Cheerleader- Boy for the Cheer

by Daring Diane

  Sally smiled and pulled her in, “Its fine with me. So, that makes it fine. Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  Sylvia introduced herself to Erin and the three women sat on the porch and watched the practice while drinking their coffee. Sylvia mentioned how gifted she thought Lee was. Sally was flattered.

  Sylvia was fascinated to see the group going through the basic cheer positions as a random exercise like a Simon says session.

  Next, Lee had everyone break off into pairs to practice handstands and walking on their hands. When any of the girls had any trouble with any of the moves, Lee would demonstrate the move and show them exactly what he wanted them to do. He encouraged, gave advice and complimented them. During the hand walking session, Lee walked around on his hands while giving instructions to the others. Sylvia could not believe how long he could maintain his position. He would stop, spread his legs forward and back or out to the sides and then bring them up into a fixed up and down with the legs touching. Then he would walk off on his hands to talk to one of the other girls.

  Several of the girls were mastering the art of hand walking. Darby had clearly had more time with Lee and she could do many of the same tricks he performed.

  Finally, Lee had the girls work on forward and backward walkovers. The girls seemed to have the moves down. Yet, Lee was trying to get them to be aware of their body position and their form. He also wanted to work on timing. He assured them that once they got the timing right, everyone could start and stop together which would look better on the field.

  When one of the girls complained that her body had trouble bending backwards for the walkover, Lee said, “Just stop using your hands and maybe it will be easier.” He stepped backwards and did a back tuck without ever touching the ground and landed perfectly. The girls all clapped and laughed. Lee heard more clapping and turned to see the two mothers and Miss Steiling standing and clapping.

  Now, Lee was a little embarrassed. “Sorry, I guess I was showing off.”

  Sylvia jumped right in, “Don’t you dare apologize. That was perfect.” As she approached the group, she turned to the group, “Girls, I want to tell you I am really impressed with the effort and advancement you are all making. You guys are the best freshman cheerleaders we have ever had. I guess some of that is due to your manager slash coach here.”

  Everyone cheered and said, “Lee is the greatest.”

  Sally called out, “Time for snacks and refreshment.”

  Everyone headed to the porch where Erin and Sally had prepared food and drinks. Even Sylvia was impressed as the girls inhaled the drinks and food. These girls were not worried about their figures, they were too hungry. She concluded that with the effort she had witnessed, they could afford to eat well.

  Sylvia complimented Lee and Darby and demanded his promise to keep on working with the girls. Lee assured her that he had no intention of going anywhere.

  After all the girls left, Darby headed home to shower and cleanup. Stripping off his workout clothes, Lee felt some chafing in some uncomfortable areas. The feeling had been developing over the last few days. Redressed, Lee sought out his mother.

  “Mom, can I talk to you?”

  “Sure honey. What’s up?” Sally sat down and gave Lee her full attention.

  “Um, I think there is a problem. My legs are itching and it feels like my skin wants to fall off.”

  Sally laughed. “Would this be happening where your underwear rests?”

  “Yes and while the shower felt good. It’s starting to hurt again.”

  “Lee,” she began to explain, “As we get older and participate in sports and other hard activities, our bodies sweat. As we have discussed, that is why your father and I insist you shower after exercise. However, you need the right clothes. What you are experiencing is chafing and if we don’t get it under control it could develop into a fungus. Believe me that would be much worse. We need to get you some underwear that will wick moisture away and let your body breath. Your regular cotton underwear is probably holding too much water and rubbing in all the wrong places. I’ll see what I can find out.” His mother gave him some powder his father used to battle his present condition.

  Lee walked over to talk to Darby a little while later.

  Darby looked at him funny, “Why are you walking like that?” Lee shrugged and sat down. Clearly, he did not want to talk about it.

  She pressured him, “Did you hurt yourself? I’m so sorry. What can I do to help?”

  Lee did not want to talk about it. But Darby kept apologizing and finally he gave in.

  “Darby, you did nothing. I’m not really hurt. I just scratched up my inner legs and now everything is raw.”

  Erin heard the conversation and walked out the back door and over to Sally’s house.

  “So, the wunderkind has a case of crotch rot?” Erin asked kiddingly.

  Sally was so caught off guard she was staring at Erin.

  “Oh, come on. I was just kidding. It happens to every kid at some point. With all the running the kids did this summer, Darby had issues over a month ago. I just got her some good breathable wicking underwear and everything cleared up in a few days.”

  Sally and Erin talked about alternatives.

  Meanwhile, Darby was explaining to Lee that she had a similar problem earlier in the summer. She explained that her mother got her some special underwear for working out and the problem went away. Suddenly, she jumped up and ran to her bedroom.

  Moments later Darby returned with something in her hands. “Here try these. They’re brand new and even still have the tags. Mom bought me several pair and I haven’t worn them all. They are like heaven. And since they are black they won’t show through your workout shorts.”

  Holding the black underwear, Lee stared back, “Darby these are girl’s underwear. I can’t wear these.”

  “Lee, they sell men’s underwear exactly like these. No one is going to see them. Just try them and if they work, you can get your own. It’s just underwear.”

