The Journey to Nationals

Kent State University excels in a variety of sports and programs. The Kent State Cheerleading program is growing each year. The cheerleading team at Kent State University cheers for football and men and women’s basketball, they also participate in many on and off campus events. The team is coached by Demonde Gladman and assisted by Whitney Cleland, both alumnae athletes. Gladman helped the squad to a 12th place finish at the 2005-06 UCA Nationals. Last year was their first year returning to college cheerleading nationals. Kent State placed 5^th at the NCA College Nationals in Daytona, Florida in April 2013.

NCA College Nationals is hosted at Daytona beach, Florida every year in April. Hundreds of college teams qualify to compete.

Last year the team competed as a small co-ed group. Small co-ed consists of twenty athletes on the floor, men or women. Kent State only had four males last year on the team making it more challenging to do advanced skills.

This is some of the women who competed this year at nationals.

This is some of the women enjoying the beach after practicing the day before taking the nationals floor!

This year 2013-2014, the Kent State cheerleading program has grown tremendously. The squad this year had the opportunity to choose twenty from forty-two athletes who were all apart of the program. The program worked hard to recruit males, to build up the co-ed part of the squad. It’s not the easiest thing to recruit males to “cheerleading”, but once the girls finally get them to come in they don’t want to stop learning! The cheer program gained ten males to the squad this year. Needless to say the program is excelling quick!

The Kent State cheerleading team practices three to four times a week, and lifts with the athletic trainers, just like normal athletes. The unique thing about cheerleading is that its an all year commitment, unlike any other sports team, cheerleading doesn’t not have an “off” season. Especially now with the desire to qualify and attend to nationals, the cheerleaders are always working to get better! Cheerleading nationals isn’t an event that just any team can attend, teams must qualify to compete at nationals. Hundreds of colleges around the United States attend college cheer nationals.

Kent State cheering on the Flashes at their last home game!

DJ Blair a current freshman “cheer-bro” explains: “I got into it this year, I went to the first football game and I seen some girls doing flips and said ‘Hey I can do that,’” DJ Blair was one of the males who competed on the floor this year at the NCA nationals. DJ was a wrestler, and a football and baseball player in high school. He was the captain his senior year of his football team. He stated that he wasn’t good enough to continue in those sports. Cheerleading was a whole new door opened where he could build strength and still be an athlete.

Kent State Cheer-bros after competing at nationals
April 9, 2014

Abduel Seidu is the current captain of the males on the team who identify their selves as “cheer-bros”. He said, “It’s a good way to meet people and make friends”. He was also an athlete out of high school. As the leader of the team Abduel describes his self as a “strong male cheerleader”, and continues to say “I like to show a good example”.

Kent State cheerleading has a nationals tradition. They paint the school rock before leaving to compete! This is the rock at Kent State that is often painted by sports teams and other on campus clubs!

Cheerleading is a great way for males to display their athletic abilities. Stunting and tumbling takes a lot of technique and is time consuming. They also receive many benefits like most athletes on campus such as priority scheduling, scholar money, personal weight training, and others. The Kent State cheerleading team hopes to continue excelling in their talent and number of athletes, especially males. As Abduel stated he is planning to lead the team to a first place trophy next year as they return to nationals and “make things happen”! The coach describes this team as a “family”, and he desires to keep the family growing!