A dozen pony-tailed and exceptionally fit young women in shorts and tank tops gather in one corner of the room at West Sacramento's Bounce Spot, unrolling thick tumbling mats for a Cheer Sacramento practice session.
This place looks like a toddler's daydream. The walls are painted bright shades of lemon, magenta and cobalt blue, as befits the room's daytime use as a bounce house where Southport moms bring their overexcited offspring, and scads of toys are stacked near the walls.
Suddenly, from the corner, a chorus of screeching. The young women scatter.
"Is it a spider?" says team member Torrey Johnson, watching.
"Probably a cricket," replies Meri Thresher, the team's bubbly coach.
The adult cheerleading squad's members can perform round-offs galore and execute back tucks with ease. They're brave enough to be tossed high in the air for stunts. Yet for a moment, a teensy, if perhaps really creepy, insect of some sort has made them squeal and scatter. Amazing.
In the springtime, the team cheers on the sidelines of the River City Gators' minor league football games.
The rest of the year, members perform at charitable events and gay-friendly celebrations like the annual pride festival. So do other adult cheerleading teams, most notably Cheer San Francisco and Cheer New York. But unlike them, the local group is not specifically rooted in the gay and lesbian communities.
Adult cheerleading began slowly with Cheer San Francisco's founding in 1980. It took more than 20 years for the trend to catch fire in other major cities across the country, but now the Pride Cheer Association includes teams in Atlanta, San Antonio, Los Angeles and other locales.
It's all about keeping the spirit alive.
Cheer Sacramento's 22 members understand the value of spirit, which for most of us remains an outgrown high school concept requiring excessive amounts of enthusiasm rather than, for example, a well-honed appreciation for snark.
In uncertain times, however, who couldn't use a little pep and bounce?
"OK, let's stretch you out," says Thresher, 33, whose day job involves representing an energy beverage (of course!) across the region.
She grew up cheerleading, first in elementary school and junior high, then in high school in Lodi and at American River College. When she transferred to California State University, Sacramento, she found that collegiate cheerleading had evolved from its focus on pretty girls standing on the sidelines, as she puts it, into something of a competitive sport.
Still, dreams die hard.
"I absolutely love cheerleading," Thresher says.
So she joined Sacramento Spirit, a small and fairly short-lived adult cheer team, before organizing Cheer Sacramento three years ago. (Yet another adult squad cheers on the sidelines of Sacramento Sirens women's football games.)
"It's so much fun to continue doing something I've loved for so long," she says. "I tell people, 'If you have a good attitude and the ability to count music, I can teach you to be a cheerleader.' We do PR stuff. Having a good attitude is paramount."
Laura Grindstaff, a University of California, Davis, sociology professor, joined Cheer Sacramento's predecessor squad at age 40 as part of her research for a book on cheerleading.
"I was surprised how fun it was," says Grindstaff, now 45. "I've been athletic all my life. I did triathlons in grad school. I did hockey. I'm in shape and athletic and don't have a lot of fear, but I didn't have the skills you need. So I learned."
Some of the stunts involve flying, or being tossed into the air. Some involve basing, or catching those who have been tossed. In her cheerleading days, Grindstaff did both, and she learned her share of dance routines.
"It was exhilarating," she says. "It helps keep you in shape. And it's fun."
Officially, Cheer Sacramento is a co-ed team. But no men participated in the squad's recent fall tryouts even though Thresher tried hard to recruit candidates.
"It's very difficult to get men involved and committed to cheerleading," says Grindstaff.
Stereotypes stand in the way.
"We're the only team in the Pride Cheer Association that's a straight-based team," says Thresher. "But for men, cheering isn't necessarily a gay thing. At the college level, it's guys who played football in high school and didn't get a football scholarship, but they have the strength to throw the cheerleaders in the air. So cheering gets them that scholarship."
You'd think the idea of spending so much time catching pretty young women might appeal to a few more guys.
"I was trying to encourage a friend to try out," says Torrey Johnson, a 28-year-old Elk Grove public relations specialist and a former Miss Black Sacramento.
She joined the team herself in January, having spent her school years playing tennis and soccer instead of leading cheers.
"But it's something I always, always wanted to do," she says. "I was like, 'I made the squad!' And my mother said, 'Aren't you too old to be cheerleading?' "
Not in Cheer Sacramento years. Participants must be at least 18.
Amelia Barber is a cheerleading veteran, having cheered for Pierce High School in tiny Arbuckle. Now a Cheer Sacramento co-captain, the 19-year-old CSUS student is blonde and spunky and really, really strong, which you can tell by the way she expertly tosses fliers up in the air during practice.
"I couldn't get enough of cheerleading, so here I am," she says.
Here they all are, cheering and flying and executing a high kick or two – defying stereotypes and age limitations and keeping spirit alive a little longer, just for the fun of it. Imagine.
Call The Bee's Anita Creamer, (916) 321-1136.
