Lila Epstein ’10 and Ed Hickson ’11
Editor-In-Chief & Staff Writer

For the Oct. 16 issue, Inklings wrote a news piece investigating the practice of Staples cheerleaders baking for the football team.

The Inklings staff submitted the news section to Principal John Dodig for prior review on Oct. 13 due to the controversial nature of some of the stories. When Dodig read the article on cheerleaders’ baking, he contacted Athletic Director Marty Lisevick because there was already a district policy banning the practice of cheerleader baking.

Lisevick called cheerleading coach Jocelyn Sadlon and informed her that the cheerleaders would no longer bake for the football players.

On Oct. 16 the issue was distributed and the article was a topic of discussion amongst students, faculty, and the school community.

News organizations such as WestportNow, News Channel 12, Fox News, and Norwalk Hour have picked up the story. The story had 30 comments on the Inklings website as of Oct. 27.

The Principal’s Perspective

Dodig believes that the entire controversy is not pertinent and hopes that it will all blow over.

“The whole thing is so silly. It was taken care of 10 years ago. We should not be talking about it now. I walked into this high school with that policy in place,” Dodig said.

According to Dodig, the policy was enacted t10 years ago when Patty Haberstroh and Cecile Newberg, the mothers of two cheerleaders, brought the issue to Superintendent Dr. Elliot Landon’s attention.

“The girls will be athletes or bakers, not both,” Landon said to Haberstroh and Newberg. He then announced that the cheerleaders would no longer bake for the football players.

Dodig is disappointed that students were brought into this, because the issue is really about the adults who allowed the practice to continue.

“It’s an adult issue if the superintendent said the practice was done and some adults chose to disregard this,” Dodig said.

Dodig was also unhappy with the way the controversy has negatively affected groups of students.

“Now there is a sizable number of football players who think that Inklings is out to get them or find dirt. The cheerleaders feel that this was put upon them because people misread or misperceive things,” he said.

Fox News and Channel 12 contacted Dodig about the controversy but he did not return either of their calls.

“I do not [think the issue is worthy of a larger discussion]. What is worthy of a larger discussion is what will happen if the superintendent has to bring in a budget with a zero percent increase,” Dodig said. “[The cheerleading] story is not worth another blot of ink.”

Dodig said that he has received relatively few responses to this situation from members of the community.

“Compared to [the drinking at] Homecoming, I’ve gotten very few [reactions]. I’ve gotten two or three e-mails,” Dodig said.

Dodig also wanted to emphasize that the football coach Marce Petroccio has nothing to do with the controversy, and he doesn’t want this to hinder the progress of either team.

“They [the football team] are having a stellar season and want to continue the trend and not be distracted by anything else. He [Petroccio] cares about his boys on the team and wants to help them stay focused on teamwork and winning,” said Dodig. “The cheerleaders are proud of their athletic abilities and how far they have come.”

Team Responses

The Inklings staff attempted to contact the four cheerleading captains. They either declined to comment or did not return calls by press time. However, several football players commented on the situation.

While he was initially disappointed by the ban, lineman and quad–captain Devin Graber ’10 said the team was not really affected by the controversy.

“It’s a very minor issue compared to the rest of the season. The goal is to win games and whether or not we get desserts the night before is trivial,” Graber said.

Linebacker Jack Ambrose ’10 was disappointed with the ban because he feels like the practice is more about friendship and the connection between the two teams.

“It’s not just about the food, it’s the idea of a cheerleader who interacts with you and makes you a poster or says good luck in the hallway,” Ambrose said.

Ambrose thought a good solution to the situation would be for the football players to bake for the cheerleaders as often as they bake for the football players.

According to Ambrose, he asked Dodig if the football players could bake for the cheerleaders, but Dodig said no.

“I think it would be an awesome idea to bring back the tradition with both teams baking for each other. It’s a special bond between two teams,” Amrbose said.

Manager Breezi Toole ’10 was disappointed by the negative attention that was diverted to the program.

“It’s unfortunate the way the events have played out,” Toole said. “Nobody was trying to be sexist, it was more of a way for the football players to connect with the cheerleaders and a way to get excited, get school spirit, and get pumped up. Nobody meant to offend anybody.”

Fullback and Linebacker Rob Gau ’11 agrees that all of the attention was unnecessary.

“This whole situation is all just a huge distraction,” Gau said.

Reactions to the Article

Chris Coyne ’11 said he believes the reasons for writing this article were unfounded.

“Investigative journalism should investigate and bring attention to problems. All this article did was create a problem,” Coyne said.

Football manager Eric Wessan ’10 agreed with Coyne that the article did not have enough basis to be a real news story.

“I think the general feeling was that the football team was minding their own business and the cheerleading team was minding their own business and then Inklings got involved,” Wessan said.

Wessan also had several other problems with the content and placement of the article. He noted that the pull–quote was the most negative quote in the article and the headline implied that the entire community was questioning the practice.

He also thought that it was conflict of interest that the mother of the former cheerleader who was quoted was related to an Inklings editor, although this was mentioned in the article.

In addition, Wessan did not approve of how a quote from cheerleading captain Jourdan Friedman ’10 was attributed as “admitted” rather than “said.”

However, Alex Mullen ’10 did not think that the article was overly biased.

“I actually thought it was a pretty balanced article. If you look at it you see it includes the cheerleading captains saying that it is not an issue,” said Mullen.

However, like Coyne, he did not think this article was necessary to write.

“I definitely think the article created something that didn’t need to be broadcasted,” Mullen said. It was not that big of an issue.”

Graber believed that the article missed a crucial element by failing to mention that the football players help out the cheerleaders with their biggest fundraiser, Varsity Vogue.

Varsity Vogue is an event held at Mitchell’s where cheerleaders and other athletes model clothing.

“While the article included some things we do for them, it seemed to denigrate what we do and made it seem like we do nothing for them while they bake for us,” Graber said.