Cheerleading attracts brave souls only

Despite his muscular six-foot, one-inch, 225-pound frame and ideal-sports-star name, senior Rob Roberts is not a football player. He is wearing an orange-and-black varsity jacket when he strolls up to Café Viv — but with the words "Princeton Cheerleading" boldly embossed across the back. And no, the jacket isn't his girlfriend's.

Roberts has been a part of the Princeton cheerleading squad since his sophomore year. A man known to make brave choices for the benefit of others — he happily accepted two more years of waffle ceilings to be an R.A. to underclassmen in Butler — Rob decided to give cheering a try when his cheerleader-friends told him about the squad's dire need for males.

"I was a little hesitant at first," the soft-spoken senior said, "and then I decided just to go try out . . . and I had fun so I just stayed on and . . . here I am two years later."

Although he grew up with four older sisters, even Roberts had his initial share of doubts about whether he would be able to endure the team's high estrogen levels.

"I just remember my first road trip with the squad," he said, "and somehow they got started on talking about weddings, and like wedding dresses and all this, and I'm just sitting there like, 'What the hell have I gotten myself into?'"

But over the years, Roberts has adapted to the quirks of being a part of a coed sports team. "He's used to seeing us in sports-bras and bloomers with hot rollers in our hair," senior co-captain Joanna Gaines said.

Forced to stay in a hotel room with two female team members on a recent trip to San Diego, Roberts had no complaints. "I told him I was sorry he was having to live in such small quarters with two girls who would obviously be taking longer showers, and spending more time in front of the mirror," junior Carrie Holst explained, "and he said he honestly was so used to that sort of thing having grown up with four sisters."

According to Roberts, "We're all just good friends on the squad. I think we all just have fun hanging out together and we have a good relationship — it's not like weird or anything at all."

Moreover, this year, Roberts has another Y-chromosome to help balance out the sea of X's — sophomore cheerleader Dave Sharpe, a recent addition to the squad.

Like Roberts, Sharpe did not have any cheerleading or gymnastics experience before trying out for the Princeton team. But after a hip injury that prevented him from participating in most other sports, he decided to give cheering a try. "I'm helping them out while I'm helping myself out," Sharpe said.

"Helping them out" entails three to four practices a week, and lifts twice a week, in addition to conspicuous attendance at all home football and basketball games.

But Sharpe doesn't seem overburdened by his cheerleading duties. "It's just throwing some girls in the air, holding people up, catching people, you know – no clapping, kicking, cheering, flipping, none of that for me," he said.

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Wait a minute – no cheering? Yes, that's right.

"Well I mean I'll say things . . . I'll say 'Yeah Princeton' – that's about as far as I'll go," Sharpe said. According to Roberts, the guys on the squad "will be sort of the base of the pyramid . . . or a lot of the times . . . we'll be the ones to pop the top person up to the top of the pyramid and cradle them back off."

And this is certainly no easy feat. As junior cheerleader Jennie Eskin said, "If you really think you're strong, try lifting someone's dead weight over your head and holding them there while cheering, making it look easy and not dropping them!" Well, usually not dropping them. Even Roberts, who according to Sharpe, "knows all the tricks of the trade" confessed that he has been known to drop a girl on occasion.

"I mean, in practice people hit the ground," Roberts said, before adding, "I don't want to make it sound like people are just falling all over the place. Not outright, like just throw her up in the air and then just kind of walk away, but yeah, it's one of those things that just happens."

But with this senior stuntman, drops are rare. Holst confirmed that "Robby's never dropped me, or anyone else really . . . he will always put himself underneath any fall, so that the girl and he might fall, but he provides a nice cushion for her."

Sharpe explained the cushioning phenomenon slightly less tactfully: "If you at least slow 'em down a little bit you're going to be okay."

Cheerleading can be just as dangerous for these human-cushions as it is for the girls. Sharpe said he is actually much less worried about the girls' safety than his own.

"It's more a concern of what's going to happen to me," he said. "Just yesterday I got hit in the face and my nose was bleeding and my mouth was bleeding and yeah, it was pretty rough."

While cheerleading can get rough and bloody, that doesn't stop the men of "real rough" sports like football from giving the two male cheerleaders a hard time.

As Roberts explained, "When I started cheering sophomore year my two roommates were both defensive linemen on the football team." Although he said that "they never really gave me a hard time per se about it," he did reveal one of his roommate's favorite witticisms: "He would always joke about how he was sleeping with one of the cheerleaders," Roberts laughed.

But the females on the squad are less amused by jabs at their faithful spotter and stuntman. "For all the boys who make fun of Robby, I say grow up," Gaines said. "Quit being insecure."

The petite Eskin was even harsher. "I want to know who they are, 'cause I'll beat them up!" she said. "You can't tease someone about cheerleading until you've actually tried it."

And according to Roberts, very few males brave enough to actually try cheerleading find it to be un-enjoyable. "About 90 percent of guys that we actually get to come out to practice and try it out stick with it," he said.

In spite of the doubting males, cramped hotel rooms, wedding talk, and jokes at his expense, Roberts' least favorite aspect of Princeton cheerleading is its paltry budget. "Because of our budget constraints we can only afford a part-time coach," he explained.

This put extra pressure on Roberts in his role as captain last year. But even though he was responsible for uniform purchases, transportation, and running practices, all the cheerleaders agreed Roberts fulfilled those duties as well as any full-time coach.

So only one question truly remains for these talented male specimens. Is "Bring it On" an accurate depiction of what it's like to be a cheerleader at Princeton? Roberts politely explained, "I feel like that's not exactly 100 percent accurate . . . we kind of have friendly competition with the Penn cheerleaders but other than that it's not really anything like in the movie."

Sharpe, however, was unable to comment. "I haven't seen the whole thing," he said, before grumbling, "but I'm sure they'll make me watch it by the time the season's over."