At the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, there’s the show. And then there’s “The Show.”

As much as conference organizers and Baltimore officials are anticipating a strong turnout for this week’s 22 games at CFG Bank Arena, a portion of that audience will be looking forward to watching the 12 historically Black colleges and universities’ cheerleading squads dance, chant and “Stomp-N-Shake” during the games.

“Over the years, we have gained the same exact respect as the other teams,” said NeSheila C. Washington, coach of the Winston-Salem State cheerleading team called “Powerhouse Red and White.” “You will find that within the crowd, you will have people who are there for the basketball games, you will have people who are there for the music from the bands, and then you will have a large part of the crowd there to see the cheerleaders.”

How popular is cheerleading in the CIAA? A section of the Division II conference’s Wikipedia page is devoted to the cheerleading squads. Last year, Winston-Salem State made an appearance on the daytime talk show “The Real” and opened pop artist Ciara’s music video “Jump.”

Kinte’Sha Hopkins-Bailey, a 21-year-old senior from York, Pennsylvania, who is studying criminal justice and cheers for Lincoln’s “Fe Fe’s” squad, said they understand the entertainment value they provide.

“We’re a show, and we put on a show for the fans,” she said. “Compared to a regular cheer, our ‘Stomp-N-Shake’ cheers are definitely different from what people are used to seeing, and we definitely put on a show for the crowd.”

Unlike traditional forms of cheerleading, “Stomp-N-Shake” emphasizes a group performance of choreographed moves that include percussive foot-stomping, rhythmic hand-clapping and slow and/or fast hip-shaking.

They are complemented by squad members engaging in cheers and chants in unison.

Organizing routines for the timeouts and halftimes during games or the “Super Saturday” exhibition during the CIAA Tournament takes effort and commitment. Destiny Martin, a 23-year-old dance captain at Winston-Salem State who is pursuing a master’s in business, said the team has been practicing Monday through Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. with an occasional Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. since Christmas break.

The pressure to avoid a mistake can be intense.

“You have to execute because you only get one time to do it,” said Elizabeth City State cheerleader Necole Credle, a 21-year-old senior from Chesapeake, Virginia, studying sports management. “If you call a cheer during a game and you mess up, you have another game to get it right. But this is a one-time thing, and you’ve got a one-time performance to do. So you’ve got to finish and give it your all.”

Because there is no official competition where a winner is declared, the cheerleading squads seek to elicit crowd reaction by participating in dance-offs during timeouts and halftimes. In the past, some teams taunted opponents with their choice of words.

William Johnson, Winston-Salem State’s head captain, recalled a time when a rival mocked the “Powerhouse Red and White” signature closing phrase of “Lights Out!” by yelling, “Your power is out!”

“I know a lot of people did not take kindly to that,” he said, declining to name the rival. “… Just seeing that back-and-forth kind of thing, it was interesting.”

But times have changed, and the coaches have tried to deflate any tension. During a recent meeting, they agreed to not cross the half-court line during timeouts and halftime. Elizabeth City State’s Sylvia Carver, who coaches the “D’Lytes,” said she and her peers decided to strengthen the cheerleaders’ relationships by organizing a banquet for them on Monday at Phillips Seafood.

“We just decided as coaches that we were going to throw our own banquet and recognize the hard work that our men and women have been doing,” she said.

Virginia Union coach Danielle Johnson said she goes a step further by reminding members of the “Rah Rah’s” of their responsibility as role models.

“At the end of the day, both teams are there to cheer their squads on to victory,” she said. “So we’re supposed to be the fun and energetic people, not the mean people.”

Added Hopkins-Bailey, the Lincoln cheerleader: “For us, we’re part of the CIAA family. So we’re more trying to uplift each other rather than argue about who won a dance battle or a cheer battle.”

Cheerleading in the CIAA has a devoted following. Martin has a name, image and likeness deal until December as an ambassador for clothing manufacturer Champion. Lincoln coach Imani Milliones-Roman said the team’s Instagram account has grown from 250 to 25,000 followers in a span of two years. Johnson, the Virginia Union coach, said she has received an average of 25 emails and direct messages per month from young women and men interested in trying out for the squad.

That doesn’t mean that the sport is treated as an equal to basketball or football, the revenue-generating programs for their respective schools. But where the cheerleaders in the past had to buy their own uniforms, many universities give the squads annual budgets. Carver, the Elizabeth City State coach, said even the athletic trainers have been paying more attention to the cheerleaders’ health.

Washington, the Winston-Salem State coach who cheered from 1997 to 2001, said the support for cheerleading has improved.

“I would say that programs are respected better now than we were before,” she said. “We are looked at as a sport, and we are given the same accommodations as any other sport at our university. We still fundraise, but for the most part, we get a great amount of support from our administration.”

Because there is no champion that is crowned, the cheerleading teams aim to perform well before their fans and detractors alike. Johnson, the Virginia Union coach who will make her coaching debut at this week’s CIAA Tournament, said her objective is clear.

“My main thing is making memories for my kids,” she said. “When you finish college, it’s truly, ‘Welcome to the adult world.’ You’re going to be working, you’re going to be parenting, and then it’s work, parenting and repeat. I still look at them as kids and tell them, ‘Live your life to the fullest, especially in college.’ ”

Speaking of memories, Martin said one of her fondest involves the Winston-Salem State men capturing the CIAA Tournament championship in 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the country. She said the team repeating that path in her final year as a cheerleader would be momentous.

“If I could start with a win and end with a win, that would mean a lot to me,” she said.