  Somehow this seemed all wrong. But Darby was his best friend and he did not believe she would steer him wrong. He pocketed the panties.

  Darby went on to explain that the underwear was designed for cheerleaders and all the girls on the team wore the same style to avoid chafing and itching.

  Being at an open age where he felt he could talk to his mother about anything, Lee sat down with his mother later that day and told her about his talk with Darby. He showed her the underwear and asked for his mother’s opinion.

  “Lee, these are exactly the kind of underwear you should be wearing. In fact, men’s underwear for exercise often does not have a fly since the seams can cause chafing and injury to your delicate parts. Why don’t you try these out for your Sunday practice and see if you like them?”

  Lee thought it was a little weird. But decided to give it a try. Lee and his mother talked about the day and the visit from the Cheer coach.

  The squad had a targeted practice on Sunday to build consistency in form and timing for several common moves like the walkovers, cartwheels and jumps. One of the girls acted as the timer and the responsibility shifted constantly.

  Lee wore his new underwear for Sunday practice. As soon as he slid the underwear in place, Lee felt like he was in heaven. Throughout the afternoon, Lee was comfortable. After his shower, his mom asked what he thought about the new underwear.

  “Mom, I want more of this exact same underwear. It was like heaven. I love the soft feel and the way it held all my private parts. Can you get me more underwear exactly like these?”

  Sally was a little caught off guard. She thought she would be looking for a similar product. “You want the same thing? Exactly the same?”

  “Yes. No one sees my underwear except you. And I can trust you to keep my secret. Do you think the underwear comes in other colors than just black?”

  Sally snickered, “I’m confident this style of underwear comes in a rainbow of colors. Do you have any specific colors you like?�
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  Lee seemed to give that some thought. “Well I’m probably getting too old for superhero underwear. But I like bright colors. I don’t want pink or anything. But I’d like red, blue, green, yellow and maybe some white. You know what I like.”

  Sally did the wash on Sunday so Lee could wear his black underwear on Monday. She planned to shop for his new underwear on Monday.

  Chapter 5 – Week Five

  On Monday, even from a distance, Sylvia could see great consistency and improvement from the entire squad. Marcia was quickly becoming one of the better varsity cheerleaders.

  Monday morning, Erin and Sally went out for lunch and then hit the mall. Sally had explained Lee’s infatuation with the cheer panties Darby had supplied. They both thought it was cute. The two women had fun selecting some new panties for the junior cheerleading manager. The style they were buying were tagless and that would also help with comfort when working out. Sally figured he would wear them to work out and then wear his regular underwear the rest of the day. While at the store, Sally bought Lee two new cheer shorts in red and navy blue. If he was wearing them every day, he was going to need a little more variety so she was not doing the wash every night.

  Tuesday afternoon, Lee wore his new Navy blue shorts and hidden underneath he had matching underwear in the same color. His itching and chafing problems were already markedly better after only two days.

  On Wednesday of week five, Sylvia told Lee that she wanted the junior cheerleaders to do a short demonstration during half time at the football game. They discussed what would be best and they concluded a series of the workouts built into a 4-5 minute session would demonstrate the girl’s skills and show what they were capable of.

  Lee and Darby worked quickly to build the demonstration they wanted. When practice began, they discussed it with the squad. Everyone was excited and offered some advice. Lee wanted to have a series of exercises everyone could do. Therefore, he had left off the backwards walkovers and the hand exercises.

  Darby and several of the other girls suggested that they break into smaller groups at that point and have some girls walk on their hands while others demonstrated a fixed handstand or a back walkover. Everyone agreed and it turned out that with their group that gave everyone a role. For the rest of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday the group worked on their choreography and timing. Lee was insistent on timing.

  As they walked home from practice on Wednesday, Lee asked Darby if she thought everyone had multiple colors of the cheer shorts. Darby didn’t’ even hesitate when she told him, “of course.” Lee asked Darby what she thought about the entire squad wearing the same color of shorts on different days of the week so they would all match. Darby thought it was a great idea.

  Once home, Darby was quickly on the phone and identifying what color shorts everyone had. The girls quickly decided that there was a preponderance of black shorts. Almost everyone had blue shorts. From there the girls all had various colors from bright to subdued colors. Therefore they concluded, Monday and Wednesday would initially be black days until everyone could add more colors. Tuesday would be dark blue. Darby explained that there might be some variety in the blues. On Thursday, red was the color of choice, mostly because Darby knew Lee had a new pair of the red shorts. But some of the girls were going to wear pink until they got red shorts. Friday was the joint practice with the varsity group and initially the girls thought they should stick with black to fit in. Lee suggested that maybe the junior cheerleaders should select a color that helped them be seen separately from the other girls. Darby wanted to think about that. It seemed like a good idea. This week they would go with black.

