Hours and hours of some athletes’ lives are spent practicing and playing. Whether on their own or with their teammates the dedication will be put in especially if they want to play at the collegiate level, while others play or participate for a little time and have the skill needed for a collegiate level.
RJ Marquez joined cheerleading his senior year of high school.
“The girls on the Lakeland cheer team convinced me,” Marquez said.
He is also one of the few male cheerleaders who will cheer at the collegiate level, at Lewis Clark State college. He will be majoring in welding technologies.
“I had some family members that did cheerleading in high school,” Marquez said. “I want to be the first one to do it collegiately.”
In the college, Marquez hopes to make good friendships with the girls and the one other male on the team.
Marquez has worked with the Lakeland cheer team for a year and can do a two man stunt. He hopes to improve his stunts by working on a one man stunt and his tumbling.
Marquez is looking forward to the basketball game he will be cheering at and the competitions that the team will compete in.
The advice Marquez gives to males wanting to cheer is “Do it.”
He believes cheerleading and wrestling are very similar. Wrestling is a very male dominated sport that females are getting into and he thinks more girls need to join, and cheer is a female dominated sport that males need to join more.
