Editor:

I am responding to Zak S. Cowan’s comments on Sept. 21 that began with, “our cheer team is unbearable.” I realize that in the Oct. 5 edition of the Rip you admitted your error and called yourself a moron, which takes some courage. I still, however, would like to set the record straight on a few things.

First of all, I wondered how many football games you’ve actually attended. I also wondered if you traveled with the teams to the out of town football games. And just how many sporting events do you attend on a regular basis?

If you look in your archives, you will find an article from back in March that covered the Bakersfield College cheer team tryouts. The team was not chosen on “sparkle” as you call it, whatever that is. The members are selected on college-level talent alone and only after a week of clinic learning college-level material.

A lot of the team’s cheers are tradition, that’s true. Have you looked in the stands lately? Our crowd is not made up of BC students.

Our crowd is made up of loyal Renegade fans, the majority of whom are over the age of 50 or higher. They are the rooters who support the cheer team and the Renegades and attend football games at home and away. They are the ones wearing red and white and cheering in the stands.

The cheer team is also held to a certain level of conservatism by the town we live in, the college we attend, and the fan base, which again, is over 50 years of age. If they get too far away from tradition or too risqué, we immediately hear about it regardless of the fact that neither the school nor the fans support us financially.

Just so you know, the cheer team funds itself 100 percent. They pay to go to camp, which enables them to bring new sideline cheers and dance routines to the games every year.

We can’t afford a professional choreographer and we do not have the time, money, or support to compete. We are too busy cheering for almost every sport that BC has to offer.

You made mention of USC and Division-I. The USC cheer team wears the same uniform year after year and has for some thirty years now.

They also do the same routines year after year. If they changed it up too much, everyone would balk.

Many of the BC cheer team have gone on to cheer at four-year schools, including Division-I schools. They have even gone on to USC. So they are not lacking talent by any means.

If you have better ideas, I certainly welcome them. Perhaps you could be the team’s next coach.

But by all means, bring some ideas for financial assistance since each team member spends anywhere from $900 to $1,100 every year just to be out on that field or court cheering for the Renegades and receiving uncalled-for comments from people like you.

This year I do think they will get a little more financial support because as the president of the BC Alumni Association, I usually donate money to the Rip, But since you ripped the BC cheer team, and myself, I think I’ll skip the Rip this year and give your share to the cheer team instead.

We don’t really need “Alumni” like you at the games anyway. You probably only support the Renegades when they’re winning.

Becki Whitson

BC Cheer Coach