The CIF state office issued a press release on Wednesday applauding passage of an Assembly Bill and signature by Governor Jerry Brown to create a new CIF sport.
That sport is competitive cheer, which is a sport complete with state championships in other places around the nation, especially in the South.
While we agree with the sport coming on-line, we can’t recall another sport in which it took a legislative action and then a signature by the governor for one to be added.
Here is the text from the CIF’s press release written by Rebecca Brutlag:
“SACRAMENTO — Today Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill (AB) 949, introduced by Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), to classify competition cheer as a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) sport beginning in the 2017-18 school year. The CIF looks forward to bringing competitive cheer into the family of CIF sports where it will join basketball, badminton, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, skiing, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
“The CIF is excited to add competitive cheer to our sports offerings,” stated Roger Blake, Executive Director of the CIF. “We look forward to working with the California Department of Education to develop policy and standards allowing the student-athletes involved in competitive cheer to enjoy greater opportunities to display their athletic talents in a safe environment.” Blake continued, “One of the major goals in this process will be to develop guidelines for competitive cheer programs that our member schools can implement, meet the standards and be compliant with Title IX as defined by the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.”
The CIF will immediately begin the process of developing policies for the implementation of competitive cheer as a CIF sport and will seek the input of experts at the California Department of Education, the high school cheerleading community and the NCAA cheerleading leadership as they have previously established safety standards and policies.
In accordance with the bill, the CIF shall seek a United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Title IX compliance designation for competition cheer. Competition cheer will not be counted towards a school’s Title IX compliance unless the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights deems competition cheer compliant with its definition of a sport.”
Finally, just for fun, here is a list of other sports that have been conducted on the high school interscholastic level in California over the years (although not necessarily conducted through the CIF):
Bowling, Boxing, Cycling, Equestrian, Fencing, Gymnastics, Handball, Horseshoes, Ice Hockey, Judo, Motocross, Mountain Biking, Physical Fitness (Marine Corps testing), Quoits (like horseshoes but with round metal rings), Rodeo, Roller Hockey, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting, Snowboarding, Speedball, Surfing, Weightlifting
And if we still want to add more girls sports for Title IX, keep in mind that in Las Vegas and Florida the high schools have flag football teams.
