Not much can be said about the Super Bowl that hasn’t already been stated and restated ad absurdum. For Indiana locals, this year’s event was even more hyped than usual, as the big game was held in Indianapolis. As is custom, many of the biggest names in sports and entertainment were in attendance: Drew Brees, Matthew Stafford, Jeff Gordon, Alec Baldwin, Carrie Underwood and Indiana Wesleyan University student Jenn Goethel (jr).

Goethel, a public relations major, spent the two weeks leading up to Super Bowl XLVI working for NFL Experience 2012. A company which puts on events surrounding the game for an inside look at all things Super Bowl, a football amusement park held at the Indiana Convention Center. Goethel’s job was an operations manager, supervising a specific section of the event, dealing with everything from directing patrons to cleaning up after sick children.

Needless to say, she has some interesting stories.

Jeremy Sharp: Were you at the game?

Jenn Goethel: Yeah, there was a huge group of people and we just wanted to see how far the passes could go, so we definitely got to the front section. People were loving it. Because hey, it’s the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl game, why not?

JS: I know you have some good stories …

JG: I met Mike Greenwald, the “Mike and Mike” guy, in the elevator. I asked him why he was here, not even knowing who he was. I get on the elevator and I just saw this guy taking a picture with people and I wondered who he was. And he looks at me, I’m in full work attire, and he goes, “So why are you here? You here for the big game?” And I look at him and I’m like, “Yeah, I’m kinda working it.” And he goes, “OK.” And I go, “You?” And he goes, “Yeah, I’m kind of working it too. I’m an ESPN sports analyst.” The next day I was talking to my dad and he goes, “You are an idiot.”

JS: How’s this job going to help you in your future?

JG: I’m getting so much out of it already. It really developed my communication skills because you had to be clear and concise with whoever you were talking to. Also, respecting the athletes and not being able to ask for an autograph and not being able to take pictures and keeping professional. That’s where the lines were drawn. Are you in it to meet the athletes or are you in it because you love it? And I discovered that I was in it just ‘cause I love it, not because I need the autograph. I mean yeah, I got some cool stories, but you know when they say, “Do what you love and love what you do,” I found the perfect job.

JS: Are you going to keep working there?

JG: What happens is, I can look at them and continue on for the next two Super Bowls. They kind of have a travelling team. Not everybody that works for them works for them all year round. We have the opportunity to keep travelling with them to New Orleans next year and New York City the year after, so hopefully we’ll see how everything pans out. But yeah, it’s looking like that might be in the works.

JS: One more cool story.

JG: It was close to closing time and all of the sudden I hear, “Somebody just got a bloody nose on the Lombardi Trophy, can we get somebody out here to clean it up?” The Lombardi Trophy is in a case, but there had already been a joke a few days before that somebody puked on the Lombardi, so I wasn’t sure if this was a joke. But from the panic ensuing in the manager’s voice, somebody had literally gotten a bloody nose on the Lombardi Trophy. So we can’t figure out if the kid ran into the trophy or what. People were freaking out because you can’t get blood on the Lombardi Trophy.

I was running late for our interview. But it was OK, because she was too. Katelyn Burkhardt (so) and I were set to meet at 4:30, with the stipulation that either of us may be running a couple minutes behind schedule.

It didn’t take long to figure out why someone like Katelyn would have a packed planner.

Katelyn is a member of the Indiana Wesleyan University cheerleading team, a team that practices two or three hours four times every week. That’s not even counting the time spent at basketball games. That’s before the team steps up its schedule to get ready for its national competition in April.

And they say cheerleaders aren’t athletes.

“Basketball games are just the surface of what we do. There’s so much more to it than that,” she told me as we chatted about everything from workout routines to the perception of cheerleaders in general. Even the perception of cheerleading at IWU could use some fine-tuning.

As we talked, it became evident that not only are cheerleaders at most levels fully aware of the stereotypes that surround the sport, but that they actively try to fight those labels.

Yes, I called it a sport. Cheerleaders practice, train and compete – the three main aspects of an athletic competition. The same logic that is used to boil it down to just yelling and raising your hands can be used to strip baseball to simply hitting a ball with a stick. The debate over whether or not competitive cheerleading is a sport is over, and the “gimme-an-I”s have it. Now it’s just a matter of how much respect the sport and those who participate in it are given.

Cheerleaders undeniably get a bad name. But most of that reputation comes from a “one bad apple spoils the bunch” type of situation. Opinions are formed and reinforced by watching teen dramas on television that are hardly an accurate representation of reality.

But the truth is that these young women and men aren’t those preppy cheerleaders you might have gone to high school with. They are athletes who work very hard at their craft and perform it very well. I’m not going to pass myself off as an expert in this field. When I go to basketball games, I can’t professionally evaluate the cheerleaders’ stunts or lifts. But I do know hard work when I see it. And what the IWU Wildcat cheerleaders are doing is definitely hard work.

Routines that the team does on gameday during timeouts may seem easy enough, but think of everything cheerleaders have to do to make it look effortless, just like those who play basketball, volleyball or any other IWU sport.

