The SUNY Purchase College Cheerleading team has been up and running for several years and despite cheerleading being recognized as a sport both in New York State and now in the Olympics we are still not considered a sport at our school. Our team practices three times a week focusing on prepping for both basketball season and competition. Unfortunately every year we miss out on a bunch of potential cheerleaders because everything is fully funded by us. Cheerleaders on our team are responsible for purchasing their own Cheer uniform ( shoes, shirt, spanks, skirt, poms, and the bow) which can result in over $160 that a lot of college students just don't have to give on top of books and tuition. In addition to buying our own uniforms, we host weekly fundraisers because our team completely covers the cost of the competition and the music used for the competition. The things listed above are just some of the burdens that we have to face because we are considered a club.

In addition to financial burdens, we also are faced with several scheduling issues. As a club, our school does let us use the gym to practice but priority goes to our school's sports teams and so we have to work around their schedule. This then leaves us with limited days to practice and it keeps becoming increasingly harder to account for everyone's classes so rarely are we able to have full team practices.

If we were to be made an official sport this would help us greatly because we would receive school funding, which would help us to grow, expand and recruit new talent for our program and we would receive priority in our gyms and during class registration so that we can better organize practices for everyone's convenience.