CHEERLEADERS HOPE FLORIDA TRIP PAYS OFF; GRANADA HIGH VARSITY SQUAD SET FOR NATIONAL COMPETITION.

Byline: Eric Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writer

Always there to whip up a tame crowd and root for the home team, Granada High School's varsity cheerleading squad will have to get used to people cheering it on for a change.

The 15-member squad is headed for Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 29 to compete in the national cheerleading championships after picking up a trophy at a key competition in Santa Barbara.

``There is going to be great competition out there,'' said 17-year-old Nicole Vitali, the squad's co-captain, before the teen-agers launched into another grueling practice Friday. ``We are going to be up against the best of the best.''

Using music by Run-DMC and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, the squad will perform a two-minute routine for a shot at first place in a special dance competition against more than 200 other teams.

``The judges are going to be looking for perfection,'' said Paula Briddle, one of the squad's coaches. The other is choreographer Shannon Fine.

``In order to get that, you need to put in a lot of hours of practice,'' Briddle said.

Thanks to a big hand from parents, the teens - all seniors - raised more than $18,000 for the trip through auctions, bake sales, carwashes and a casino night.

``Any kind of thing you can think of to raise a lot of cash in a short amount of time, we did,'' said 17-year-old Cori Aronson, the squad's other co-captain.

Although they reached their goal, the need for this frenzied bout of fund raising has emerged as a sore spot for some cheerleaders and their parents.

Parents say that because the Los Angeles Unified School District recognizes cheerleading as an extracurricular activity and not a sport, they don't get any school money to help cover the trip.

What's more, parents and cheerleaders say that because of the extracurricular designation, they can forget about money for uniforms and other cheerleading expenses, which can total more than $1,000 annually.

When daily practices last as long as four hours, with push-ups, sit-ups and physically demanding cheer routines, these teens and their parents say cheerleading should be called a sport, entitling the squad to some district money.

``Cheerleaders are on their own entirely,'' said David Sonne, father of squad member Courtney Sonne, 17. ``They are given nothing except a place and a time to perform.''

John McKitrick, the district official who oversees funding for sports teams, was ill Friday and could not be reached for comment. But Ray Aldridge, an official in McKitrick's office, said sports teams like football and basketball teams also must raise their own money for faraway trips, unless they can successfully petition the school board for assistance.

Aldridge said that unlike cheerleading uniforms, a lot of sports equipment is used by multiple players over the years, allowing schools to pay for the gear through student body funds.

But the cheerleaders maintain that because they, like sports teams, are asked to uphold certain standards - including keeping at least a C average - they should get the benefits of being labeled a sport.

``We work just as hard as the athletic teams,'' Vitali said. ``We get no money handed to us whatsoever.''