My interview with Katelyn didn’t last very long. We both had other things to do. After all, cheerleaders have a minimum G.P.A. requirement just like other athletes. Getting a look, however brief, into the life of a full-time student-athlete who spends so much time outside the classroom working on cheerleading made me appreciate what she and others like her do. It takes guts, skill, time-management and lots of hard work to pull off, but the IWU cheerleadering squad does it on a daily basis.

The Super Bowl is this Sunday. And it’s just less than two hours away from Indiana Wesleyan University. Big deal, right? If history has taught us anything, more than 100 million people will tune in to watch the two best teams in the NFL engage in a battle of epic proportions for football’s highest honor. Sure, some people claim to watch just for the $3 million commercials, but without the game, there are no commercials. From the students I’ve talked to here at IWU, I would guess about two-thirds of our campus will be tuned in along with everyone else.

So apparently, it is a big deal.

Of course, I’ll be on the edge of my seat with everyone else. And you should be too. Because at the very least, what Monday-morning class isn’t going to take at least a couple minutes to discuss the game, the inevitably underwhelming halftime show and yes, the commercials?

I’m as excited as anyone to watch this game. But all of the hype, even just at IWU, made me think about the level of excitement for this Sunday’s Patriots-Giants matchup versus that for Wildcat athletics. If the same number of IWU students who watch the Super Bowl would come to just one basketball game, Luckey Arena would need another addition of bleachers.

Admittedly, I’ve been banging this drum pretty hard this year, but it’s because of the great things the Wildcats have accomplished and will continue to do throughout the rest of each team’s respective schedule. I think that if we can get excited about a sporting event that has little impact on us or the people around us, shouldn’t we be even more enthusiastic about victories that would actually bring something to our own campus?

The Super Bowl will happen, and it will be big just like it always is. IWU students will half-heartedly attempt to do homework while watching the game (or is that just me?) and probably talk about it the next day at the proverbial water cooler (because no one really uses water coolers anymore). By mid-week, we will all have posted our favorite commercials from the night on Facebook, and aside from the stray fan of the winning team (cough, Patriots, cough), that will be the end of our Super Bowl XLVI experience.

But if the Wildcats won a historic championship, our own version of the Super Bowl, there would a party on IWU’s campus that lasted for weeks. At least, that’s how long I would be celebrating.

So yes, watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. It’s an American staple and will be a great game. But you know what you should do then? Go to the IWU men’s basketball game on Tuesday. Go to the women’s basketball game next Saturday. Heck, even go the to the indoor track and field event at IWU this Saturday. If you can find the heart to yell and scream at a TV showing people you’ve never met playing football, you can certainly yell and scream for your own IWU Wildcats.

And that’s a big deal.

As yet another NFL season comes to yet another exciting finish, it would be hard not to look back on the 2011 football year without thinking of one of the most interesting storylines in a long time: Tim Tebow.

Tebow’s story – or maybe more accurately, his message –  is one that you can be interested in whether you’re a football fan or not. Indiana Wesleyan University students from athletes to ministry majors and everything in between can find a good reason to chime in on his faith, which has proven more controversial than his play.

This 6-foot-3 quarterback from Florida has been making headlines ever since the Denver Broncos drafted him in 2010, if for nothing else than the way he starts interviews and press conferences.

“First, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

And the way he ends them.

“God bless.”

Tebow’s outspoken nature regarding his Christian faith has drawn both praise and criticism from all around. While he is far from the first professional athlete who believes there is a higher purpose for his play, Tebow’s spirituality, coupled with his success, has made him the poster boy for the issue of God in sports.

Until Tebow began dropping to one knee and praying in the middle of games (now called “Tebowing”), God and sports didn’t seem to have much more in common than some athletes pointing skyward when they scored. But now, questions of the Almighty in athletics run as rampant as shoe deals.

It’s a good question to bring up, and an interesting one at that, especially in the context of sports at an evangelical Christian university like IWU. It’s fascinating to listen to the differences between the way athletes here talk and those who don’t view sports in that light. But at the same time, in talking with many people on both sides of that fence, those differences aren’t as great as you might think.

One of the greatest debates about this issue isn’t whether or not God has a place in sports, but if He interferes with them. Does one person’s spiritual belief give him or her an advantage over an atheist? Or an agnostic? Does IWU hold an advantage on the field over non-Christian schools?

Not if you ask Tebow, or many other Christian athletes.

While there are bound to be exceptions, the overwhelming concept is not that God helps someone be a better player, but that He gives them something extra to play for. It’s more about the motivation than anything else.

The same goes for most of the people I’ve talked to on the subject. Believing in a higher power merely provides a higher purpose for playing a game, whether that means being a witness or just using one’s talents for God through athletics.

It would be almost crazy to think the Creator of the universe watches “Monday Night Football”and benevolently or vengefully determines which way the ball bounces (depending on which team you cheer for). If that were the case, teams would scout talent based on spirituality rather than, well … talent. Sports just aren’t interesting in a world like that.

Some athletes use family to motivate them to perform well, some do it for the money, the fame, a sense of accomplishment, or simply because it’s what they’re good at. Some do it because they believe it’s for a higher calling. I believe it doesn’t matter what you use to motivate yourself for a game, as long as it works for you. Whether God is a part of that or not shouldn’t bother anyone. In other words, Tebow will continue Tebowing, but he’ll just call it prayer.