Here is my attempt to start putting it together. Here are the results from the 2024 UCA College Nationals.

D1A All Girl Results

1. Western Kentucky University
2. The University of Oklahoma
3. University of Alabama
4. UAB
5. University of Mississippi
6. San Diego State University
7. Indiana University

D1A Cheer Finals

1. The University of South Florida
2. The University of Kentucky
3. The Ohio State University
4. The University of Central Florida
5. The University of Oklahoma
6. The University of Alabama
7. Western Kentucky University
8. The University of Tennessee
9. The University of Louisiana Lafayette
10. Liberty University
11. The University of Toledo

Division 1 Cheer Finals

1. Morehead State University
2. University of West Georgia
3. Pittsburgh State University
4. University of Delaware

Open Coed Cheer Finals

1. Iowa Western Community College
2. Shelton State Community College
3. Jones College

Small Coed Division 1A Cheer Finals

1. Florida State University
2. Bowling Green State University
3. The University of Minnesota
4. Purdue University
5. The University of Memphis
6. Troy University
7. Ball State University

Open All Girl Finals

1. Pearl River Community College
2. Widener University
3. Rowan University
4. Webber International University
5. The College of New Jersey
6. University of Pikeville
7. Wallace State College
8. Nassau Community

Small Coed Division 1 Finals

1. Morehead State University
2. Eastern Kentucky University
3. Southeastern Louisiana University
4. Austin Peay State University
5. Belmont University
6. Providence College

All Girl Division 1 Cheer Finals

1. Morehead State University
2. The University of West Georgia
3. Sacred Heart University
4. The University of Delaware
5. The University of Rhode Island
6. Towson University
7. Monmouth University
8. Villanova University

Open Small Coed Cheer Finals

1. Wilmington University
2. Drury University
3. Northwest Mississippi Community College
4. University of Southern Indiana
5. Northwest Missouri State University
6. Itawamba Community College

“V” for Villanova, “V” for Victory
“B” for Blue and “W” for White

For the Blue and the White we will fight!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Fight for Villanova, Fight for Victory

For we’re out to win the fray;
Villanova leads the way,
With a capital “V” for Victory.

Vill-a-no-va, V-I-L-L-A-N-O-V-A
“V” for Vic-tor-y, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y
It’s a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye,
and a “V” for a V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

“V” for Villanova, “V” for Victory
“B” for Blue and “W” for White

For the Blue and the White we will fight!
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Fight for Villanova, Fight for Victory

For we’re out to beat the foe
Show the en-e-my we know
how to win with a “V” for Victory.

This isn’t included in the 538 study because it wasn’t part of the schools they selected. Regardless, I’ve decided to post the values for the CSV that they are using:

A couple of additional notes:

• BPM is a guess by someone who knows better than me.
• Information obtained for this was sourced from several places and may not be completely accurate. Information is provided to the best of my abilities.

That being said, I want to talk about the way the competition is run and why (sorry) I didn’t really enjoy the competition. I enjoyed my experience with my teammates, who are AWESOME! but the competition was lack luster for me. Here are some reasons why:

1. Lack of consideration for crossovers. Rebel’s brought two level six teams to compete at this competition. The reason is because we had more than enough people to fill one team, so we have two. A coed and an all girl. While it’s great to have two teams, we don’t have enough (yet) to fill two completely separate teams. Not to mention the fact that injuries throughout the season has caused the need for cross overs. For those of you who don’t know what a cross over is, it’s someone who competes on more than one team for the same gym. Usually I frown on this process, but in our case it was absolutely necessary to do it.

   When we competed here, our teams almost piggy backed each other. What this means is that we didn’t get to go through the correct warm up for our second team, because during our time no the first mat, we had people on the competition floor with our other team. I feel like this really put our coed team (which went second) at a disadvantage. This was really not cool.

2. Long and boring awards. The Jamz staff have some amazing skills. And while the awards were going on, they were showing off, in a good way. There was a ton of tumbling and some very fun stunting. One guy (famous John) even through a couple double tucks and attempted a double punch front. Despite the entertainment, the awards dragged on. I sat through two sessions of awards. They had the same musical act perform. Once they started announcing the awards, the distractions on stage took away from the announcer and while the energy was high, it was unsustainable and over time faded.

