VAN SOELEN Assistant superintendent Tomas Van
Soelen stands at a looming 6’6”. When people look at him, they might think he was a basketball player in high school. Te idea that he was once a male cheerleader in college would be a surprise. Van Soelen went to a small Christian
college in Iowa with about 1,000 students. Tere, he began his journey as a male cheer- leader. “I was in a musical at the school and the girl I lifted up told me that I should try out as a male cheerleader,” Van Soelen said. Although the idea of cheerleading had
never crossed Van Soelen’s mind, he decided to join because if he and others did not, there would be no cheerleading team at the school.“By the end of tryouts, we only had six girls and four guys,” Van Soelen said. Tough none of the cheerleaders were ex-
perts, they were determined to have a team. “Most, if not all of us, had no prior training or experience before this team,” he said. Van Soelen practiced with the team whenever possible, sometimes at inconvenient times of the day. “We practiced whenever we could, and most times, that meant at eleven or twelve at night.” For Van Soelen, the practices were not as difficult as he thought they would be. “Being a music major helped me understand the rhythms and beats a lot faster,” he said. Yet tackling cheer along with his extracurricu- lars proved to be challenging. “In addition
to cheerleading, I was a musician, with a major in education, and I was also working at the library.” Although cheerleading took up his scarce
free time, there were also some perks to being a cheerleader. “Our school made it to the playoffs in the Midwest, and being a cheerleader was essentially a free ticket to the games with a really good seat,” he said. Van Soelen did not have to worry about
telling family and friends about cheering because the town was a small community. “We had 67 [students] in my high school graduating class, and about 50 of them went to my same college,” Van Soelen said. “Everyone in town came to the basketball games. It was cold in Iowa, and basketball was the indoor sport.” Van Soelen did not get a chance to tell his own brother. “I think he ended up finding out because he came to one of the games, too,” he said. When his family found out about his cheerleading, they had mixed emotions. “Tose who knew me closely were not really surprised, but it was still kind of hard on my brother, because he was a jock,” Van Soelen said. Almost everyone in the town knew that
Van Soelen cheered at the college, but not everyone understood it. “I was the tall guy with long hair who did that weird stuff,” he said. Te other male cheerleaders on the team did not fit into the normal crowd in college either. “Te four of us together were a very odd conglomeration of social misfits,” he said. Te fact that people did not understand cheerleading hurt Van Soelen. “People would be like ‘what are you doing out there,’ and because of that, it was hard to be proud of the work, and it was a lot of work,” he said. Some people resorted to teasing Van Soelen about his activities. “Being a musician, majoring in elementary school education and cheerleading with long black hair was hard, and all of that together caused some teasing.” Te harassing did not stop Van Soelen. “Te teasing actually made me want to do it even more,” he said. “If you don’t understand me, then I’m going to be more [outspoken] until you get it.” Van Soelen continued to cheer for about
two years at Dordt College in Iowa, but had to give it up because he struggled to juggle his various activities.“I don’t regret giving up cheerleading, but I don’t regret doing it either,” he said. Even though some parts of the journey
were difficult, Van Soelen is happy that he participated in cheerleading in college. “When going to college, everyone is work- ing on being an individual, so you can lose the sense of community, but the clubs and activities help to remind you of that.”
SCHAAR For physics teacher David Schaar, the
interest in cheerleading started in high school. “My friend was a mascot, and seeing his experiences with the cheerleaders was really cool,” he said. While in high school, Schaar had a firsthand experience with cheerleading.“We had a powder puff game in high school, and the girls were the football players, while the guys were cheerleaders.,” he said. Even though Schaar was not on the football team, he was allowed to participate in cheerleading. When Schaar came to Washington Uni-
versity in St. Louis, he finally decided to try out for cheerleading. “I had a lot of school spirit, and I thought some of their stunts were cool. I also wanted to hang out with the cute [girl] cheerleaders.” When Schaar joined the team, he was
surprised at some of the things he learned. “I expected the girls to talk about boys and stuff, but being on the team we heard a lot of the things [the girls] said. Some things, like their ‘female problems,’ were pretty detailed and unexpected,” he said. Te first game that Schaar cheered was a
memorable one. “I was scared to be in front of all those people, and I definitely did not know all the cheers,” he said. “Te funny thing was when I came home from the game, my legs were pale in the front and really tan in the back because we were only facing one side.” Soon after that, cheerleading proved to be a fun experience for Schaar. “We hung out even after practice, and we became a tight
“It was really funny because I was the male cheerleader who had a crush on the girl basketball jock.”
- David Schaar, physics teacher 18 CARPE DIEM • DECEMBER 2011
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