The pain of performance

Cheerleaders facing more risks - and injuries

BY REBECCA JONES

STAFF WRITER

Lahser cheerleaders
Jasmine Jackson, Jacqueline Woods and Tierra Hunter boost Liz Miles during a gametime stunt.

As cheerleaders jumped
from the sidelines to a gymnastic, competitive sport of its own in the past
decade, cheerleaders took more risks and got hurt, local coaches confirm.

A study released
earlier this week by the journal Pediatrics reports that cheerleading
injuries -- mostly strains and sprains -- doubled in the past 13 years.

"I have had a lot
more injuries," said Andover
coach Nissa Wimberley, who suffers from a torn knee
ligament herself. "With advanced stunting, the girls are being pushed a
lot harder."

Troy High Colts
cheerleaders rev up some spirit in a 2004 parade. Coaches say that cheerleading
is becoming increasingly difficult -- and dangerous -- as the performance bar
is raised.

Troy High Varsity
cheerleaders Emily Badhorn and Dawana
Donaldson celebrate a first place victory at the Wildcats Competitive Cheer
Invitational in 2004. Training helps to minimize the risks involved in such
events, say coaches.

Troy High coach Beth
Campbell reports more ankle and knee injuries from stunts and jumping, and
wrist injuries from tumbling.

Cheerleaders might
also get black eyes or broken noses from misplaced elbows or kicks during
practice -- or worse, said longtime West Bloomfield
coach Cindy Tyzo, a cheerleading safety
practitioner.

At Lahser years ago, a
girl practicing a round-off, back handspring in a small room hit a wall and
suffered a seizure, but she has recovered, said Lahser High School
coach Permella Harris. And an Andover cheerleader faced near danger when
teammates tossed her high enough in the air that her ponytail hit the gym
fan.

"If the area
isn't conducive to what you want to practice, don't do it," said Tyzo. Cheer teams don't always get prime practice space,
she said.

Wimberley has
requested the use of mats on the gym floor during basketball games. "I
feel so unsafe on the wood," she said. "We had one girl fall and
injure her tailbone on the gym floor."

Rare, but serious,
injuries also occur.

In May, 2003, a Livonia eighth-grader
landed on her neck after a failed back flip during tryouts. She suffered a
severe spinal cord injury that left her quadriplegic and dependent on a
ventilator.

Coaches can cut down
on injuries by receiving proper training themselves, and by leading athletes
into advanced skills gradually, said Campbell, a six-year coach whose team
performs one-legged stunts and twisting movements -- among the most difficult
moves.

FILE PHOTO

These Southfield-Lathrup High
School cheerleaders are cheering on the
Chargers in the traditional way, but cheerleading has become an increasingly
competitive -- and dangerous -- sport.

In Michigan, cheerleaders are not allowed to
stack more than two levels high.

Tyzo and Terri Cassels Cooper, owner of the Bloomfield Township-based
Cheer! Michigan,
point to a high turnover in coaching as a problem.

"The vast
majority of coaches in Michigan
and across the country are high school coaches who are older now," Cooper
said. Both the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Advisors and
Cheer! Michigan
offer coaching clinics.

Cheerleading has
changed.

"The stunts and
the gymnastics are a lot different than 10 years ago," said Harris, who
cheered for Royal Oak's Shrine High School
and graduated in 1987. "We were just doing really simple things."

When the Michigan High
School Athletic Association took over cheerleading as a competitive sport in
1994, stunts got tougher.

"I think we are
simply asking too much of these young athletes," said Cooper. "We
keep raising the bar ... It's an interesting and strange time to be involved
in cheerleading."

Now, teams want to do
cool, high-scoring movements like the scorpion (a one-legged stand) and the
basket toss (three cheerleaders toss a participant in the air and catch her).

"If you don't
have the elite stunts, you just don't win," Wimberley said.

Teams may watch a
private all-star cheer team and want to mimic their moves, Cooper said.
"They aren't ready for it. They just think it looks cool."

Oxford dad Bill Parker's two daughters both
got hurt during stunts. One broke four bones in her face. The other banged
heads while spotting a teammate and had to wear a neck brace for weeks.

"It was mostly
precautionary, but it was scary when the phone call came that an ambulance
was on the way to school," he said. But, Parker doesn't place blame.
"I have a lot of respect for cheerleading these days. It kind of goes
with the territory. It's definitely a sport now."

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Originally published January 12, 2006