3. Boring back drop. Some companies go all out with their stage presentation. UCA goes crazy. Jamz did a very simple back drop, which was all black just with some traditional lights. While normally I feel that it is a good thing to let the routines stand out, I felt that their approach was too little. I don’t need a ton of flash and smoke (in fact, I hate smoke, it makes the air harder to breath), I do like a little color. The result was a lack of excitement. The whole hall felt overly dark.

Rebels is, at this point, a three time national champion at the competition so I have a hard time believing we won’t return next year, but I’m hoping that Jamz will fix some things before that competition. We’ll see next year.

Well, good news, it’s coming home. I recently checked it’s availability on GoDaddy and was able to procure it relatively inexpensively. I will do my best to put something up there soon.

This is just the hard numbers and I’ve gone a little soft on the miles and gas price. The point, however, is still relatively strong: I spent nearly $2,000.00 no an open team last year. I had a good time, but that is really expensive, so I’ve decided not to cheer again next year while I try to get my finances in order.

I’d also like to list some of the pros and cons of my experience at CheerGyms.com so that others can decide if it is the correct place for them:

Pros

• Great History – CheerGyms.com has been around for many years and is a staple in the local cheerleading community. Even those programs that are run by other coaches normally have some connection back to CheerGyms.
• Great Administrators – My experience with the administrators of the program was great. Morton and Danny are the co-owners of the gym and all my experiences with them were very positive. They are strong leaders and GREAT coaches
• Great Facility – CheerGyms have two gyms, one in San Jose and one in Concord. They are both relatively large facilities as cheerleading space in the bay area goes. Their gym in Concord is the biggest gym I’ve been to within comfortable driving distance. Both gyms have full cheerleading floors with relatively high ceilings. Both gyms have at least one tumble track and a crash mat.
• Good Teammates – Throughout the year we had our disagreements, but in general the team was full of good people. I wasn’t best friends with everyone, but I felt that everyone cared about the program, and I was very excited to be a part of it.

Cons

• Lack of Skill Practice – This is part of the way that CheerGyms work, but they don’t get a chance to factor in skill growth into practice. We only met for about 2 hours a week, so this is acceptable, but it is really something I enjoy doing.
• Lack of Consistent Leadership at Practice – Throughout the year, we shifted coaches. It was not entirely avoidable as our head coach had his hip replaced, but still it would have been good to have a strong coaching experience. I do not feel I had one. I also think that this doesn’t persist to other teams at the gym, I think it is unique to the college team.
• No Coed Nature – this team is very small coed, despite the fact that we had 7 to 9 guys on the team. Guys did not do any direct toss stunts. While this is the nature of the business of most teams in the area, it was in stark contrast to what I was looking for.
• Lack of Team Togetherness – I never really felt part of the team. There did not appear to be too much team bonding and it made for a very disjoint feeling. This is something I’ve had on my previous All Star teams and I missed it sorely. Again, I think this is unique to the College team due to the distances that people live from the gym, and how often practices are.
• Distance – This one isn’t really the gyms fault, but mine for joining the gym. It was way too far for me. Nearly an hour every sunday morning each way. This was just too much.

All of that measured, I’m glad I had an opportunity to be a part of that program. I wish them all the best, but for me it just doesn’t work.

One of the articles is about Cheer Parents,

The Ups and Downs of a Cheerleading Coach: Those Crazy CHEER PARENTS.

This Article is particularly interesting to me because of one quote:

As a coach, we make decisions based on what is best for the team. Parents make decisions based on what they feel is best for their child. As a parent myself, I understand that sometimes a parent’s love overrules logic or reason.

This is very true. Now, some parents think outside the benefit for their own child, but that is hard. In the end we always protect what is best for our family.

What I think is sad, is that often times the two conflict. Often times what is best for the team is not what is best for you. Working as coach and convincing someone to do something that might not be best for them is very hard. Add on the fact that now parents will take the side of the kid and it makes a coaches life very difficult.

This is the part of coaching that they don’t teach you while you cheer. I learned tons of technique, tons of tips and tricks, but this is a skill I was never taught. I’m still working on handling these items, and if you look at my last year of coaching, this could really be my largest struggle, but I feel I’m making progress. This post provides a couple of suggestions for handling this, worth the read if your a coach.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=6458798771655030241&hl=en&fs=true

So, I’ve made a decision, and this time I’m going to try to keep to it. I’m going to retire from cheering myself. I’m still going to coach. I don’t think I’ll ever be removed from the sport completely, but for now I’m a coach and not a cheerleader. I feel I can be a better coach then cheerleader as this point. If it ever comes back to the point where I feel in shape enough to cheer and find a team convenient enough to be on, I’ll revisit it. For now, however, stick a fork in me, I’m done.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3503000&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Partial Sampler 2006 from Zachary Cohen on Vimeo.

