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The noise of more than 23,000 screaming Grizzly fans engulfs the maroon-and-silver-laden athletes as they run across the turf of Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The boom of the cannon sends a ripple of adrenaline through their bodies. Jumping and waving their arms, they motion for the crowd to get louder. The crowd responds.

Then the football team runs onto the field.

The University of Montana cheerleading squad takes pride in its role in Grizzly athletics. Aside from cheering at numerous athletic events, the squad is becoming more competitive and is trying to bolster the sport in the Northwest. The squad's main aim, however, still is to excite the crowd.

Squad co-captain Brandy Cheff said there's no feeling like getting the crowd pumped up at a packed football game.

"You can't even explain the feeling you have when there's over 23,000 people cheering with you," Cheff said. "Every game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium is like the first. I love it."

Cheff, a 22-year-old senior majoring in communications, is one of 12 teammates on the cheerleading squad, which consists of six women and six men. Cheff is the female captain and senior Danny Wedul, who is majoring in computer science, math and physics, is the male captain.

Cheerleading coach Hollis Lusse and Cheer and Dance Program Director Christie Anderson both said they would like to help bring more prominence to the sport of cheerleading here in Montana.

"Cheerleading in the Northwest is nothing like in other places in the nation, especially the South," Anderson said. "Schools like Kentucky recruit girls and guys from really young ages."

Anderson said cheerleading is experiencing some growth in the Northwest, with youth programs sprouting up across the area. UM junior cheerleader Steven Cook said he's glad to see these programs, but Montana and other regional states don't compare with other states like California, his home state.

"There's cheerleaders at every high school down there with guys and girls who really get into it," Cook said. "It hasn't evolved up here yet."

Lusse said the squad has been doing its best to spark some growth in Montana cheerleading by promoting the sport in high schools, before students come to college. Lusse and her squad put on the high school cheerleading state championships last year, which UM used as a recruiting opportunity.

Wedul said another big step in the development of the sport came eight years ago when Athletic Director Wayne Hogan brought his knowledge of Division I cheerleading programs from Florida State to the UM campus.

"At the time there were 23 girls and three guys," Wedul explained. "(Hogan) basically said that Florida State and other big schools have six guys and six girls on the regular squads. He asked, 'What do we need to do to be able to accomplish that?' Somebody said, 'Money.'"

Now the 12 squad members get individual $500 scholarship stipends each semester to go toward school. It might not be a lot, Lusse said, but it's definitely a start. All of the University's hard work appears to be paying off, which the squad showed at a Universal Cheerleaders Association competition in August.

"We beat some big schools like the University of Washington, University of Wyoming and Washington State," Lusse said. "I think that was the most successful competition we've ever had."

Lusse brings a tradition of Griz cheerleading to the coaching position. She cheered at UM from 1997 to 2001 and her mother was a cheerleader for the Griz in the 1960s.

While Lusse and most of the other women bring experience to the Grizzlies, none of the guys except for Wedul had ever been cheerleaders before joining Montana's squad. Dan Cain, a senior in exercise science and pre-medical science, said squad members approached him in the Rec Center last year with the idea of being a cheerleader because of his size and strength.

Cain, who played football in high school, thought, "Why not?" The next thing he knew, he was throwing girls up in the air as well as throwing up 345 pounds on the bench press.

Cain and Cook both said they occasionally hear rude comments about being male cheerleaders, but it is very limited.

"I got teased a little at first," Cain said. "It was usually my friends, but some other people would say things, too. But it's not a lot."

"We're still athletes and we still work our asses off," Cain said.

The team also has six alternate girls who come to Monday's practice every week to try to qualify for alternate of the week. The alternate practices the rest of the week with the squad and is the first in line to cheer in place of an injured or sick girl. There are no alternate males due to a lack of turnout.

The squad members practice for three days a week with each practice lasting two hours. That doesn't include the mandatory conditioning on Monday and gymnastics on Tuesday, Anderson said. There is also an optional gymnastics workout on Wednesday and cheerleaders condition on their own on top of all of that.

"It's so much work, but it's worth it," Cheff said. "You have to have the heart for it. We all just have a passion for it."