There has been a lot of controversy about the LHS cheerleaders decorating the senior sports lockers.
Ludlow High Cheerleaders have been decorating varsity football players lockers for at least 10 to 15 years.
On the day before the football players’ Friday home game, the cheerleaders stay after school and decorate the lockers. When they get home, cheerleaders bake their football player his favorite treats. The following morning, cheerleaders meet up with their senior and give them the baked goods.
Other sports such as cross country, volleyball, and soccer were getting upset that football players were the only ones getting their lockers decorated.
After the cheerleaders decorated the cross country lockers, runners weren’t happy because the cheerleaders did not put in enough effort for them.
“I thought it was a step in the right direction,” says senior cross country runner Sylwia Lipior. “It was a really thoughtful gesture and made the girls feel good.”
Cheerleaders were told that they did not have to stay to decorate the cross country lockers. It was the same day they had to also do Volleyball lockers and they didn’t want the girls to stay after school for too long.
The cheerleaders decorate senior lockers to support them for their last year. They are not required to decorate all of the sports lockers, but they do it for the teams. There has always been a tradition where the cheerleaders decorate the senior football players lockers .
“It would be nice if they asked their own team to decorate their lockers instead of having the cheerleaders do it,” say freshman cheerleader Megan Fueston. “Considering we don’t attend and cheer at their games like we do for the football players.”
LHS cheerleaders started out only decorating senior varsity football players lockers.
“To be honest, I like having my locker decorated,” says senior football player Brandon Watt. “It shows support for us, even if there is just a piece of paper that says ‘Good luck!’”
Most of the cheerleaders have issues with decorating all of the fall sport lockers. More than half of the cheerleaders fear they will have to do it for winter and spring sports too, but most cheerleaders want to go back to the original plan decorating just the senior varsity football players lockers.
“There is no reason that we have to spend our money on them when they don’t even appreciate cheerleading as a sport anyways,” say sophomore Sam Van Wart. “There is no reason that their own teammates can’t be decorating their own senior lockers.”
It’s not fair to the cheerleaders to have to take time out of their days to decorate lockers for the sports teams that don’t even support the cheerleaders.
“It should be fair and have girl soccer players do boy soccer players and boys do the girls. The girl basketball doing the boys and the boys doing the girls,” says sophomore Jacob DeSantis. “Cheerleaders can keep decorating the football players lockers, it’s a sport that they cheer for. It’s at least fair that way.”
Although students disagree with the decorating of lockers, some students believe that it is only fair that they show support for their team.
“It’s fair to all the sports seniors to get their lockers decorated, but it’s unfair to the cheerleaders. Cheerleading is closely related to football and if they only do it only for football then so be it,” says senior Tim Gavrilov. “They too are very busy with school and can’t decorate everyone’s locker without feeling the pressure of time and complaints. I say cut them some slack and keep it just for the senior football players.”