuff. “I didn’t realize how big of a role that cheerleaders do play in the overall morale of the game,” Lipscomb said. He says that seeing the role of cheerleading from this side of the field was eye-opening to him. Lipscomb’s first experience of a game day came recently at the Butler football game vs. We’re just out there having a good time.” It’s ‘let’s hit stunts, let’s progress.’ But when it comes to game day, everybody’s happy face comes out. “I think during practice, it’s very much so business. “Game days are absolutely the best,” Corrales said. But as all three agreed: game days make everything worth it. Continuous work goes on behind the scenes in practices, and it is all business. You got to worry about the little details … that’s how you get better, and that’s how you keep pushing.” I would say before college, during my gap year, I learned about being detail oriented and how things take a long time to become great. “That was a really big shift for me,” Corrales said. Photo by Lauren Hough.Ĭorrales doesn’t have an athletic background like the others, but credits the time he took off from school as what helped him ease into the sport. Senior Nate Corrales is in his third season on the Butler cheer team. If you have the mindset, you will succeed.” “And I think playing other sports, it’s very different, but at the same time it all plays into the same. “ is a bunch of little things that add up perfectly,” Newman said. Newman, who in high school was a tri-sport athlete in football, track and lacrosse, shared the same sentiment. ![]() Lipscomb mentioned that it is common for athletes from other sports to be good at cheerleading. I guess I showed something that they like, so they asked me to come back, and I’ve been coming back ever since.” Tryouts the first time I had ever cheered. “He knew that I was a wrestler … and he thought I was physically able to try out, so I came down and gave it a shot. “Cole Bonewit, he’s the assistant coach here, and he also works at my school,” Lipscomb said. Like Corrales, he was recruited by someone on the team, only that someone was a coach who happened to work at his high school. Lipscomb is the youngest of the three, a first-year elementary education major. It’s such a drive it’s the competitive nature that I’ve been missing. ![]() “So I tried out as a junior, and now I’m here, and I’m in love with it. “I felt like there was no better time than college to just finally go for my dream,” Newman said. Newman, a junior entrepreneurship and innovation major, said he has always wanted to pursue cheer. ![]() I was like, ‘It’s beautiful, but it’s also kind of brute.’”įor Newman and Lipscomb, this is their first season. “We have a mutual friend … and I went and watched her cheer. “I didn’t really think anything of it ,” Corrales said. He was invited by fellow teammate Mattie Neely to come to an open gym during his sophomore year. Corrales, a senior applied business technology major, is entering his third season cheering for the Bulldogs. ![]() Nate Corrales, Kellen Newman and Noah Lipscomb are all members of the Butler co-ed cheer team, each with unique stories about how they joined the team. Despite the typecast that may be thrown their way, three men cheerleaders at Butler are showing that the sport is for everyone. Being a man in the sport comes with well-known sexist and homophobic stereotypes. KOBE MOSLEY | MANAGING EDITOR | you create the image of a cheerleader in your head, what usually comes to mind? Most people would visualize a white “ female who is small in stature yet feminine adheres to westernized notions of beauty has long, often blonde hair that manages not to interfere with her athleticism … ”įrom the outside looking in, it may seem like only women can be cheerleaders. Junior Kellen Newman holds a teammate on his shoulders during a practice. ![]()
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