I have become friendly with the owner of Rebel’s Elite. I saw her the other week at a competition and was asking her if there was any way I could help coach. I miss all star coaching. Much less responsibility, much more effort into the actual coaching. I like having my own team, but it is easier to just coach. Anyway, she mentioned she could use some help with her College program that met on Mondays and Wednesday nights. So, Wednesday night I found her new gym and showed up to help out a bit (late, but at least I came).

I walk in the gym, and am shy. That is the way I always am with a new program. You have to be careful with your first comment. You have to prove to the kids that you know what you’re talking about. One of the girls in the front started looking at me funny.

This Girl: I know you!
Me: Really?
This Girl: You’re from the east coast, aren’t you?
Me: Yeah, I’m from Connecticut. Moved out here in February.
This Girl: I met you in Providence last year, my name is Jelica.
Me: Wow, yeah, I remember that!

Anyway, the point of the story. I met this girl one night in Providence last February. Actually, it was the weekend before I moved out to California. She was able to remember my face and pick me out. We moved across the country, ended up in different towns but ran into each other.

The interesting connection is the cheerleading, people who are committed to the sport tend to meet up. All the gym owners I know seem to know each other. Its interesting how little you really have to do in the field to get connected, but once you are, you become intertwined in this web.

• The fact that I’m nearly 4 years older than the last time I took the test
• The fact that I now run my own team, and have increased responsability
• The fact that the money for the certification came out of my pocket this time around

Whatever the reason I was able to learn a ton more in this session than I had before. My favorite part of the course was when Mike turns around to the class and says “Those two chapters are the chapters that make us never want to be cheerleading coaches!” (referring to the chapters on our legal liabilities and medical conditions we have to deal with). It was my favorite because he read my mind. I keep asking myself why I continue to coach. There are so many ways to fail, fall apart, and end up in trouble, why do it? The simple answer is that I love the sport, I love making sure people are safe and educated and teaching people what it is really about, not what you see on TV or in movies.

There were many other aspects of the program that I think are valuable, and worth being published. It is my intention to go over some of the topics in the manual here so that we can increase knowledge, education and publicity (though I’m pretty sure very few people actually read my site with hopes of cheerleading expertise). If it does nothing else, it will keep me focused on growing in that knowledge.

The last note that I’m sure I’ll mention again is AACCA’s take on competing in high school programs. Basically, the fundamental purpose of a high school team is support the school and sporting programs, not competition. This is something I’ve been trying to hint at with my kids, but haven’t done an explicit job of explaining it to my program.

Okay, so baring the fact that I got more than 30 questions out of 100 wrong, I have four more years of AACCA certification before I take the test again!

Here’s a brief list of what I intend to cover:

• Basic History
• Co-Ed in nature
• Not Position Based
• The Community
• Strong Diversity

Basic History

Not all cheerleading programs are co-ed, but the sport has really started to grow to the point where seeing a co-ed team is not that unheard of. It’s funny, but cheerleading was actually started by men in the 1880s. There is a large reference to this in the book Cheer! and on Wikipedia. Women started taking over the sport during the first World War.

Modern cheerleading, which I could take an entire post to explain started more in the 1970s and 1980s. During its formation, the rules were very fluid and there were a lot of stunts and tricks that have now become illegal. Men and women worked together to produce tall pyramids and perform interesting acrobatics. It is during this time that competitions began to really become popular. Cheerleading had previously been only to support other sporting programs.

Cheerleading in its nature can be a very dangerous sport. Over the decades it has become the number one reason for high school girls to visit emergency rooms. Please note, that even though it is the number one reason for visiting ER rooms, some argue (and I agree), that it is still not as dangerous as other contact sports like Football. Due to some of the dangers, several organizations have stepped in to provide training for coaches and set up insurances for institutions conducting cheerleading. I am a certified AACCA (American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators) coach. These organizations also somewhat restrict some of the skills that should be taught or performed. The benefit is that we reduce the number of injuries, but sometimes at the cost of some of the original excitement that was once possible.

