Every morning for the past three months, U student Imatu Hevy has had the same food for breakfast-two Wheat Thins hand-dipped in an ounce of V8.
Hevy says the meal gives her the “right” amount of energy to get to her 8 a.m. gymnastics class in the HPER on time.
After an hour of tumbling, twisting and flipping, Hevy makes her way to the Marriott Library to study old tapes of the U’s cheerleaders.
“I can do that,” she says with a bit of resentment on her breath as she watches one cheerleader do a back handspring.
Hevy skips lunch, but pops some kettle corn to eat on the way to East High School, where she helps teach aspiring young women how to fall “if the guy holding you up isn’t strong enough.”
Hevy prepares a chicken sandwich without mayo and a salad for dinner, and then it’s off to the scale.
“Oh, I don’t think I can look,” she says. Hevy holds her breath, pauses, and looks down at the digital display.
It reads 124 pounds, just like it has for the past two weeks.
Hevy brushes her teeth, doesn’t say a word and cries herself to sleep.Hevy is four pounds too many to be a U Cheerleader.
Back in her office, Utah cheer squad coach Rhonda Wheeler goes over the applications of candidates who will be trying out on April 21.
She glances at the photos of 40-some-odd women, getting an idea of height-to-weight body proportions. She can already tell there will be some over the 120-pound weight limit. She tosses those applications into the garbage can.
“We imposed the weight limit a long time ago to protect our Yell Leaders,” Wheeler said. “Our primary concern is the safety of our Spirit Team…the limit is there for a reason.”
Two years ago, Cheerleader Jen Hansen fell and hit her head on the court of the Huntsman Center when a flying basket-toss went awry. She was put into the hospital and receives nourishment today through a surgically implanted feeding tube. Wheeler said Hansen barely made the team at 118 pounds. At the time of the accident, hospital records indicated she was 122 pounds.
“It’s a terrible thing to have happen. We keep chubby girls out of the program for their own good,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler isn’t the only one that wants women like Hevy watching from the stands during sporting events.
“I know my muscles are huge, but you try getting through a game full of sponging up, mounts and extended stunts,” said Marty Bighed, one of the U’s yell leaders.
“I became a flipping fruit to look up girls’ skirts and touch their butts, not to hold up fatties,” said Matt Sculine, another yell leader.
Hevy’s parents encouraged her to cheer when she was only 10. Hevy’s trainers called her talented, motivated and determined. She cheered throughout junior high and high school, where she won an award at the national level for Biggest Smile.
“Her Pom-Pom routine is incredible. Her straddle is even better,” said former High School Coach Don Nutz.
But even the most supreme skills won’t convince Wheeler.
“If Tinkerbell-who would be the ultimate cheerleader because she’s hot, has long legs and can fly-came in here at 121 pounds and wanted to try out, I’d send her right back to Never-Neverland without a second thought,” Wheeler said. Despite a strict policy and no friends on the inside, Hevy hopes to get a little help from women’s rights figures who have rallied to her cause. Sam Mensuc is one who has volunteered to fight if necessary.
“Keeping Hevy off the cheer squad because of her weight is absolutely sexist, racist, ageist, elitest, sexual orientationist, and it demonstrates the pure evil of the white-male power dominance structure that is running rampant throughout society,” Mensuc said. Mensuc has vowed to attend the tryouts and to speak with Wheeler about the weight policy.
“I’ve seen Hevy do all of those same stunts the cheerleaders perform, and she can do them better than most,” Mensuc said.
For the next three weeks, Hevy will stick to her diets, her study routine and her prayers. She has organized campus-wide fasts through the Associated Students of the University of Utah on Mondays up until the tryouts.
“If God won’t answer our collective prayers, at least I won’t have eaten any food,” Hevy said.
Disclaimer: The above article is part The Chronicle’s annual April Fool’s Day issue. All events are fictional and plots are satirical…in other words, all of this is completely made up. So don’t call your lawyers.
