Ballplayers honor cheerleaders

By Ed Runyan

Women are wired to avoid fights, read emotions and to communicate, the speaker said.

CANFIELD — What is the role of a cheerleader in today’s high school?

Is it to be subserviant to the male athletes for whom they cheer — or should young people all understand the importance of serving others?

Thursday at Canfield High School, 10 senior football and basketball players took on the role of server to demonstrate their appreciation for their school’s cheerleaders and help celebrate the sometimes under-appreciated effort the girls give all year long.

The boys, attired in dress shirts, pants and ties, served lunch to their grade 9 through 12 “spirit leaders.” The boys also presented the young ladies with flowers.

The cheerleading appreciation luncheon also put some emphasis on the “leader” part of their name, as Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick told the girls of the strengths that women bring to the world.

“It’s a creative idea,” senior basketball player Andrew Zunick said of the lunch. “Cheerleaders are always giving us treat bags and taking care of us, so it’s a way to give back a little bit,” he said.

Senior football player Jimmy Hudson said the support the football team gets from the cheerleaders on Fridays before a football game always comes with a smile, which helps boost everyone’s enthusiasm.

“Usually, they just say thank you and that’s it,” senior cheerleader Alex McClurg said of remarks that come at every end-of-season sports banquet. “This is a little more.”

John Tullio, high school assistant principal, received thank-you’s from Judge Dellick and other speakers for realizing that the girls deserve to be shown some of the same support they give to others.

“I don’t think anyone realizes the amount of time and effort and money you put into this,” said Abby Barone, high school principal.

Nancy Dove, longtime cheerleading adviser at the school, said cheerleaders do much more than cheer at games. They decorate entrances to the school, bake cookies, give athletes treat bags, make decorative pillowcases for athletes and even work with athletes’ moms to decorate the athlete’s bedroom, she said.

But Dove insists that the girls do not pay their own money for the treat bags and gifts they give the athletes. Fundraising activities pay the costs, she said. And whenever athletes are treated, the cheerleaders get the same thing.

“The girls get the same respect,” she said.

Judge Dellick, a Canfield resident with two young daughters, called the luncheon a “landmark” event and good way of telling girls that they possess important leadership skills that can make the world a better place.

“We can shape the world,” she said.

She asked the group how many like war, fighting or destruction.

No one responded.

“It’s men, and women do everything they can to avoid that,” she said. “A female leader said war is a lack of creativity. Women find so many ways to avoid fighting. We find ways to make it work. We don’t just break down into wars. It’s the way we are wired,” she said.

“Do you think we would have so many wars if women were in charge?” she said.

Judge Dellick said women and men have different-sized brains, different skills and different ways of handling situations.

“Women are also more verbal than men,” she observed, noting that research shows an average woman uses 20,000 words per day, and a man only 7,000.

Women can read emotions better, remember conversations better and support each other better than men.

The key for women is to complement men and create balance between the sexes.

runyan@vindy.com