Cheerleading Cheers and Chants: Sideline Cheers, Cheer Chants and Game Day Crowd Leading.
Material sorted the way a game actually runs, by situation rather than by title. What separates a chant from a cheer, what to call on third and long, what changes in a basketball gym, and the part most lists leave out: what a judge is scoring when a squad leads a crowd.
Written for coaches. The competition structure and scoring categories come from the UCA 2025-2026 Rules and Regulations and the published UCA Game Day Live score sheets, not from memory. The chants are ours to use and change.
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17/18 confirmedLast comp
Winter Regionals
Place
2nd
Score
87.35
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Short answer: cheerleading cheers and chants are two different tools. A chant is short, repetitive and written for the crowd to shout back, and it runs two to four 8 counts on repeat while play is live. A cheer is longer, is performed during a stoppage such as a timeout or a quarter break, and the crowd watches rather than joins. A sideline is a chant tied to a specific game situation, offense or defense. The competition version of all this is the Game Day division, where a routine runs in the fixed order Band Chant, Crowd Leading, Fight Song, inside a three minute limit, and is scored out of 100 across two 50 point sheets. On both of those sheets the line that decides most placements is the ability to get a crowd to respond, which is why short material built on words the audience already knows beats clever material every time.
A cheer, a chant and a sideline are three different jobs.
Coaches use these words loosely and it costs squads points at Game Day competitions, because the score sheet does not use them loosely. The distinction is not about length for its own sake. It is about whether the crowd is supposed to be talking, and whether the game is running while you do it.
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| Type | Length | When you use it | Is the crowd talking? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chant | Two to four 8 counts, repeated until it takes hold or the play starts. | While the ball is live or between plays. This is the workhorse and it is most of what a squad does across four quarters. | Yes. If they are not, the chant is too long, too new or too clever. |
| Sideline | Same as a chant. A sideline is a chant with a job attached. | Tied to a specific situation, offense or defense. UCA cues this at competition with an announced game scenario and expects the squad to pick the right one. | Yes, and the words should tell them what is happening on the field. |
| Cheer | Six to eight 8 counts, performed once. | During a stoppage. Timeouts, quarter breaks, injury delays, the long pause after a scoring play. | Mostly no. They watch. A spell-out is the exception and it is why spell-outs are worth building a season around. |
| Band chant | Sized to whatever the band plays, usually one repeated musical phrase. | Whenever the pep band plays. At competition it opens the Game Day routine and it is the one section where no stunting or tumbling is allowed, though jumps and kicks are. | Yes, and the band carries them. This is the easiest crowd response in the building. |
| Fight song | Whatever your school's song is. You do not get to shorten it. | After a score, at the start, at the end, and any time the band strikes it up. | Yes, and they already know the words, which is the whole point of a tradition. |
The practical test is simple. Say the material out loud once, then ask whether a parent in row nine who has never heard it could join in on the second pass. If the answer is no, it is a cheer, and it belongs in a timeout rather than on third and four.
Sideline cheers and chants, sorted by what is happening on the field.
Most chant lists are alphabetical, which is useless at 8pm on a Friday with the ball on your own 20. Sort the library by situation instead and the captain can call material without thinking. Everything below is written to be changed: swap in your school name, your mascot and your colors, and keep the count structure.
