articles LEFT: LOGAN BRINKMAN, JONNY ANYAOGU AND NEAL WIEBERS ARE ALL MEMBERS OF THE IOWA STATE CHEERLEADING SQUAD. THE THREE HAD NO INTENTION OF JOINING THE SQUAD BEFORE COMING TO IOWA STATE, BUT ENDED UP JOINING FOR THEIR OWN REASONS. ///////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////////////////////
MY FAMILY’S IN SUPPORT OF IT, BUT I FELT LIKE I WAS COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET WHEN I FIRST TOLD MY MOM I JOINED THE CHEER TEAM. —LOGAN BRINKMAN, MALE CHEERLEADER
THE DUDES WITH SPIRIT
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“We weren’t actually serious about trying out for the cheer team.” They attended three open practices before they were invited to join the squad. The three men follow a strict regimen. They have two-hour practices on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Various athletic activities occupy their Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and Sundays are reserved for tumbling practice. They are also required to complete three, onehour a week workouts on their own time (which is filled with deciding between Taco John’s and Taco Bell, (the latter winning). The biggest change was a change in diet. Their party habits remained the same. “We still go out to the bars and stuff,” Brinkman says. “And we drink Platinum, which is six percent for all you ladies who think we [male cheerleaders] are soft guys.”
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admits that he never thought he had what it took to be a cheerleader. Lifting girls in the air and working out so often seemed like a ton of work. “I knew [joining] was going to be a challenge, but it’s really fun. I’m proud of myself for taking advantage of the opportunity,” Brinkman says. Anyaogu and Wiebers, both Minnesota natives and friends since childhood, took a different route to joining the squad. Anyaogu, sophomore in psychology, ran short sprints for Iowa State’s track team during his freshman and sophomore years. The girlfriend of one of Anyaogu’s track teammates was on the cheer team. She told Anyaogu that he would make a great cheerleader and the squad was in need of some testosterone. Anyaogu left the track team early in his second year. He decided to attend the first open cheer practice only if Wiebers went with him. “It kinda started out as a joke,” Anyaogu says.
kait mckinney •
LOUNGING IN ATHLETIC SHORTS AND CUT-OFFS after another vigorous night of yelling at the top of their lungs and hoisting women above their heads, Neal Wiebers, Jonny Anyaogu, and Logan Brinkman are in the living room of their apartment chowing down on cheese balls and gaining valuable life lessons from the latest episode of “How I Met Your Mother.” Athletic bags, backpacks and pizza boxes are scattered on the kitchen table and multi-colored Christmas lights outline the living room ceiling. “Make sure you talk about Logan’s anacondaGodzilla arms,” says Wiebers, junior in political science. Brinkman laughs and shrugs it off. “Coming from an engineering major, time management is really hard to do,” says Brinkman, senior in construction engineering from Gowrie, Iowa. This is Brinkman’s first year on the squad. He
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by MERRITT RETHLAKE
m at t w e t t e n g e l
HOW THREE FRIENDS TURNED A JOKE INTO THEIR TICKET TO THE BEST VIEW IN JACK TRICE STADIUM.