WHAT DO THEY WANT? R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Nickia Jackson had heard all about what cheerleaders are supposed to be like: “They’re easy and they’re loose and they’re ding-y and they don’t take care of business.”

But it didn’t stop the 16-year-old Crenshaw High School senior from trying out and making the squad. In fact, it’s the reason she tried out.

“I did it to get rid of the misconceptions. I’m not ding-y, and last year I had a 3.8 GPA and this year I have two [advanced placement] classes. When I tried out, my mother told me that cheerleaders don’t have good reputations. I told her, ‘I’m not going to have that reputation because I’m not a typical cheerleader.’ You can be a strong woman and have goals and aspirations and still be a cheerleader.”

High school is nothing like it was 20 years ago, thanks to the advent of metal detectors, drive-by shootings, AIDS and splintered families. But cheerleaders--and their reputation as stuck-up, perennially perky airheads in short skirts--are still with us. At first glance, cheerleading seems like an activity straight out of Ozzie and Harriet.

Look again. Cheerleading has become more athletic, more competitive, more demanding and more expensive as it has evolved from an extracurricular activity with pompoms to an actual sport. At some schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, cheerleaders can get a sports letter.

“There’s been more emphasis on the competitive aspect in past years,” says Jeff Webb, CEO of Memphis-based Varsity Spirit Corp., which runs cheerleading camps, sells merchandise and sponsors competitions around the country. “A lot of the growth in cheerleading has come from the suburbs . . . all the parks and recreational cheerleading teams, like Pop Warner. We have nearly 200,000 kids participating in camps across the country. There’s a lot of visibility and a lot of popularity.” In fact, participation has doubled in the last 15 years.

Still, from East L.A. to the Westside, the stereotypes prevail.

“People think cheerleaders are conceited and they don’t talk to anybody, or they’re all into football players,” says Norma Carranza, a 17-year-old senior at Garfield High School. “I think once you get to know the person, then you can tell the difference. People talk to me, and they say, ‘You’re not like the stereotype,’ and I say, ‘Not a lot of us are like that, once you get to know us.’ ”

Within LAUSD, the number of people trying out has remained fairly constant over the last several years, an age of cynicism if there ever was one. But despite this enthusiasm, cheerleaders sometimes feel they bear the brunt of student apathy--just because they wear the uniform.

“Anything that goes on the field, the spirit squad gets blamed for it,” says Alexis E. Troy, a 17-year-old senior at University High School in West L.A. “Anything that goes down, it’s our fault, no matter what.”

“It would be different if the morale at this school was better,” adds her teammate, 17-year-old senior Leah Whaley-Holmes. “But we’re just trinkets. If we weren’t [at the games], they’re not going to say, ‘Where are the cheerleaders?’ because they don’t care. We don’t get the respect that I think we deserve.”

What’s the source of all this disrespect? Most cheerleaders sum it up in one word: jealousy.

Says Femi Porter, a 16-year-old Crenshaw High senior and cheerleader: “Most of the time it’s the people who tried out and didn’t make it that are putting the cheerleaders down.”

“As soon as you become a cheerleader,” says 16-year-old Crenshaw high junior Charisma Bailey, “they think you’ve changed, that you’re better than everybody. We’re just normal girls showing our school spirit.”

And the reaction from those who judge from the bleachers? Willie Vasher, a 17-year-old Crenshaw High senior, says, “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what they’re doing, they’re supporting the players. But some people feel it’s dumb, that it’s not a real sport. People think they’re ding-y and stuff, but I know for a fact they’re not. I’m in the gifted program, and so are a lot of the girls.”

“They’re pretty down-to-earth,” says Nsilo Welsh, a 17-year-old University High senior. “I know some of them. Some think they’re all that and whatever, but most of them are pretty cool, not airheads like most people think.”

And while he likes the cheerleaders’ routines at games, he adds: “I think they’re there for motivation, but I see them as like decorations on the dinner table.”

Says 17-year-old Chastity Masters, a senior at University: “They could be better, they could have more rhythm and more spirit. [When they’re cheering] they look like they want to get it over with. . . . I feel like they think they’re better than everybody else. Sometimes they’re in the classes I have, and I don’t talk to them, but you can just tell--actions speak louder than words.”

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While cheerleaders talk about the thrills of performing in front of crowds, in the same breath they’ll also mention the injuries they sustain, the struggle to keep the required minimum 2.0 GPA, the infighting on the squad, and the difficulty in affording the fees for clothes, trips and other necessities like yearly cheerleading camp. Not all date football players. Some don’t date at all.

“I go to school from about 7:30 in the morning until about 5:00 or 6 with practice,” says Maricela Limas, a 17-year-old Garfield senior. “We usually consider Garfield our first home, and our real home as second, because we’re here so long.”