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| Situation | What the crowd needs | Material that fits |
|---|---|---|
| Our offense has the ball | Forward motion. Something with a push to it. | Call and response on two words: squad calls "Move that", crowd answers "Ball", four times, then "Move that ball, all the way" on the last 8 count. |
| Defense, opponent driving | Volume and a wall. One word repeated is more effective than a sentence. | "Defense" split into two claps, "De" clap "fense" clap, run for four 8 counts. Nothing beats it and nothing needs to. |
| Third down, big stop needed | A countdown feel. The crowd wants a target. | "Third down, shut it down" twice, then "Get that ball back" twice. Motions stay in a T so the crowd can see the words being cut. |
| First down | A quick celebration that clears before the next snap. | One 8 count only: "First down, [Mascot]s, first down" with a punch and a clap. Anything longer runs into the play clock. |
| Touchdown | Noise, then the fight song. Do not get in the band's way. | Six count spell-out of the mascot with the crowd shouting letters, then hand it straight to the band. |
| Kickoff | A build. This is the one moment the whole stadium is watching the same thing. | A rising "Heeeey" held across an 8 count, cut on the kick, then "Go [Mascot]s go" once the ball is in the air. |
| Timeout | Structure. You have real time, so this is where a full cheer goes. | A six to eight 8 count cheer with signs or poms and a spell-out finish. This is the slot judges look at hardest at Game Day. |
| We are behind, fourth quarter | Permission to stay loud. The crowd is deciding whether to leave. | "Not done yet" call and response, then straight into the spell-out. Never run a comeback chant that references the score, because it ages badly in two minutes. |
Football cheers work on the play clock, not on your count.
A football sideline has roughly 25 to 40 seconds between snaps and an unpredictable amount of it. That single constraint decides everything about football chants: they have to start fast, be cuttable at any point, and not require the squad to be facing away from the field. Squads that build long football material end up abandoning it halfway through, every drive, all season.
Rule 01
Two 8 counts, then repeat
Write the chant so the loop point is obvious and the squad can drop out on any repeat without it sounding unfinished. A chant that only resolves at the end of eight 8 counts is a cheer wearing a chant's clothes, and it will get cut by a snap count every time.
Rule 02
Face the crowd, watch the field
Crowd leading means the squad's backs are to the game, so one person keeps eyes on the ball and calls the cut. Assign that job by name at every game. It is the most common reason a squad is still chanting through a punt return, and a crowd notices.
Rule 03
One word beats a sentence
Defense, first down, go, block. Big crowds cannot hold a phrase, but they will repeat one word all night. The squad supplies rhythm and motions, the crowd supplies volume, and that division of labor is what the scored crowd effectiveness category is really measuring.
Signs and poms matter more in a stadium than in a gym because the crowd is far away and half of them cannot hear you at all. UCA lists the approved crowd leading props for competition as foam fingers, rally towels, signs, poms, flags and megaphones, and the same set is what works on a Friday. Props may not be thrown into the crowd, cannot bear an athlete's weight, and air horns and artificial noise makers are not permitted. If you have ever wondered why a squad uses a box at games but not at competition, that weight bearing rule is the reason.
Basketball cheers are a different sport for a squad.
Everything that makes football chanting work fails in a gym. The clock rarely stops, the crowd is close enough to hear individual voices, the floor is live so the squad has almost no space, and there is a silent situation that football does not have at all. Squads that run their football library at basketball games sound wrong and usually do not know why.
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| Basketball situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Our free throw | Nothing. Silence, hands still, no motion at all until the ball leaves the shooter's hands. Then a clap on the make. Teaching a squad to hold still is harder than teaching them a chant and it is the thing gym crowds judge you on. |
| Opponent free throw | Check your state and school policy first, because many associations and athletic directors restrict crowd distraction. Where it is allowed, a rhythmic clap led from the sideline is the standard, and it stops the instant the shot goes up. |
| Defense in the half court | The two clap "De fense" carries in a gym better than anywhere. Two 8 counts, then let the crowd hold it alone. When the crowd keeps a chant going after the squad stops, that is the whole job done. |
| Three pointer | One count, three fingers up, "Three" from the crowd. Then reset. Fast break basketball punishes any celebration longer than a single count. |
| Timeout | This is the only real window. Full cheer, poms or signs, spell-out finish, and be clear of the floor before the horn. In a 30 second timeout you have about 20 usable seconds. |
| Halftime | Band chant and fight song if the band is there, and it is the natural slot for anything with skills in it since the floor is finally empty. |
Volleyball and wrestling squads borrow from the basketball library rather than the football one for the same reasons: small room, close crowd, short windows. Between points and between matches are the only slots, and everything has to be cuttable in a single count.
What a judge is actually scoring when you lead a crowd.
