The inside of McArthur Court is known for its hostile environment and pressure-cooker situations where athletes often crumble under the ridicule and taunts from Oregon spectators.
Although there were only a few spectators last week, Mac Court was still one of the most tense, nerve-racking places for at least a few athletes.
There were plenty of sweating people, nervous breakdowns, gut-wrenching performances and many tears once it was all over.
It was the annual Oregon Cheerleading tryouts.
With approximately 80 girls, mostly seniors in high school and some University students hoping to make the final cut, only nine made the squad. Plenty of hearts were broken over the course of the three tryout dates on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week, with the cuts being made at the end of each day after nearly four hours of workouts.
“It’s always a stressful process,” senior and former cheer captain Valorie Darling said. “I always feel bad for the people coming in because it’s really overwhelming. They’re learning everything at once and they’re being watched constantly by everyone with their notepad.
“It’s scary and it’s really intimidating with all these cute girls coming in with their coordinated outfits and with their hair looking at its best.”
Oregon cheerleading is one of the most nationally recognized programs in the country, winning the USA Nationals Performance in 2005 and finishing second in 2006. So if someone is going to make this team, they’re going to have to be near perfect.
“The judges are looking for the whole package,” Darling said. “They’re looking for someone with a great personality, proportionate body size, someone who feels comfortable in their skin, who can dance and can work it and just the potential in people too.”
To help diffuse the pressure, the judges brought in Oregon’s senior running back Andiel Brown Wednesday night who improvised a self-described “crumping” routine, a sort of hip-hop dancing style, before the tryout began.
“The judges wanted to lighten things up because it’s really tense in here,” Brown said. “I hope the girls understand that they didn’t have to (repeat what I just did).”
Even before the tryout began, men’s captain David Hill could see the anxiety in everybody.
“When they first walk in, getting their numbers, you can see it on their faces. They’re really timid and nervous,” Hill said.
Another football player in attendance was junior tight end Ryan Keeling, who helps out the stunt team during the national championships. He was there to catch a glimpse of the potential newcomers.
The girls were taken through a routine to the tune of Janet Jackson’s “Get It Out Me” that likely played more than 100 times during the entirety of the tryouts. The returning cheerleaders were mixed in with the crowd of hopefuls and performed the routine with relative ease while many girls stumbled through it in their first few attempts.
Meanwhile, on the men’s side, the competition wasn’t nearly as taxing. In Mac Court’s hallway, 11 hopefuls practiced their own cheering routine of standing while moving their arms through the air and chanting “Let’s go Ducks!”
Five men made next year’s team and four more will join the squad pending admittance to the University. Darling said that male cheerleaders are fewer and farther between and that the squad can use as many as they can get. The more men accepted on the team means more women can join the squad as well. But that doesn’t mean the cheerleading team accepts every man who’s interested – he has to be fit enough to lift one of the stunt women with one hand extended over his head and be able to catch her on the way down. He also needs to have a self-sacrificial mentality.
“The football players have pads, the girls have us,” former stunt member Robert Rivas said. “Either dislocate a finger or let a girl fall on her head.”
The men demonstrated their stunting ability by lifting some of the women above their heads, though it was a difficult process considering that no one had worked with each other and many of the women had never attempted stunting with a man. There were plenty of shaky performances.
“It’s hard for some of the girls because they’re learning how to stunt with a guy for the first time,” Hill said. “You can kind of pick out who’s in the running for the spots on the first day.”
Make the squad?
Do it again. While members who have two years of experience on the team are automatically assured a spot on the squad, people with only one year of experience have to try out again the following year. While those returning may have more confidence, the judges also expect to see more out of them than the first-year recruits.
“It’s a little bit less stressful, but there are higher expectations,” freshman Amanda Pflugrad said. “And if you don’t make it, how scary would that be?”
Along with Pflugrad, junior Christina Early was hoping to return to the stunt team and dreaded not making it back.
“They see the other girls and see potential. If they look at us they expect to see perfection,” Early said. “It would be embarrassing (not to come back). Everybody knows you’ve been on the team.”
While some girls stood and watched the others perform in front of the judges, Early and Pflugrad practiced the routine off to the side, making sure they had the dance perfected when it was their turn. Eventually, some of the other girls followed their lead and practiced alongside them.
Although Pflugrad and Early acknowledged that they might unintentionally intimidate others because they’ve been on the team before and are practicing non-stop during downtime, they’re just as intimated by the newcomers.
“We see these girls and we’re like ‘she’s good. She could take my spot on the team,’” Early said.
Even the veterans who watched from the Mac Court seats felt nervous for the participants.
“I know exactly how terrifying it is,” sophomore and two-year veteran Lauren Boyd said. “I was so aware of everybody who was watching me. I would rather perform in front of a panel of judges that I don’t know than a crowd of people my age.”
The Judges
There were more than a dozen judges watching all of the participants, most former or current cheerleading coaches. Although most had a background in cheering or dancing, some judges didn’t have any experience in either department, according to Boyd.
“They’re there to see who they like to watch,” Boyd said. “It’s just a matter of whether we’re good performers, really.”
Boyd said that most fans don’t have any idea of the technical aspects in their routines, which is the idea of having people without any background in dancing – just pick out the most entertaining dancers because that’s what it comes down to when they start performing at Oregon games.
Despite having laryngitis a few days earlier, coach Laraine Raish had to remind the participants during Friday’s final cut that the most important element was to keep a smile on their faces even if everything they’re doing is wrong.
“Girls, if you want to make this team, you have to show me that you want it,” Raish said. “Smile. Show some personality.”
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