The life of Georgetown's lone male cheerleader

	While Hoya fans identify Cusimano as the guy who does the flag run before each home game, Villanova fans see him as the guy who nearly took out Mike Nardi with the flag. Photo courtesy of Bernard Rick Cusimano IV

By Clare Kathleen Malone

In between bites of his iceberg lettuce salad, Eric Cusimano details the ins and outs of his life as the sole male member of Georgetown's cheerleading squad. Sporting khakis, a white baseball hat and black fleece, Cusimano is the picture of the Joe Hoya stereotype; at a superficial glance, you might guess that his extracurricular activities were confined to intramural basketball and slap bag. Instead, the freshman from Louisiana devotes his spare time to performing acrobatic feats, leading frenzied cheers and getting up close and personal with the smiling, be-ribboned girls ESPN cameramen love to spotlight.

In the heat of a basketball game Cusimano's polished dinner mannerisms melt away; the khakis are replaced by full cheering raiment -- navy pants and shirt with "Hoyas" emblazoned across the chest -- and he exudes an unmistakable intensity striding up and down the baseline as he fiercely leads cheers with the aide of an old-fashioned megaphone.

Cusimano is no newcomer to the cheerleading arena, however. His stepmother coaches his high school squad and in his senior year, when the team was lacking in numbers, she asked him to cheer. After letting the idea "sizzle for a few days," Cusimano says he decided to help them out. He's been at it ever since, even emailing Georgetown's coach prior to the school year to discuss his possible involvement on the collegiate level.

Earlier this month Cusimano got a taste of the big time as he, along with fellow dewy-eyed Hoya newcomers DaJuan Summers, Jeremiah Rivers and Vernon Macklin dazzled beneath the lights of Madison Square Garden at the Big East tournament. The freshman says that he underestimated the excitement of play in Big Apple. Despite the pressures of dueling TV timeout performances and the intimidating intensity of more experienced squads such as the Touchdown Jesus-inspired "Gold Squad" of Notre Dame, he insists that Georgetown cheerleading "held our own." And though Bring It On made the world think otherwise, Cusimano insists that relations between the squads were civil and that the Hoyas stuck to a no-trash-talk policy throughout the tournament.

Most Hoyas basketball fans could identify Cusimano as the guy who performs the flag run before every home game, a ritual that he relishes. White court shoes flashing, he emerges from the tunnel and sprints onto the floor, straight-backed and tight-lipped as he holds the 20-foot Georgetown flag aloft, stopping at center court to swing the standard dramatically before exiting.

The job of flag-bearer is not without its hazards, however, as Cusimano discovered during warm-ups at the Villanova game earlier this season. While performing his usual half-court routine, Villanova guard Mike Nardi became enraged with Cusimano after he appeared to be hit with the flag while going for a ball. Cusimano denies that he struck the 6-foot-2 senior, but admits that he was a little intimidated by Nardi's aggressive reaction to the incident. "I apologized after the game in the tunnel" Cusimano says, "but I don't know if he heard."