Sideline material stopped being an afterthought when Game Day became a competition division. The UCA Game Day Live score sheets split 100 points across two sheets of 50, and reading them changes how you write chants, because they reward the crowd's reaction rather than the squad's difficulty.
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| Sheet | Section | Points | Scored line items |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crowd Leading | Situational Sideline | 20 | Game day situation and response to the cue (5), crowd effectiveness covering voice, pace, flow, coverage and the ability to elicit a response (5), motion technique and use of signs, poms, megaphones and flags (5), execution of skills (5). |
| Crowd Leading | Crowd Leading Cheer | 20 | Game day material (5), crowd effectiveness (5), motion technique and crowd leading tools (5), execution of skills (5). |
| Crowd Leading | Overall impression | 10 | Leadership and connection with the crowd, genuine school spirit, clean transitions between components, collaboration with the band. |
| Fight Song and Band Chant | Band Chant | 20 | Visual appeal through level changes and ripples (5), whether the crowd was encouraged to participate (5), motion technique and tools (5), execution (5). |
| Fight Song and Band Chant | Fight Song | 20 | Visual appeal (5), effectiveness of skill incorporation (5), motion technique and tools (5), execution (5). |
| Fight Song and Band Chant | Overall impression | 10 | Same four criteria as the Crowd Leading sheet. |
Add it up and crowd effectiveness plus overall impression is worth roughly a third of the whole score, while skill execution is 20 points of 100. That ratio is the opposite of a competition routine, where our cheerleading score sheet breakdown shows building alone taking 52.94 percent. A squad that trains only for the competition mat is training for the wrong sheet on Game Day.
The structural rules are worth knowing before you choreograph. A Game Day routine runs Band Chant, then Crowd Leading, then Fight Song, with a maximum overall time of three minutes and a separate 30 second limit to get started after your introduction. Skill incorporation in the Fight Song is capped at three consecutive 8 counts. Voice-overs and words may not be recorded onto the music at all, which means the crowd response has to be real. We walk through the whole division in what Game Day cheer is and how it is scored.
How to write a chant a crowd will actually join.
Writing chants is a craft with rules, and the rules come from how crowds behave rather than from what sounds good in an empty gym. Five of them account for almost every chant that works.
Use words they already own
The school name, the mascot, the colors, defense, go. A crowd will not learn vocabulary at a game. This is why spell-outs are so reliable: everyone in the stands can already spell the school name, so there is nothing between hearing it and shouting it.
Leave a hole for them
Call and response works because the squad's line ends and there is an obvious empty beat. If your chant fills every count, the crowd has nowhere to go and will stay quiet. Write the gap first and the words second.
Two syllables per beat, maximum
A stadium of people is slow. Anything faster than two syllables a beat turns into mush by the third row. Say the chant at half the speed you rehearsed it, then check whether it still works, because half speed is what a crowd will give you.
Make it obvious where it loops
People join on the second or third pass, never the first. A chant needs a clear repeat so they can hear it once, catch it once and then say it. That is also why cutting a chant after one time through is wasted breath.
Match the motions to the words
Motions are how the far side of the stadium reads a chant it cannot hear. Sharp, big and literal wins: a punch on a hard consonant, a clean T on a held word. Our cheerleading motions page lists the dozen positions every sideline is built from.
Keep it clean and keep it about us
Chants aimed at the other team, the officials or an individual player are the fastest way to lose an administrator's support, and many state associations address it in their sportsmanship rules. It is also just weaker material. Crowds get louder for their own team than against anyone.
The problem is not writing chants. It is who knows which ones.
By week six of a football season a squad has picked up material at camp, learned some from a graduating senior, invented two at practice and quietly forgotten four. Half the roster knows the defense chant with the old motions. The freshmen have never seen the timeout cheer. Nobody wrote any of it down, so every game the captain calls only the five things she is sure everyone knows, and the other ten sit unused.
What a working sideline library looks like
One list, in situation order, with the counts and the motions written next to each piece and a note on who has learned it. Twelve to eighteen items covers a football season without repeating: six to eight situational chants, three or four timeout cheers, a spell-out, the band chant and the fight song. Review two of them at every practice on rotation, which costs about ten minutes and means nothing gets stale.