  The junior cheerleading team would use the old varsity cheerleading uniforms for their demonstration. Working with coach Steiling, everyone found one that looked nice. On Saturday, they had a short practice at Darby’s house before everyone headed home to dress for the game. For the football game, Lee wore a school shirt and shorts. He would be on the sidelines helping with timing. Darby would lead things on the field. For the field demonstration, all the girls with long hair set it in high ponytails. Lee had his hair in a low ponytail like he did at school. Several of the girls were disappointed that Lee was not dressed to match the players. In the alternative, they thought he should be wearing a coach’s shirt or his practice outfit. Lee obviously disagreed and Darby told everyone they would worry about it if they got another chance to do a demonstration.

  The school band did their routine and the regular cheerleaders ran through their half-time routine. The Varsity squad was excited to see what the junior cheerleaders were going to do. After the varsity routine, Marcia ran over to join the junior squad to participate in their routine. Sylvia was impressed with Marcia’s enthusiasm.

  The girls lined up in two rows with their hands at their sides and feet shoulder width. Darby started calling out basic cheer positions, high V, Low V, Daggers, touchdown, Tee, broken Tee, high clap, arms straight out, and finally front and back[right arm forward, left arm straight back. The girls demonstrated a herkle and a toe-touch which are jumps. Then the girls lined up and in perfect unison did cartwheels together followed by a round-off. Coming back towards the crowd, the girls all did a perfectly timed front walkover followed by a forward tumble. Breaking off into their three groups, several of the girls popped up on their hands and walked on both ends of the group. The second group did parallel back walkovers while the remaining girls did handstands and in sync dropped their legs into a T with their legs at their sides followed by pulling their legs back up to touch each other in perfect up and down form. As the handstands ended, everyone was back on their feet. They grabbed pom-poms which had been to the side and demonstrated the basic school cheer spelling out the school name.

  Lee was so proud of the girls. He could not have expected more from them. As they left the field, the fans in the stands were on their feet cheering and clapping. The varsity squad was also clapping.

  Lee greeted everyone, congratulating them as they left the field and hugged all the girls. Everyone was excited about having a great performance. The group stayed together for the rest of the game. In the fourth quarter, the junior squad got up and did their team cheer again along with the varsity cheerleaders. The crowd loved it.

  Sylvia could not have been more proud of what the girls had accomplished. She heaped praise on Lee and he simply passed it all off on the girls and their efforts. He kept explaining that Darby was the leader and she should get the credit.

  All of the school administration was impressed with the younger cheerleaders. They, of course, congratulated Sylvia who passed it off to Lee and the girls. Sylvia expressed her thoughts to Sally, Erin and their husbands who all attended the game. Jack and Liam were impressed with Darby’s efforts and thought it was really nice that Lee was helping out.

  Sunday’s practice included a lot of reliving yesterday’s half-time. Lee took their success and wanted to use it as an incentive to push them to do more.

  On Monday, Lee and the entire squad wore their black shorts. It helped make them look like a unit. The girls insisted that everyone needed to wear the same color and style of socks. They decided that white socks would be good with black while blue trimmed and red trimmed socks should be worn with the matching shorts. It was decided that socks should be quarter height. Lee had lots of socks for running and it was more of a coordination issued.

  Sylvia thought there was something new about the squad on Monday and on Tuesday, she realized that everyone including Lee were wearing the exact same practice outfit. They were coordinating shirts, shorts and socks. While most girls had a nice pair of white shoes for games or presentations, they used their workout shoes for practice and no one was going to spend the bucks to buy them matching shoes for practice. She was very impressed by this group and their unity.

  By Wednesday, all the girls were doing both forward and back walkovers in unison. Timing exercises need constant re-enforcement and they worked on it every day. All the girls cou
ld do a basic handstand and drop into a forward roll. Over half the squad could walk around for 30 seconds or more on their hands.

  Lee had taught the girls all of their school’s standard cheers. Most of the girls could complete the cheers without a mistake and they got better every day. Lee and Darby had been watching videos and wanted to try some things the school had never done. They were looking for just the right things to add to their routines.

  Sylvia had explained to Lee that she knew the girls would eventually want to try some of the pyramid exercises and other cheers involving throwing and catching cheerleaders. She demanded that nothing of this type be tried anywhere unless she was present and had approved it ahead of time. Lee understood her concerns and agreed to her limits. Sylvia had mentioned this to Sally and Erin to ensure that nothing happened without her knowledge. They assured her they would keep their eyes open.

  The varsity squad did a two level pyramid where the configuration was two girls on the lower level with another girl standing on their shoulders. They would have four pyramids like that. However, they never worked a third level into their pyramid.

  When Sylvia thought about it, she realized that one of the reasons they never got to the third level was the girls were not strong or steady enough. She saw signs of the missing consistency and steady behavior the varsity squad required in the routines and performance of junior squad.

  Lee knew that his squad could easily pull off the two level pyramids the varsity team performed. He wanted something different. He had been looking at other sports for inspiration.

  Professional ice skating was a sport, Lee, Darby and their parents enjoyed watching. They also watched the Olympic gymnastics and other similar competitions. Lee liked the skating moves where the skaters would run and jump and then spin in a circle. He also liked the move where one skater would spin in a circle while holding the arm and leg of another skater who would be spun around in the air.