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Holy Names Girls Lend Some Cheer To Jesuit

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By SCOTT PURKS, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 9, 2007

TAMPA - Something didn't look right on the Jesuit sideline in the 1960s.

Boy cheerleaders.

All boys.

Girls, it seemed, would be a nice, if not appropriate, addition.

But let's see ... girls ... where to find them? Jesuit, after all, is an all-boys school.

That's when Jesuit officials contacted the Academy of the Holy Names, an all-girls school, and AHN girls officially became Jesuit cheerleaders.
Atlanta Falcons general manager Rich McKay must think it was the best decision in history. In 1976, McKay was Jesuit's quarterback and his wife-to-be, Terrin Few, was an Academy of the Holy Names cheerleader. The rest as they say ...

"It's tradition," AHN cheerleader Mallory Weatherly said. "Ever since I was in the third grade at Academy I thought about cheering for Jesuit. My family would go to the games and I would watch the Academy cheerleaders and hope someday I would be down there cheering."

Tonight, when Jesuit hosts arch-rival Tampa Catholic, Weatherly will be on Jesuit's track leading Jesuit's modern version of its boys cheerleaders, "the Blue Tide," who will be in the stands painted blue with white letters on their chests and rainbow wigs on their heads.

On the field will be Jesuit's football players, several of whom are dating Academy's cheerleaders.

"I'd say Academy's cheerleaders continue to be big part of the Jesuit tradition," AHN cheerleading advisor Jacquelyn Davis said. "Looks like things worked out pretty well."

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