A hello cheer from The Megaphone!

Hello cheer world and blogosphere! This is The Megaphone, a blog dedicated to news about cheerleading squads and cheerleaders.


But wait, you say. There are already plenty of cheerleading news sites out there! Why another one?


What's different about The Megaphone is that it's here to tell the stories that aren't getting told. The cheerleading news sources out there are awesome. There's industry news, updates from competitions, the latest on uniforms, inspiring stories, how-tos... the list goes on.


But there are a lot of cheerleading squads out there who have interesting stories to tell that don't fit into any of the existing umbrellas. A lot of times, cheerleaders do great things and their local media ignores it. That's where The Megaphone comes in.


I'm not looking to compete with or step on the toes of any cheerleading news that's already out there. I have great respect for them -- in fact, I write for some of them. What I want to do is promote cheerleading squads -- as our description says, cheer for them "just a little louder!"


I've coached cheerleading for more than a decade, at various levels. One of my frustrations as a coach was always the lack of publicity for my teams. I had newspaper editors bluntly dismiss me when I called in or sent them information. Do cheerleaders cheer for publicity? No. But there were always some interesting stories about my teams and cheerleaders that rarely got told.


This also stems from my long-time tenure as a small college cheerleading coach. Between my experiences at two different schools, and observing the coverage (or lack thereof) squads in our conferences and division received from their schools, I have long wanted to give small college teams a spotlight as well. I mean no disrespect to sports information directors, because I actually served a term as interim SID at my alma mater, while coaching cheerleading, and I know that sports information departments are overworked and understaffed. When you have 20-plus varsity sports to deal with, your time is pretty well sewn up in those. Believe me, I understand that. However, I still want to see those squads get a taste of the spotlight.


I also want to give credit where credit is due. The Megaphone will highlight traditional media that does a great job of telling cheerleading stories.


How will I find these stories? Social media will help, as I will launch Twitter and Facebook accounts and follow cheer teams, and I'm hoping coaches will see The Megaphone as a resource. If you have a story you think needs to be told, email me at themegaphoneblog@gmail.com. (By the way, sorry this URL isn't intuitive -- themegaphone and megaphone were already taken!)


Cheers!