Male Cheerleader Allows PNH Cheerleading To Try New Ideas

Parkway North’s cheerleading team is made up of 27 cheerleaders including 16 on varsity and 11 on junior varsity. Out of those 27, only one of them is male. For the first time in years, the North cheerleading team welcomes a new male member, sophomore Daniel Hasler.

While Hasler is a new face to North’s cheerleading team, he is not completely new to the sport. During his freshman year at Parkway West, Hasler was part of the junior varsity team.

“I decided to try out for a multiple of reasons: one was the fact that I didn’t really care that people talked about me. Second of all I knew it made good scholarship opportunities and that’s really important to me because I do plan on going to college,” said Hasler.

In addition to being a resume booster, Hasler’s outgoing personality makes cheerleading the right sport for him.

“Cheerleading fits me because I used to do baseball, but I have a chest condition which makes it harder for me to do a ton of aerobic activities. In cheerleading we shout, which I can do because I am a very loud and energetic person. [I also have to lift] people which is a part of strength and I’m very strong, so it’s a perfect build for me in terms of sports,” said Hasler.

Now that there is a boy on the team, the team is trying new things that they couldn’t have done before including new stunts and adding the megaphone that only male cheerleaders use.

“There’s these partner stunts where you’ll see the boys on the ground and they’re holding the girls up without any other support so we get to try some of those things. We’re all learning together different things we can do now that we have a male cheerleader,” said cheerleading coach Lindsay Melnick.

While being the only male on the cheerleading team is rewarding, it still comes with challenges. Hasler has had to overcome misconceptions about his reasoning for joining the team.

“I’ve been called a lot of things. I’ve been called gay, I’m not. I’ve been called a pervert, I’m not. [People say] a lot of things that really are false and not true. I just want to get rid of those rumors. Other than that I love it,” said Hasler.

Hasler has his own reasons for being on the team and has some memories already to go with his new sport.

“My first game was the most memorable simply because I was stressed because I didn’t want to do a bad job. It’s just a cool thing to be on the sideline cheering them on,” said Hasler.

Kayla Coleman, Sidedish Czar