Boys Can Cheer, Too

By Claire Walla

When high school student Thomas Ruckert steps onto a basketball court during Ross School games, it's hard to peel your eyes away.

Sure, he stands almost a head above everyone else. And yes, he's the one wearing knee-length shorts and a short-sleeved top in a crowd of microscopic mini-skirts and tight-fitting tops.

But Ruckert isn't your ordinary male cheerleader.

While most male members of a cheer squad step to the sidelines when the girls go out to strut their stuff—presumably storing their energy for more complicated stunt work, which utilizes their superior strength—Ruckert shakes his hips right alongside the skirts.

And, as the ladies attest, he's darn good.

"All of us are fully aware that when we do a cheer and people scream really loud, it's because of Thomas," said D'Ashley Wilson, the team's co-captain. Half-time shows can incorporate a series of stunts, for which Ruckert steps in as a base to support a lift or catch a fall. But when the pop music blares from gymnasium speakers, Ruckert is also there to grab a pair of pom-poms and twist and turn to the beat.

"And he's got this really awesome cartwheel split thing," Wilson added. "Whenever he does it, the crowd goes wild."

Though male cheerleading is far from flourishing on the East End, it isn't entirely absent. Last year, Pierson had two senior boys on its squad, and Wilson said that Ross typically has at least one male cheerleader every year. However, the male members of the team usually only step in for stunt work.

"We would love it if we had more boys," Wilson continued. But she said it's hard to get them to join the team. "We tell them they don't even have to cheer. That's our opening line: You don't have to do anything. Just put a girl up in the air."

Ruckert seemed somewhat annoyed by the stigma attached to males in the sport.

"Some people think that if they're cheerleaders they'll be seen as gay," he said, which is why some males avoid the sport.

But, Ruckert said, male cheerleading is more common than one might think, particularly in the South. Even former President George W. Bush had been photographed holding a bullhorn and wearing a cheerleading uniform.

The sport is actually thought to have originated in the 1890s by a group of male students at Princeton who wanted to spread school spirit; but, it was popularized by women in the 1920s when gymnastic elements got thrown into the mix. Perhaps because of this, the percentage of women in the sport far outweighs the number of men—a reality Ruckert said he's sometimes very conscious of.

"I do get a little self-conscious, and I get a little red," Ruckert admitted. "But it doesn't really bother me. I just don't care. Everyone on the team is really supportive of me."

"Thomas has worked really hard," Wilson added, noting that gender has never been an issue. "It's so nice to have people in our generation just embracing the fact that he's a really great athlete."

In fact, when last year's lone male cheerleader graduated, the girls hounded Ruckert to join the squad.

"Thomas is always one of those people you see dancing around," said the team's co-captain Suna Garcia. "He's very rhythmic."

You wouldn't know it just from meeting him. The soft-spoken junior with intense eyes and a medium build is quick to down-play his role on the squad, and praise the girls on the team for all their dedication and hard work. But Ruckert is a relative natural.

"I was a world champion Irish step dancer," Ruckert mentioned very matter-of-factly from behind the bench at a Ross boys' basketball game last Tuesday. In fact, he began dancing at the age of seven, after his grandmother returned from a trip to Ireland and suggested the young boy take-up the Celtic step. The combination of high-kicks and vertical leaps is certainly responsible for at least some of Ruckert's propensity for a sport that favors flexibility. Ruckert can not only effortlessly fall into the splits, but he can touch his toes while high in the air—a feat some of us are still trying to perfect on the ground.

He stopped Irish step two years ago when his family moved from western Long Island to the North Fork. And it was only two months ago when he found cheer.

"I like it because you're supposed to be peppy," he said. This is a quality often frowned upon in Irish step, Ruckert said. "[Cheerleading] is more appealing to me than dancing with my arms against my sides."

"With cheerleading, it's one giant family. We work together. If they're not there, then I'm not doing anything. And if I'm not there, they're not doing anything. You have to support one another."

Though he said he's considering joining a cheerleading squad in college, he added that he never would have gotten into the sport had it not been for his teammates.

"Everyone on the team is my friend," he explained. "It's just really fun."