Cheerleading consists of several different types of actions, just like baseball players have to bat and field, there are several different areas for cheerleaders.

• Cheering or attempting to lead the crowd to create more excitement for the current sporting event
• Stunting putting each other up in the air to better attract the attention of the crowd.
• Tumbling and Jumping throwing oneself into the air to attract attention
• Dancing moving the body to music to get the crowd more energized.

Each cheerleader will have stronger or weaker points in the list above, and they can change throughout the life-cycle of a cheerleader. For example, when I started out, I was a very strong Tumbler/Jumper. As I went off to college, I developed my stunting and cheering somewhat to the determent of my tumbling. I have never been a strong dancer.

Co-Ed in Nature

Generally, men tend to be stronger than women of the same build and size. Don’t get me wrong, there are a ton of women out there who can kick my butt, but I’m speaking about the average, not the exceptions. In the same manor, women tend to have greater flexibility than men (again a generalization, but bare with me). This duality leads to men having a strong place in certain aspects of cheerleading and women being generally better in other aspects. This duality has set up a very interesting balance in the sport of cheerleading whereby men and women co-exist in the same activity each of them providing specific benefits to the team.

Many other sports miss this connection. In what other sport do men and women co-exist on the same team, on a equal level, to compete together? I can name only a couple, like sailing, pairs tennis, etc.. These sports miss out on some of the other points I plan on mentioning later.

To name just a few of the benefits of this co-ed nature:

• Broader respect for the opposite sex.
• Better conflict resolution skills between genders.

Not Position Based

Many sports are position based. For example, Basketball. There are five players and four positions:

1. Point Guard (1 player)
2. Shooting Guard (2 players)
3. Small Forward (1 player)
4. Center (1 player)

Each person who makes it onto the court slides into one of these rolls. As you get more professional the roles blend, and responsibilities are diluted between roles, but basically everyone fits into a position. When someone comes off the bench to replace a player, the responsibilities are the same and it is relatively easy for that person to walk in and play. While there is a dynamic of team chemistry, responsibilities are set per position. Each players responsibilities stay relatively consistent even if the other players on the court are substituted.

Basketball isn’t the only sport that is position based. Football, basketball, lacrosse, and soccer are all somewhat position based. Cheerleading is also “somewhat” position based. There are several roles in cheerleading stunting:

• Base– someone who helps lift another person of the ground and maintains a connection with the person being held up in the air.
• Flier– someone who is lifted up into the air.
• Spot– A spot may or may not be required to bear a fair share of the weight of the flier, but is also responsible for watching the flier and directing the other bases in terms of controlling the stunt

At most levels, bases normally work in pairs, with one flier, and one or more spots (normally a back spot and front spot). The problem is that matching up a group together takes into consideration more than just position. Since each person in a stunt group has a different level of skill, each group will normally work at the level of the lowest skilled member, for safety reasons. Another important requirement for a successful stunt group is that members of the same group are matched physically. Bases with different heights will have to use some tricks in order to make a stunt work properly. It is far easier if bases are the same height. Spots will need to be able to reach the arms of the bases or legs of the fliers.

On top of the difficulty of matching a group up, there is the sheer chemistry of a group. People have to get along and respect the other members. Timing needs to be figured out. Changing one member of a group could cause the entire group to need to relearn timing.

Now, as you progress through the sport, you become more adaptable. To the really experienced cheerleaders, changing a member should have minimal effect on the functionality of a group, but it takes many years, and depending on the difficulty of the stunt could still have an effect. At the far elite level, even the people winning national partner stunt competitions work together for years (sometimes even traveling to different schools together).

All in all, I feel that the dynamic nature of stunting groups and the chemistry required to make this all work is something is very unique to cheerleading. Potentially sports like synchronized swimming might have similar problems, but that is not my expertise.

The Community

Cheerleading has a very interesting motto, “cheer for your team, not against everyone else”. The best feeling I ever got was when we placed second in a nationals. It wasn’t a competition I won. I was proud of how my team performed. The team in front of us deserved to beat us, they were better. We did the best routine we could and came out very successful. I spoke with our competition, congratulated them, and wished them much future success.

