Bishop Noll’s all female cheerleading team has added a few new members, which may surprise a lot of people. The squad has had all females on the team for the past years, but now the two newest members of the team are both males. Seniors Mark Feliciano and Josh Rosario, joined the team during the middle of this year’s basketball season. They don’t officially refer to themselves as “cheerleaders”, but Mark calls themselves “hype men” and “lifters.”

  Currently, males on the team do not cheer in the same way the females do. Instead, they lift, toss, and catch the other cheerleaders. However, male cheerleaders are not strangers to most Big 10 schools or even Bishop Noll. Decades ago, boys were part of the Noll pep squad and helped hype the crowd up.

The squad is still looking for male lifters for next year.

  “Try-outs for cheerleading and male lifters are scheduled for May. We’re looking for 2-4 males lifters and 12-15 cheerleaders for the football and basketball 2014-2015 season,” said head coach Juli Sandoval.