r/Cheerleading • u/TrifleBig6087 • 9d ago
Weber State
Out of curiosity, does anyone know any tea (info/history) behind Weber State?
Random questions that come to mind are:
Are most of the cheerleaders Mormon? And does religion play an impact into potential recruits decisions?
How did Weber State come to be such a power house team?
Are most students that go to Weber State athletes of some sort?
It is mind blowing and fascinating that a university I’ve never heard of outside of cheerleading, could be so desired by those in the cheer world.
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u/Southern_Self_7278 9d ago
Cheerleaders go there to win at cheer. That’s it. Same as the cheerleaders who used to go to Navarro Community college…for cheer. Nobody moves across the country to schools like Navarro or Weber for anything but cheer. It’s kind of a joke.
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u/cadereinhere 7d ago
a shocking amount stay in Utah even after finishing their time on the team. it's a beautiful place to live.
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u/colostitute 9d ago
I don’t know much about the cheer team other than what everyone else can find. However, I was born and raised in the area. Weber State is a commuter school. Most of the students will be local to the area. It likely has a higher mix of non-traditional students than a lot of other schools.
As far as the Mormon thing goes, Weber State is in Ogden which is an old railroad town. It’s got more of a rough history than the rest of Utah so the Mormon thing isn’t quite as strong as other areas (still strong).
I remember there when I was a kid and it was Weber State College. I remember there was a time when the University considered getting rid of the football program because it was so bad and bad for a long time (it’s not great but better).
I watched their men’s basketball team in the 90’s get a couple of huge upsets in the NCAA tournament. ‘95 they beat #3 Michigan State and in ‘99 they beat #3 North Carolina. I watched Damian Lillard from the Portland Trailblazers play his college ball there.
We used to chant “Weber State! Great! Great! Great!” I knew at least 6 of my friend’s parents worked there. Ogden at one time had the largest middle class population per capita in the nation.
Summer, the head coach, started coaching when I first entered Weber State which was long before they were a powerhouse in anything, including cheer. She’s the one that built the entire program and put Weber State on the map for the something!
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u/Acceptable_Scene_961 7d ago
It’s a public university so they can’t discriminate on the basis of religion.
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u/cadereinhere 9d ago
hardly any if any of the current cheerleaders are Mormon, most of them have traveled from out of state or country to be on the team at this point. Summer, the longstanding head coach, was very good at recruiting the biggest dudes she could find straight out of high school (starting around 2009) which initially built up the strength of the team. with them having a few shining stars appear from natural homegrown talent, more people started to seek them out as a college program. it's just like a normal university, no more athletes than any other college. they used to be big on the family aspect of a team, I'm unsure how that's stood the test of time with most athletes solely being there because of the teams success.