Now, there are some rivalries, but for the most part we really try to get along. I feel its not as competitive as a community. Yes, most teams want to win, but not every team is going to win every competition, and I might be idealistic, but my goal has always been to leave a floor with nothing left in me.

At games its very similar. Our teams may be fighting on the field or court, but we always try to go over and say hello to the other cheerleaders.

Another aspect to our community is the closeness of the major players. This might not be all that unique, but the despite the fact that there are so many kids involved in the sport, the major players in the community are well known. I cheered for a program called LCI. One of the directors, Lynne Mensack was a former Varsity rep, and so many people (even some out here in California) know of her, or have worked with her. Bottom line, the community might be huge, but the major players are small group of people.

Strong Diversity

Cheerleading is a very diverse sport. From the 3 year old minis to the people like Jeff Webb who have been in the sport since the 1970s, there are many different types of cheerleaders. There are people who specializing in tumbling, and those that specialize in stunting. Backgrounds are also very different. My background is martial arts, many come from gymnastics, some from wrestling, some even come from NCAA sports like Football after they have served their four years in their primary sport. Everyone comes to the sport with a different perspective.

Cheerleading is expensive, so you tend to see people who have the financial means more often, but many programs offer scholarships to those who can’t afford it. If it is a college based program, the cheerleading expenses are normally covered by the school.

Because the background is so diverse, and the nature of the community is so friendly, cheerleading offers a unique opportunity for you to interact with many different types of people. This might not be as unique as some of the other points in this article, but it is a large component of what makes cheerelading so special.

Conclusion

I’m not sure if all the factors mentioned above exist for everyone who has been involved with cheerleading, but in the very least, I hope they explain why I love the sport so much. I spend countless hours a week either coaching or cheering myself. I’ve been doing that since I started nearly 12 years ago, and while I’ve played other sports along the way, I always come back to cheerleading as being my favorite.

Halloween night was also senior night at Woodside. It was our last home game and before the game began, all the football team seniors walked out with their parents. Cheerleaders are honored during basketball season, so we aren’t really a part of the senior night. I have eight seniors on my team of 21. They make up more than a third of the team. While I’m scared about what this may mean for next year, the seniors are all great people and so far I have had a great time working with them.

Being Halloween, we decided to dress up as ‘Wild Kittens’, which basically meant we wore cat ears. The seniors decided to wear the senior jerseys as well. About halfway through the first half it started rain. This meant we were grounded for the most part. No stunts. No tumbling (not that anyone tumbles on the track). The rain also drove out most of the fans. By the second quarter, the stadium was almost completely empty.

Despite the lack of fans, I really felt like the team did extremely well. I saw ZERO falls or bobbles, the motions were all there. They were loud and engaging to what little crowd we did have. I’m sad that this was our best game, as it is our last home game. I just really hope we can bring this type of energy through to our basketball and competition season.

I’m not going to lie, I’m starting to get sad that our football season is ending. These are some great kids, and it is the last time I get to be their coach at a Woodside football game.

So Sunday was my day. It started off as all Sundays do, with my cheerleading team’s practice, this week at the new and improved time of 9:30 am. This meant I should have left my house by 8 am. I was late, left at 8:30, had to drive fast, but I made it just in time.

Practice started out with us warming up some tumbling. I’m doing a very limited amount of tumbling in this routine: two to a tuck and a toe touch tuck, nothing too hard. But I wanted to warm up my running so I hopped in the running line, and threw a few basic passes: a round off handspring tuck, a punch front round off hand spring tuck, and a few roundoff handspring layouts. Then came the moment of truth. I’m old, and haven’t thrown in about 6 months, since tryouts for the team, but out came the full. My timing was on, so I wasn’t too worried about getting over, but I’m getting old, so landing wrong scares me. The roundoff was on, the handspring was long and strong, that’s when I committed to it. I went up, put my arms to the side (I don’t think I remembered to set) and pulled and looked for the ground. It wasn’t pretty, but I did it. Landed it.

You can’t image the adrenalin that was flowing through my blood at that point. I started hugging Chaz every two seconds until she finally said something. Honestly, I don’t remember too much, it was just great to throw it again. I really love that trick, and it makes me feel young again.

Then we got to practicing. All in all it was a good practice, we improved a lot and I think came together more as a team. However, there were a couple of injuries, including some people landing on my head that made me quite dizzy for a while.

