Well, it appears that wheedling and whining works (or that begging is beneficial, or that entreating is efficacious).
 
After receiving only two entries in the peculiar-cheerleaders competition, your genial host (who thought it was an especially easy contest) felt it behooved him to acknowledge his problem and extend the deadline an extra week. The result was the most entries ever!
 
And many of the submitters noted that it was a particularly difficult contest.  Your genial host is re-evaluating his evaluating.

Meanwhile, here are what he feels are the best entries. Instead of the usual five, there are six: One entrant had two that your genial host simply couldn't decide between. (Even if he had to use a preposition to end his sentence with.) Your task is to determine, by voting at the word "here" below, which of the six wins the unbelievably valuable MinnPost T-shirt.
 
A reminder: The challenge was to add to the example set by the Florida Marlins, who recently added a squad of overweight male cheerleaders, a jiggly unit that they're calling the Manatees. Your genial host wondered what other teams — major, minor or imagined — might put forth squads of "unusual" cheerleaders.
 
Strippers leading cheers for a coffeehouse team:
The Starbucks Bare-istas
— Charles Carlin
 
Some of those overweight guys from the Manatees, cheering for a team from southwest Minnesota:
The Worthingtons o' Fun
— Michael Norman
 
A poker-faced group cheering for the team from the Minnesota Taxpayers League:
The Taxes Hold'ems
— Craig Westover
 
A squad of dim-witted skinny men cheering for the Edmonton hockey team:
The Oilers Dip Sticks
— Marc Kotsonas
 
And these two from Tom Olson:
 
Male cheerleaders from a western Wisconsin city wearing miniskirts: The LaCrosse Dressers
 
Short-statured French artists cheering for teams from Minnesota's Lake Superior port city:
The Duluth Lautrecs
 
Cast your vote for the winner by clicking here. Voting ends at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 10. On Monday, April 14, we'll announce the winner of that strangely priceless MinnPost T-shirt — and a new (and maybe easier) competition.