Is cheerleading a sport? More schools are saying yes, pushing a new competitive spirit from the sidelines to the spotlight. (sports).

WHEN HER SPORT IS IN SEASON each winter, Jennalee Collins, 16, works out with her teammates for two hours almost every day. She runs, lifts weights, and does exercises to increase explosiveness. Every Saturday, she has a meet and classmates fill the stands to root for her. Her squad, the Rochester High Falcons, has won the Michigan state title three years in a row.

Jennalee is a cheerleader.

At her school, cheerleaders are seen as athletes. "A lot of guys said, `No, no,'" she says, "until I showed them my muscles."

Today, with more than 75,000 high school cheerleaders taking part in competitions each year, states are facing the question:

Is cheerleading a sport?

Michigan is one of 11 states that has answered yes. (The others are Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.) Michigan's approach is a model for the sport called "competitive cheer." Its squads have a season, a schedule, a budget, and a state championship. And while most varsity cheerleaders in the state do double duty on the sideline squad, which is not a sport, there's no question that they most look forward to taking center stage.

"Cheering at football games is the fun part of cheerleading," says Nicole Perryman, 17, captain of the Lake Orion High School team. "But the thing I like most is that we compete. We look forward to Saturday meets just like the football players look forward to their games."

But opposition to the sport designation exists, even among cheer supporters. "There are a lot of restrictions that coaches and cheerleaders don't realize," says Jim Lord of the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors.

In schools where it isn't a sport, cheerleaders can work with their coaches year-round, and elite squads can travel to private competitions nationwide. When it's an official sport, state-by-state rules often limit team workouts to one season and keep all competition in-state. Also, a few challenging stunts are banned by states that see them as too dangerous.

For those reasons, Lord prefers that cheerleading be called an "athletic activity"--a club, like chess or debate, only with more flipping and shouting.

The controversy comes down to a cheer squad's reason for being. Is it to support a school's major boys' teams, or is it to compete on its own? "Most schools are more than happy to encourage their teams to compete, as long as they remember that the No. 1 reason they are there is to support that football and basketball team," says Susan Loomis of the National Federation of State High School Associations. "When that line is crossed, you can get into some real tugs of war." Even so, competitive cheer has been gaining momentum, the association says, and is the fastest-growing girls' sport.

About one third of U.S. high schools now have students in competitive squads, including states where the sport isn't sanctioned. In Texas, for example, where cheerleading is not a sport, more than 23,000 students take part in competitive cheer.

As for what it takes to compete, Rochester coach Susan Wood says, "Imagine if you were to take 12 quarterbacks and 12 wide receivers, and all 12 quarterbacks needed to release the ball from their hand at the same time and have the ball reach each receiver at the same time, and if anyone drops the ball, it's not a touchdown. That's what takes so many hours of practice."

In states like Michigan, each school decides if its cheer squad will take part in the competitive season. About 150 squads do, and the number is growing. By comparison, the state has more than 400 football teams.

In many states where cheerleading is a club activity, there is no hurry to shift the emphasis away from sideline squads. "Competition is one part of what we do, but it's not our main focus. People who compete aren't really leading cheers, they're doing a routine," says Donna McKay, spirit coach in Mason City, Iowa, whose team has a brief competitive season organized by a coaches association. "It gets kind of boring, and it's a lot of stress. My girls get positive feedback every game they cheer."

Still, cheerleaders like Nicole love having a sport of their own. "When we cheer football, we're having fun, but it's about the football team," she says. "When we compete, it's about us. If we didn't compete, I probably wouldn't cheer. It's such a rush."