Earlier this year the Cash Family Sports Nutrition Center opened to Texas Tech University athletes. While the football players, baseball players and more, are benefiting from this $5.56 million dining hall, the spirit squads have been left out to dry. I don’t have a personal stake in this debate, but believe that cheer and dance are both valid sports and that just because they are considered part of the Center for Campus Life instead of Athletics, they shouldn’t be denied access to the new facility.
2019 seasons for both CoEd Cheer and the Pom Squad were more successful than some of our bigger sports, football being a prime example. According to Texas Tech Today, 2019 The Co-Ed Cheer Squad took first place in the Co-Ed Cheer category, and the Pom Squad took first in the Division IA Pom category and second in the Division IA Dance Jazz category. That year was the fourth national title and third consecutive year the Pom Squad won a national championship and Co-ed Cheer has finished in the top three for the past decade. While our football team, which went 4-8 last year, has access to a “beautiful new sports nutrition center that’s state of the art in every way.”
Director of Athletics, Kirby Hocutt, said that the goal of the facility is to teach student-athletes how to fuel their body for peak performance. My question is what about the rest of the student body? Or more specifically the student organizations that are constantly using their body to compete and win Texas Tech championship after championship.
If the educational kitchen is “groundbreaking” and “one of a kind” why is Texas Tech Athletes the only one benefiting. While I don’t often eat on campus for lack of healthy options, I think students and athletes alike could use a dining hall like this, and if you aren’t going to open it up to everyone, at least include the hardworking men and women that cheer on just about every other sport, win or lose, and bring in numerous accolades to the college.