ESCONDIDO – When people think of cheerleaders, they usually envision bubbly high school girls with pompoms shouting “We've got the spirit!” or “Turn on the red machine!”

That's what Cody Purcell always thought.

But the recent Escondido High graduate changed his tune two years ago after being introduced to the SoCal Elite Outlaws and the world of competitive cheer.

“It was completely different than I thought,” said Purcell, who's spent the past two years as a member of the highly decorated squad, which is based in Poway. “It's a cheerleader's job to make the really hard stuff look really easy. It's definitely very difficult, and people don't recognize that.”

Outlaws coach Andrew Price approached Purcell while Price was teaching gymnastics at the Palomar YMCA. Purcell – then 16 – had been doing gymnastics since he was 9 years old.

“He was like, 'You should try this out,' ” Purcell said. “My first response was like, 'I don't know, cheerleading?' ”

But soon after visiting the Poway gym, Purcell was convinced. Purcell's father, Ray, was a different story.

Ray, who played hockey, baseball and soccer while growing up in Massachusetts, was skeptical of his son's new hobby.

“I was like, 'My boy ain't gonna be a cheerleader,' ” he said. “That is, until I saw it. You have to be pretty stout to do what he does.

“If he loved it, then we loved him doing it.”

Cody was born in San Diego, but the family moved to Maryland when he was 9, which is when his gymnastics career began. The youngster placed eighth in the state of Maryland for his age level.

But when the Purcells returned to San Diego County four years later, they couldn't find a place for Cody to pursue his sport.

“It's so expensive,” Ray said. “We just couldn't justify spending that much money.”

The Outlaws club was a more reasonable outlet for Cody's talents. And the Escondido resident quickly realized he was part of something special. SoCal Elite never lost a competition in California during Cody's two-year tenure with the club.

Earlier this year, Cody and the Outlaws won the USA Nationals in Anaheim, which punched their ticket to the World Championships in Orlando this April, where the Outlaws placed fourth out of 60 teams from all over the globe.

“I like winning,” Cody said. “We're pretty well-known around California and the country. It's pretty cool.”

Cody was sold on cheerleading, but selling his friends on the sport was a little more difficult.

“My buddies joke around with me,” he said.

But the joking stopped once Cody's chums visited one of his competitions. Cody is one of only four boys on a team that includes 32 high-school-age girls.

“They're like, 'You're so lucky,' ” he said. “All the girls are so fit.”

The Outlaws' perennial success is no accident. Cody said the team practices as much as 20 hours a week, which is more than most high school football teams.

“Throughout the years, I saw that team more than I saw my family,” he said. “You have to have mental and physical strength. Flipping around and twisting your body can get scary. You have to stay focused or else it will show on the competition floor.”

Cody's competitive cheering days ended after Orlando. The 18-year-old, who had a 4.3 grade point average and was ranked 17th out of his graduating class of 543, plans to pursue an engineering degree after a two-year stint at Palomar College.

Although he doesn't intend to cheer at the college level, Cody said he's gained a great respect for a sport he once viewed as nothing more than girls shouting and shaking pompoms.

“It's the hardest sport I've ever done, and I've done almost every sport I can think of,” he said. “I found my niche at cheer. I'm going to miss it.”

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