Quick answer: sideline cheer is cheerleading that supports another sport - leading the crowd in chants and cheers, performing during breaks and building game-day atmosphere - as opposed to competitive cheer, where the cheer routine itself is the event being scored. It's the oldest form of cheerleading.
| Sideline Cheer | Competitive Cheer | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Leads the crowd and supports another sport | The routine itself is the event |
| How it's judged | Usually not formally judged (except at game-day style competitions) | Scored by judges on difficulty, execution and deductions |
| Typical setting | Football, basketball and other school or college games | Dedicated cheer competitions |
| Typical content | Chants, cheers, short stunts, jumps, pom-poms | A full routine of stunts, tosses, tumbling, jumps and dance |
What Sideline Cheer Involves
A sideline squad performs at football, basketball or other games, usually for a school or college. Its job is to lead and lift the crowd:
- Chants - short, repeated phrases with simple, sharp motions, designed for the crowd to join in ("Let's go, Tigers!").
- Cheers - longer, set pieces, often ending in a stunt or a jump.
- Game reactions - responding to what's happening in the game, such as a cheer for the defence or a celebration after a score.
- Timeouts and half-time - short routines, often with music, stunts or dance.
Pom-poms, signs and megaphones are common, because they make the squad visible and audible across a stadium.
What Makes a Good Sideline Squad
Sideline cheer is judged by the crowd rather than by a panel: loud voices, sharp and simple motions everyone can see, quick reactions to the game, and keeping the energy up for a whole game. Crowd-leading skills - choosing the right chant at the right moment - matter as much as athletic ones.
How It Differs From Competitive Cheer
The core difference is purpose. Sideline cheer exists to support another sport, while competitive cheer treats the routine as the event. That changes everything from the length of a performance (a few seconds of chant versus a two-and-a-half-minute routine) to what's practised.
Sideline Cheer's Place in History
Sideline cheer is cheerleading's original form: it began with students leading the crowd at college football games in the late 1800s, most famously Johnny Campbell at the University of Minnesota in 1898. Competitive cheer developed much later - see History of Cheerleading.
Do Sideline Squads Compete?
Many school squads do both: cheering at games through the season and preparing a competition routine as well. Some competitions even include "game day" categories that judge a sideline-style performance of chants, cheers and a fight song. All Star teams, by contrast, usually focus purely on competition, with no sideline role at all.
Related Terms
See What Is Competitive Cheerleading? and What Is All Star Cheer? for the competitive side of the sport.