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KENT STATE CHEERLEADER TOSSES WOMEN INSTEAD OF TACKLING GUYS
By Susan DiMauro
During a typical day, Kevin O'Brien holds a standing 120-pound woman above his head with one arm, carries two women on his shoulders and, with the help of two men, tosses a woman nearly three stories above the ground. O'Brien, a 23-year-old Kent State junior who is about 6 feet tall and weighs 205 pounds, played varsity football at Copley High School and started as an outside linebacker and tight end. He received recruitment letters from serveral colleges, but after suffering a concussion during the football season of his senior year, he found a new activity that kept his adrenalin rushing. O'Brien defies and challenges stereotypes of men who break gender rules through his role as Kent State cheerleading squad co-captain.
"I knew I couldn't play football," he says. "But I knew I would be bored if I wasn't doing any sports. Cheerleeding challenges me, and it takes the place of football just find because it is just as demanding." The rhetoric and communication major began cheerleading at Copley's basketball games, but he considered it "goofing off."
He saw male college cheerleaders perform, but he had no desire to become one because he thought flipping and tumbling was crazy. During his freshman year at Bowling Green State University, the cheerleading coach there sought him out when he heard about O'Brien's high school chreeleading experience. "Standing in front of people and getting them fired up was neat," O'Brien says. "It wasn't a squad that competed, but it was fun, and I kept in shape. I lived in the dorms, so I made some friends who helped me study and took me to parties." After his grade point average suffered, O'Brien decided to take a year off from school to work and to get his act together, he says.
He returned to college in spring 1995 at the University of Akron where he got hooked on cheerleading. "After the first practice, I did new stunts," O'Brien says. "I really got into it. And at the first home game, it was show-off time. I was like, 'Look what I can do.' The basketball players were cheering us on, and I felt like I knew everybody." During his time as a cheerleader at Akron, O'Brien participated in several national competitions, which he considers the "Super Bowl of cheerleading." IN January, he and the 23 other Kent cheerleaders vied for a national title in Orlando, Fla. They placed 16th in Division IA. It was Kent's first appearance at a national cheerleading competition. More than 500 squads tried out, but only about 30 qualified. Lenee Buchman, Kent State cheerleading coach, coached O'Brien at Akron. She came to Kent State in 1996, and O'Brien followed because he says she drove him to be his best. Buchman says O'Brien is a reliable person and a talented cheerleader who is a leader to the 11 other men on the Kent State squad. "When we were getting ready for nationals at Akron, some kids didn't pull their weight," she says. "Kevin could pull anything. Ican place him anywhere, and he can execute correctly. When I came to Kent State, and Kevin came with me, he really brought a togetherness to the team. He brought confidence to the male cheerleaders, and he gave more of a core basis to the program." O'Brien also was one of 10 instructors at the Cheer Ohio camp at Kenyon college, a summer camp for junior high and high school squads from Ohio that Buchman directs. She says O'Brien helped several girls conquer their fears of tumbling and stunting. "At camp, a girl was struggling with her tumbling, and she was really nervous," she says. "Kevin took her aside and talked to her. He motivated her, and she was able to do it. Kevin is very confident, and he helps others be confident, too." O'Brien's confidence has helped him deal with remarks about men participating in a female-dominated activity. During a tournament basketball game against Ohio University at Akron's James A. Rhodes Arena, several Bobcat fans called O'Brien and the other Akron Cheerleaders "gay, fags and faries." "It was packed, and the fans from OU were saying, 'Look at the sissies,'" O'Brien says." The band was throwing stuff at us. I didn't go up to them, but another guy on the squad did. I just don't take things personally. If I had to, I would tell them that I get up at 7 a.m. to lift, work out and go to school, and I work with some of the best-looking girls on campus." Dan Boarman, football coach at Copley, sys he thinks O'Brien began cheerleading just to meet girls, but he says it still requires tremendous strength. "You have to be a good athlete," he says. "He wouldn't be able to do those cheerleading things without being an athlete. And it seems to be fun and social." The starting left offensive tackle for the Kent State football team, Jason Hupp, respects thecheerleading squad and recognizes its hard work.
"You've got to respect a guy who has the courage to do that," Hupp says. "He's out there doing his best. Cheerleading is rough and it takes a toll on the body. They work hard, and they lift. They can get hurst just as easily as anybody." Ashley Dager, O'Brien's girlfriend and a member of the Kent State squad, says he will do anything for anyone. Dager says before she and O'Brien started dating last year, she hurt her ankle during practice and needed help. "I needed to go home to Minerva," she says. "I couldn't drive because of my ankle, so he took me home. He would do that for anyone." Dager says O'Brien also drova a squad member to Bowling Green on a moment's notice. "This guy's ex-girlfriend was in a car accident, so Kevin took him up there," Dager says. "He puts things aside to help other people, and he's really dependable." Sean Wade, a Kent State squad co-captain, has known O'Brien since the eighth grade. They played high school football together and cheered together at Akron before transferring ot Kent State. Wade says he and O'Brien live by the phrase, "that which does not kill you makes you stronger," which helped them cope with a setback during a national cherleading competition. "The last time we were at nationals with Akron, we had a bad fall on the competition floor that took us out of the competition," he says. "The mount on top of my shoulders started to timber back,
and it took me off my feet.
His co-workers at Screwy Louie's in Kent, where O'Brien is a bouncer, also say he is helpful and dependable. Matt Stotz, a fellow bouncer at Screwy's and one of O'Brien's roommates, says the former Boy Scout saved his life when a group of patrons got out of hand last year. "It was right before Christmas break, and we were closing the bar," Stotz says. "And one bouncer was having problems with about five guys. So I went to help out. "I took one guy outside. When I Went to get another guy, I turned, and someone's fist was about six inches from my face. Out of nowehere, Kevin pushed him out of the way. We joke about it to this day about how I still owe him one." O'Brien says he just wants people to have a good time. I don't want to hurt people there," he says. "I don't hit anyone because I don't want anyone hitting me." O'Brien's mother, Linda, doesn't worry about her son's safety while he is at the bar, but she says she gets nervous when she watches the cheerleader in action. When he slings a girl in the air, I hold my breath and wonder who her mother is," she says. "It's breathtaking to watch, but it's his responsibility to catch them and catch them right. And when he holds a girl up in the air, and she's got one leg and one arm out, all it takes is one second for the whole thing to go down the tubes." But she and her husband, Daniel, support their son and are excited for his cheerleading accomplishments. "Participation in school activities is important," Linda O'Brien says. "Let's face it. When else would someone have this much fun? It would be sad to go through school without anyone to identify with. And as long as we're willing to pay for his school, he'll continue with it." Daniel O'Brien, a member of the first men's gymnastics team at Kent State, taught Kevin simple tumbling when he was a child and says he has encouraged his son to stay athletic. "It keeps hime mentally and physically active," he says. "We're proud of him and glad he's done so well. He does something he's good at, and he enjoys doing it." |
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