“It’s a year-round commitment. It takes a great deal of time,” says Jane Ostrowski, Garfield’s cheerleading sponsor who also teaches Spanish. She oversees a 15-member junior varsity and 15-member varsity team and is part drill instructor, part confidant, part motivator. She has to be able to lower the boom when students get out of line. Recently she suspended a couple of team members whose grades had dipped below a 2.0 average.

“Most of them are good students,” she says. “A good percentage are AP students. They get very good grades and work very hard academically. They practice 15 to 20 hours a week, and they’re pretty competitive. They can make it to nationals.”

Uniforms, she says, run from $300 to $350. “We try and have fund-raisers, and some get it from their parents.” She adds that although money is tight among some families, somehow they manage to come up with the fees.

Norma Carranza works part time at Burger King in addition to cheering and going to school; this year she was able to save enough to pay for her uniform.

Alexis Troy knows to the dollar how much cheerleading will cost her this year: $702 (which covers uniforms, camp and some travel expenses).

“We go to camp over the summer, spending days in high heat working on routines and stunts,” she says. “It’s hard, and I don’t feel like anybody knows how much the cheerleaders pay, or how much effort we put into it.”

Competitions have put another spin on cheerleading. Regional and national contests have grown considerably in recent years, some broadcast on ESPN. Top-flight teams (Los Alamitos High has one) pepper their routines with intricate gymnastics maneuvers like flips and tumbling combinations done with Olympic precision.

Even schools that don’t compete on those elite levels (the cost of hiring a gymnastics coach can be prohibitive) still execute difficult moves such as propelling people into the air and catching them.

Gregory Vallone knows how strenuous cheerleading can be. The Garfield assistant principal is not only a former football coach, but his daughter also cheered for the school six years ago.

“I don’t think cheerleading should be treated the way it was 20 years ago,” he says. “It’s now a sport, and people who do it are athletes, not just girls jumping up and down. People don’t think about the physical strains they go through because we don’t treat them as athletes. But they’re doing splits, jumps and somersaults. If you’re on a nationally competitive team, everybody’s got to be able to do a back flip and splits.”

Cynthia Villafana cheered for San Fernando High School from 1987 until 1989; she now teaches social studies at the school, and for the past two years has been the cheerleading advisor. She, too, has seen an evolution.

“It’s a lot more competitive now,” she says. “There’s a lot more pressure on them in terms of performing, and everything is more competition-oriented.”

Why? “Cheerleading has become more prestigious and it’s considered more of a sport.”

She concedes that the perception that cheerleaders are supreme snobs hasn’t changed, but something else is different.

“I think there’s a lot more pressure on the girls,” she says, “in terms of social pressure, going to parties, drinking, a lot more of that. I don’t remember going through that.”

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As the advisor to Crenshaw High School’s cheerleading squad, Marcelyn Rideaux is more than a coach to 22 girls in pleated skirts and sweaters.

While she concedes that after 11 years her reputation as a strict taskmaster is well cemented, there are times when more is called for than being a disciplinarian.

“They do confide in me,” she says. “A lot of them have home problems. Last year I had a lot of girls that were raised by their grandparents, and that’s when you start having most of your problems. This year most of my girls are being raised by their parents. And then you have single parents, and they’re struggling and their mothers are upset because they can’t do the things they want to do for their girls.

“They all need somebody to talk to,” she adds, “and they work better when they can release. . . . And they try hard to impress me. They’ll say, ‘See, my split’s better!’ or if they do well on a test they’ll tell me. These girls really need approval, and a lot of them aren’t getting it at home.”

Rideaux has seen cheerleading do more for girls than make them popular.

“There was a girl on the squad who had problems at home and she would run away and hang out on the street until she joined the squad, and now she’s here every day. She will cry if she has to miss school. I’ve had girls who had fails and Ds and ended up with straight A’s. This is something they really, really want to do. They’re all really sweet young ladies.”

And despite the lack of respect they endure, cheerleaders say it’s all still worth it.

“Cheering is my life,” says Charisma Bailey of Crenshaw High. “I have so much school spirit, and I don’t take it as a job, it’s fun to be out there. When you’re cheering it makes the players want to play hard and the fans feel pumped up. People expect more out of us, they expect us to follow the rules exactly. But that’s cool with me.”

“When I was in junior high,” says Leah Whaley-Holmes of University High, “I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to go to high school and I’m going to have a boyfriend and I’m going to be a cheerleader. I’m going to go around in my cute little skirt and go and be cute.’ And then I realized, ‘Now I have to start learning stuff? Actually working?’ But now that I’m in it, I enjoy it. It’s a love / hate relationship. But I’m going to make it worth it. I’m going to make the best of it.”