Guys In Cheer: Senior Otto Lutes is the only guy on East’s cheer team

A sea of cheerleaders with blue-and-black skirts and high ponytails with bows run out onto the gym floor carrying large, blue cheer mats — except for the one in shorts: senior Otto Lutes.

Lutes is the only male cheerleader on Easts cheerleading team.

“I’ve always done gymnastics,” Lutes said. “And then the gymnastics team was only a girl’s team. So, I tried out for cheer because it’s in between, and I just stuck with it.”

Lutes has been cheering since his freshman year, and has always been the only guy. According to Lutes,he has really enjoyed being on the team, making friends and doing the sport he enjoys.  

“Not a lot of teams have that,” Lutes said. “ I feel like I’ve really grown and met a lot of new people on the team.”

Otto’s teammate and senior Kylie Chaplin has known him since third grade. Both of them went to Corinth and have been close friends for years.

Chaplin has been doing gymnastics and cheerleading since sixth grade, where she’s cheered alongside Lutes, watching him do stunts, practice and compete.

“He’s also a back spot,” Chaplin said. “It’s really fun because he’s the muscle of their stunt. His groups are always really good because he’s obviously the strongest, but it’s  really fun because sometimes we get to base together and like everyone loves to fly on us because we’re the strongest people.”

Because of Lutes, East competes in a co-ed category of cheer competitions. It’s common for East to be competing against teams made up of mostly boys, according to both Lutes and Chaplin.

However, no matter how many boys are in the general sport, Lutes’s being the only boy on the team at East could be affecting the treatment he gets from his peers. While Lutes says he is treated the same as everyone else, Chaplin has a slightly different view.

“I feel like no one really treats him differently,” Chaplin said. “But something that I’ve always just kind of noticed is everyone refers to us as girls whenever we’re at a dinner or something, everyone’s talking to us and they refer to us as girls. And Otto’s just kind of sitting there and it’s something that he’s probably used to by now, but it’s something they also had to get used to knowing that now, there’s a guy on the team.”

But Otto might be joined by other boys soon as cheer is hosting a bring a boy to practice at the end of this month according to Chaplin, in an attempt to recruit more boys. Otto’s advice for others is to try out even if they are uncertain.
“If people are being mean about it, it’s about you and don’t focus on what other people have to say,” Lutes said. “Do what you want to do.”