The part coaches underrate is tracking who actually knows what. It is the same problem as skill tracking, and it has the same fix: a per athlete record you can filter before you decide what to call on Friday. That is what the skill sign-off in our app does, and a chant is just a skill that happens to have words.
Slot the review into the session itself rather than treating it as extra. Varsity Spirit's published practice structure gives a cheer and chant block 30 minutes, which is more than most squads give it and roughly double what they give jumps. Our cheerleading practice plan lays the whole session out block by block, and the app for school cheer coaches keeps the roster, the schedule and the sign-offs in the same place.
What coaches ask about cheers and chants.
What is the difference between a cheer and a chant?
A chant is short, repetitive and built for the crowd to join in, usually two to four 8 counts repeated until the noise takes over. A cheer is longer, has words the crowd is not expected to say back, and is performed during a natural break such as a timeout or a quarter change. UCA scores them as separate things: a Band Chant has no stunting or tumbling in it, while the Crowd Leading Cheer can include skills.
What are some good cheers for cheerleading?
The ones that work are short, use words the crowd already knows, and give people an obvious place to answer. Spell-outs of the school name, two part call and response chants, and defense chants built on one repeated word all outperform clever material. A cheer nobody can join is a performance, not crowd leading, and on a Game Day score sheet it loses points for exactly that.
How long should a sideline cheer be?
A sideline chant should run two to four 8 counts and then repeat. Anything longer and the crowd loses the thread before it can join in. A full cheer performed in a timeout can run six to eight 8 counts because the game has stopped and you have the room. The limit in practice is the play clock, not the choreography.
What are the best cheer chants for football?
Football chants should be sorted by situation rather than by how they sound. You need one for offense with the ball, one for defense on a big down, one for a first down, one for a touchdown, one for a kickoff and one for the point after. Six chants that fit the moment beat twenty that do not, because the crowd joins when the words match what they are already watching.
What are good basketball cheers?
Basketball changes the rules because the gym is small, the clock rarely stops and free throws are silent. Keep chants to two 8 counts, use the crowd on defense and at the foul line for the opponent, and stay quiet while your own shooter is at the line. The best basketball material is short, loud and stops instantly, and the squad has to be able to cut it off mid chant.
How many cheers should a squad know?
Around twelve to eighteen pieces of material covers a full football season without repeating: six to eight situational chants, three or four timeout cheers, a spell-out, the fight song and a band chant. Most squads carry too many and know none of them cold. Judges and crowds both reward a small library performed sharply over a large one performed tentatively.
What is a spell-out cheer?
A spell-out is a cheer built around spelling the school or team name one letter at a time, usually with a motion assigned to each letter and the crowd shouting the letters back. It is the single most reliable piece of crowd leading material in the sport because the audience already knows the word, so there is nothing to learn before they can join in.
Can you do stunts during a chant?
At a game that is a state association and program decision. In UCA Game Day competition it is decided for you: no stunting or tumbling is permitted during the Band Chant, though jumps and kicks are allowed, while the Crowd Leading and Fight Song sections require skill incorporation if the division permits it, and a routine with no skills scores zero in those categories.
The rest of the sideline season.
Competition
What Game Day cheer is
The division structure, the three minute limit, the props rules and how the 100 points are split.
Motions
Cheer jumps and motions
The dozen arm motions every sideline is built from, plus the jumps that go into a Game Day band chant.
Practice
Cheerleading practice plan
Where the cheer and chant block sits in a session, and how long to give it against everything else.
Scoring
Cheerleading score sheet
How a competition routine is scored, and why building takes 52.94 percent of the points.
Building
Cheerleading stunts by level
What each level legally allows, which decides what you can put in a crowd leading section.
Product
The app for school cheer teams
Roster, game schedule, practice plans and per athlete sign-offs in one place for a school squad.
Game day, every day
Stop guessing which cheers your squad actually knows.
Keep the sideline library, the game schedule and the per athlete sign-offs in one place, so the captain can call anything on the list and know it will land.
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