Place your bets

[untchick]

the dance team doesnt get paid or any scholarships or anything but neither does any other dance team for any other d1 school. all other d1 schools have full scholarships for every single cheerleader and we cant even get 8??? i mean im not quitting anytime soon if i dont get a scholarship but i do think it might bring more skilled people to the unt cheer squad and yeah we might have people at games

[untchick]

Debbie,

That is silly.  If the band didn't require music majors to be in the marching band we would have a band the size of the pep band for football games.  Along those lines, the pep band ONLY comes to the basketball games when they are PAID.  On top of that many of them are on scholarship so they are essentially getting double paid.  If our football team did not have an opportunity to compete on the field then why would they play, just to entertain us?  Play scrimmages against one another?  No, they play because they have the opportunity to play other teams and even get to play in a championship bowl game. 

The cheerleaners are a volunteer organization.  They are not paid.  The only things funded for them are their uniforms and their coach.  They often have to pay to go to road games and are definitely not compensated for performing at basketball games the way that the band is.  We should be fighting for more money for our cheerleaders so that we can ask more of them rather than complaining about what we have now.  There is an old saying, you get what you pay for.  Right now we are getting what we are paying for, a volunteer cheer squad with no scholarships at a Div I institution.  The only reward that they have received in the past is the chance to compete and show off their hard work in a national competition and that was taken away from them this year due to switching organizations. 

Now, I do have complaints about the cheerleaders, don't get me wrong.  It is impossible for me to believe that they cannot come up with a cheer that gets the crowd to chant in unison.  A little bit of effort in working with the jumbotrons, the band, and the stadium/arena annoucners and we could have a signature crowd cheer within a year or even a few games.  That effort never seems to be made and it flat out pisses me off.  If the very best we can do is to hang out balloons to bang together than we are in bad shape.  We should not have to rely on artificial noise makers alone for our crowd to become involved in the game.  This is one area that the cheerleaders need desperately to address and it would not cost them a penny, just a little effort and time.

stebo....I LOVE YOU! you are awesome and i thank you so much!!

[mdolan]

i cheer to support my school and our teams

Thank you untchick for your time and hard work to support the Mean Green. We need more people on the squad like you! Thanks again, and GO MEAN GREEN!

Edited February 20, 2004 by mdolan

[TX Green]

I agree with untchick some of the cheerleaders do cheer to support the school and I know I do. Although I have been a cheerleader that has competed for the last 10 years of my life I will still continue to try to cheer for UNT regardless if we compete or not. I love cheerleading regardless if I am in it for cheering on my school or competing. I have shown up at every game I was assigned and continue to do so. I have also a couple of times showed up and cheered for people that could not make their games but I don't mind b/c I love to support our school and cheer on the MEAN GREEN. See you at the game, GMG!

[GreenBrigadeDebbie]

Thanks for giving us your insights untchick and TX Green. I am so glad that you are giving the average UNT fan some more insight on the cheerleaders.

[UNT_92_Fan]

TWO WORDS....

DEAD SUBJECT

[untangel4]

TWO WORDS....

DEAD SUBJECT

i agree... let's just leave this alone

[MeanGreenNation]

bump

[bigrobdsp]

were not gonna protest! were not gonna protest!

[Guest e-bone]

bump 

HILARIOUS

[MeanGreenQueen]

There were 6 there tonight and they were pretty loud, too!

[TX Green]

Thanks MeanGreenQueen! I know I had a blast at the game tonight, I hope everyone enjoyed the game! GMG!

[Gakusei]

Glad to see so many there tonight. The "North Texas Mean Green" thing needs to be re-engineered for bball. Everything else was great, though.

[greenjoe]

6 Cheerleaders at the game tonight. I thought they did a good job. I'm sure they contributed to what was an incredible win. Could we do the NORTH-TEXAS cheer in both halves ?

[TX Green]

Thanks guys for all the positive feedback. It's nice to finally have positive feedback and to finally have a group of cheerleaders I don't know if we will be able to do the North Texas chant during both halves the athletic dept. tells us what to do and when to do it. At the games we aren't supposed to stand up but there toward the end there was no way we were going to sit down the game was way to exciting! Thanks for coming to the game and cheering on the Mean Green! GMG!

[Guest e-bone]

At the games we aren't supposed to stand up...

That is flat out stupid. The AD does a lot of stupid things when it comes to basketball though, so I'm not surprised.

[stebo]

It is a conference rule Mini Aaron. We used to have cheerleaders stand behind the basket and make noise during free throws; the Belt got rid of that. We can get a technical for doing it and the refs have their own discretion as to what is interfering with the game.

On another note, I went to Waco and watched the Baylor-Mizzou game this last weekend and our crowds are every bit as good as theirs. One very cool thing that they have done is place their band in the corner behind the visitors bench. Whenever there was a timeout, the band would play a little song and then just blow away so that the players in the huddle could not hear what the coach was saying. The coach was PISSED, I mean PISSED; but there is no rule against how a band plays during a time out. The Mizzou team cannot pass half court during timeouts for their huddles and they were warned several times for huddling over the half court line trying to get away from the horns and the noise being blown at them. I would love to see that in the Pit. At least one good idea came ot of Waco! Baylor almost won that game and when you take into consideration that Mizzou beat OU in Norman this year that is a pretty big deal. Their coach is for real, I think he will have Baylor turned around in a year or two. If he is doing this well with all those walk-ons, I would hate to see how they do when they get ship players in there.

[Guest e-bone]

It is a conference rule Mini Aaron.  We used to have cheerleaders stand behind the basket and make noise during free throws; the Belt got rid of that.  We can get a technical for doing it and the refs have their own discretion as to what is interfering with the game.

That is one thing, but banning cheerleaders from standing up!? That is one of the dumbest things I've heard in a while.

[untangel4]

Can this thread PLEASE just die?!?

[GreenBrigadeDebbie]

I agree. I can understand that the officials do not want any interruptions but banning anyone from standing is beyond me!!

I also commend the cheerleaders on last night's game!!! They were loud and into the game!!!!! Way to go cheerleaders!!! YAY!!!!!!!!

[stebo]

That is one thing, but banning cheerleaders from standing up!? That is one of the dumbest things I've heard in a while

While I agree with you, allowing them to stand up is just asking for trouble. Say your team makes a great play while they are standing behind the goal and it gets discounted because of a technical. Or if the other team has a fast break and gets to shoot an extra free throw because of a T and also gets the ball back. You just cannot leave "discretion" up to students, they will get caught up in the emotion of the game and an overzealous whistle happy ref will make you pay for it.. .could cost you the game. I went to a Big 12 game last Saturday and their cheerleaders are not even on the court during game play, they stay in the corner. The band however is a major factor. Maybe it is the sitting down that bothers you, having them stand up in the corner would probably be ok; but if they are standing up behind the goal and something big happens, a cheerleader will jump up and down and "cheer" by natural instinct... and if you get the wrong ref it can erase a basket or add onto the opponents basket. Some conferences might allow it; but the Belt doesn't... and I am guessing that the Big 12 doesn't either because I was watching the Baylor cheerleaders to see what they did during game time. I think we should be doing what the Mavericks do to get the crowd incolved - use those Mini-Trons as much as possible. It is up to the fans to get noise going when the clock is ticking, cheerleaders are limited to what they can do. We could probably push the enveolpe but I don't think that JJ or RV wants to risk handing over that type of thing because it just takes one bad apple to ruin it for everyone. And by bad apple, I mean a bad ref, not a bad cheerleader.