Competitive Cheer To Debut In 2010-11
7/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cheer
July 23, 2010
Baylor's 19th intercollegiate sport, women's competitive cheer, which makes its debut this year, is being implemented in a manner consistent with guidelines established by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said Director of Athletics Ian McCaw. McCaw made his comments in response to a Connecticut District Court's decision Wednesday that ruled Quinnipiac University's competitive cheer program did not function in a manner sufficient to qualify as a varsity sport for its purposes of Title IX.
"I am confident that the competitive cheer program we are building at Baylor does not have the implementation issues raised in the court's opinion," McCaw said.
Since Baylor's Board of Regents approved competitive cheer as the school's 19th intercollegiate varsity athletic team in July 2009, school officials have been laying the foundation for a championship program in the areas of staffing, student-athlete recruitment, competition, facilities and financial support.
"Having been involved in reviewing and developing Baylor's Title IX compliance plan, I am confident that Baylor, along with the other NCAA institutions sponsoring competitive cheer, has taken the proper steps to ensure that competitive cheer will meet all definitions of an intercollegiate sport and subsequent sanctioning by the NCAA," said Helen Grant, who has assisted Baylor in its Title IX compliance efforts for the past five years.
Following a national search, Karry Forsythe was hired as Baylor's first-ever competitive cheer head coach in mid-January, and since then has been focused on building the program along with first-year assistant coach Josh Taylor. Forsythe and Taylor have recruited 27 student-athletes from eight different states to represent Baylor in its debut competitive cheer season.
"We have scoured the country looking for the best athletes," said Forsythe, "and we are very excited to start the season. The response that we have received traveling the country to recruit has been very positive. I know that our student-athletes are looking forward to competing this fall and representing Baylor University the way our other 18 varsity sports do.
Baylor's competitive cheer program will begin team practices in October ahead of its six-meet National Competitive Stunts and Tumbling Association (NCSTA) schedule, which begins in December. The Baylor program will host one 2010-11 home competition at the Ferrell Center during the spring semester in advance of the NCSTA Championship at the University of Oregon's 12,500-seat state-of-the-art Matthew Knight Arena, April 7-9.
