Throwing a cheerleader in the air is no easy task, and neither is holding multiple people at the bottom of a pyramid. If you thought catching a baseball was hard, try catching a cheerleader who is high up in the air doing flips and making sure you time it right so she doesn’t break her neck.

While a majority of guys in high school play the typical baseball, football, soccer or basketball, at least two prefer being a supporter, not a player.

Dominated by girls, next year the school will have it’s first male cheerleaders.

“One boy came and asked me if he could try out ,” JV and freshman cheer coach Jennifer Leary said. “After that, other guys came and talked to me about it too. I didn’t see a problem with it, so I said they could.”

Freshman Mason Massey and freshman Ryan Allen will both be on the JV cheer squad next year.

“I don’t really know why I wanted to join,” Massey said. “I love tumbling and that sort of thing so I just thought, ‘Why not?’.”

“I’ve always loved gymnastics and cheerleading since I was like six or so,” Allen said. “Once I found out that LHS offered male cheerleading, I went and auditioned and made it!”

Massey has been in gymnastics at area gyms.

“I started tumbling about nine years ago,” Massey said. “I like doing the flips and jumps and things like that. It’s really energizing and a fun athletic.”

Allen had found out about boys being allowed in cheer after tryouts had happened, so he had a “tryout” after to show coaches what he could do.

Massey, thought, had tried out like the other girls, but his tryout had different requirements.

“Boys don’t do dances at tryouts, and they really don’t do all the cheer motions,” Leary said. “[Male cheerleaders] will mostly stand and do the arm movements while yelling the cheer. They will do a lot of jumping and tumbling though, it looks like.”

For Massey, cheer tryouts were a breeze.

“They weren’t very hard,” Massey said. “All the things I had to do were things that were easy to me and things I was capable to do. I tried out with girls I’m friends with so it was cool.”

Next year, Massey and Allen will be in the same class period as the girls for cheer.

“They will be in the same one as the girls are,” Leary said. “They will be in all the games, pep rallies, practices, and everything else that the girl cheerleaders do. They’ll learn all the cheers and be just like everyone else.”

Allen has already switched into eighth period cheer and has been practicing with the girls.

“I absolutely love it!” Allen said. “Everyone is really nice to me and everyone helps me out with my jumps and tumbling and it’s just a great environment to be in.”

Next year the boys will wear typical male cheerleader uniforms, pants and a shirt.

“I saw the uniforms and we have like long pants and just a tight athletic shirt,” Allen said. “We also have sort of basketball shorts for when it’s hot.”

Out of everything, the new male cheerleaders are most looking forward to participating in the pep rallies.

“I think getting to perform in the pep rallies will be a cool experience,” Massey said. “I get along well with the girls in cheer so I don’t think being with them will be weird. They’re a fun group.”

“I’m really excited for pep rallies,” Allen said. “We get to do an awesome routine to show the whole school how awesomely cool we are.”

The current cheerleaders and coaches look forward to having Massey and Allen on their squads.

“This particular kid is really well liked by the squads, so they think it’s pretty cool that he’s doing it with them,” Leary said.

The addition of two male cheerleaders has Leary hoping for a larger coed team in upcoming seasons.

“Absolutely [I’d love a major coed team],” Leary said. “I hope with him being on the squad that it makes other guys want to try out next year too. I think most people will think that it’s cool and want to join the next year once they see all that they do.”