While scrolling through social media earlier this week, I kept seeing this video that opens with a woman in an LSU sweatshirt. I passed it up again and again, but after enough people reposted it, I decided I had to watch it for myself and see what it was about. 
The video was about the LSU Tiger Girls and what is happening to their season. A Tiger Girls alumna starts the video by explaining who the Tiger Girls are, what they stand for and what they’ve done at the University. Then she explains the purpose for making the video.
Hearing what she had to say made me glad I’d clicked on the thumbnail in the first place.
The LSU Tiger Girls have one big competition they train for each season. This year, the University is not allowing the girls to compete — but not for the reasons you would think. It’s not about COVID-19, but rather a reported “lack of staff in the training room.”
This is an absolutely unacceptable excuse.
Growing up, I played all kinds of sports and was also a cheerleader. I know first-hand that there is no difference between contact sports and cheer/dance. Dancing is just as much a sport as football is, and all of our student athletes should be treated more or less the same. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.
Members of the dance team are held to the same standards as any baseball player or gymnast on campus. The academic requirements and NCAA drug tests are a part of their season as well. It seems like so many people see the Tiger Girls as “just the dance team,” when in reality, they’re so much more.
Just like most collegiate athletes, these girls grew up with the desire of one day competing at this level and winning the championship, and their dedication to the sport is remarkable.
The dancers start their season with a challenging round of tryouts. From there, the season begins in August and does not end until the following May. During this time, the girls support the University at various sporting events while also training for their own competition.
Dance is unlike other sports because there’s just one main event. It’s not like football or baseball, where you can fumble one game and bounce back in the next. No — in dance, you have one shot to give it your all. That’s why the dancers have to train so hard: everything has to be perfect.
This program is no stranger to winning. In 1999 — its first year as a team — they went on to win the National Championship. The team did so again in 2010, and three years later it won the World Championship. It deserves a chance to win it again this year.
It seems weird to me that the supposed reason for not being allowed to compete is “a lack of staff.” They have been practicing and participating in other events all year, but now that it’s time to prepare for their own competition, suddenly the number of staff is an issue.
I know other sports teams on campus would never have this problem, so there has to be a way to fix it. The Tiger Girls give their unending time and support to the University in a variety of ways. Their work ethic is simply unmatched.
The University owes it to these student athletes to help find a way for them to compete at nationals.
Elizabeth Crochet is a 19-year-old political communications sophomore from New Orleans.