I spent the rest of the day up at Stockton for a Jamz region competition. It was interesting to see where so many teams were in their routines. Some of the routines were really amazing. I’m consistently impressed with All Star Elite‘s choreography. They have a lot of people on the floor, but they do some very interesting stunts. I remember seeing them at GSSA and being impressed with them there as well.

Got to see Rebels Elite compete for the first time. They are a strong program, and I’m surprised at how many teams they have competing given the size of their facility.

All and all a stacked weekend of cheerleading. Good fun for all.

For the past 5 years Sundays have been about cheerleading for me. It started when I started working for LCI in October 2003 as a gymnastic coach. We were open on Wednesdays and Sundays. Sundays we would get in around 11 AM and would work until after 9 PM. The reason for this schedule was that we were at a local sports center and it was the only time we could take over one of their rollar hockey rinks.

When I moved to CT, I started working for a gym in Greenwich, CT (Greenwich Tumble and Cheer), and cheering for a team in Woodbridge, CT(CT Spirit). I would go to my practice in Woodbridge and then drive all the way down to Greenwich to coach. Eventually the traveling just became too much for me and I moved to working exclusively at CT Spirit. I would get to the gym by 12 and be there till 9. Long days, but fun days.

Now that I’m out in California, I am on an open team at CheerGyms.com, and we practice on Sundays from 10 to 12 in the morning. It’s early, and about an hour and change away from where I live so that is a large time commitment and I can’t hang out with friends too late on Saturday night, because I have early Sunday commitments.

Yesterday was especially tough, I had my open team practice, followed by a visit to Premier Allstars to meet Coach Morgan, and capped off the evening with a two hour practice and a one hour gymnastics session at Woodside.

What I find so interesting is the connection between Sundays and my passion. I live in a society where religious activities tend to happen mostly on Sundays. Its the day of the week for rest and reflection. What I tend to reflect on is how we are going to do a pyramid, how how to improve my tumbling or where to go to competition. In some ways I’m beginning to wonder whether cheerleading might actually be my religion (instead of Judaism)?

Video
Article

The position offered by this news organization is that cheerleading coaching isn’t regulated and that this part of the major reason why there are so many injuries. This is a very controversial position. There are many organizations out there whose primary responsibility is to manage the safety of cheerleading at various levels [1], like the NFHS which governs public high school teams, AACCA which provides training and coaching to all levels of cheerleading coaches, or USASF which aspires to certify all All Star programs.

These organizations have quickly mobilized against this story. From their response I get two things. Firstly, they are doing their best to educate coaches and work on safety and making this sport a safer environment for students. Secondly, and perhaps more terrifying, they are afraid of what a story like this could do to the sport. Some college teams have already started to ban some aspects of modern cheerleading, like stunting, in order to try to prevent more injuries [2]. Some of these injuries have already had rippling effects on the cheerleading community.

Several years ago AACCA modified their rules to be more protective. They have reduced the level of difficulty allowed in certain tumbling passes, both in competitions and sporting events. College cheerleading has been taken down a notch since the days that I cheered in college, tumbling double fulls are now illegal, even in competition, amongst other changes.

The CBS article has bunch of misquotes and incorrect information. They state that there is little to no regulation on the sport, and that couldn’t be further from the truth (as mentioned above). They stipulate that cheerleading is a catastrophically dangerous sport, causing more than half of the 112 female catastrophic injuries in high school and college related programs in the past 25 years. This factor doesn’t include extracurricular motivated cheerleading like all star programs, so this number is probably even higher.

I’m not saying cheerleading is without risk, and that there weren’t a large number of catastrophic injuries due to cheerleading in the past years, but CBS is wrong. The report which they quote states otherwise. Of the 112 injuries, 80 were directly related to a sport. Cheerleading has 44 of these injuries, which is more than any other sport on this list. Of the indirect injuries (112 – 80 = 32), only seven were related to cheerleading. Okay, so cheerleading still appears to be a very dangerous sport. What this report doesn’t contain is the trend over the 24 years this report has been collected.

There are many questions that come to mind:

• How many catastrophic injuries occured in cheerleading in 2006 vs. 2004?
• Are there any trends in the data?
• Of the schools where the catastrophic injuries occured, how many of the coaches were correctly certified by the terms that the state or the school district requires?

These questions are important because the safety of cheerleading has evolved since the beginning of this injury report. AACCA was founded in 1988. USASF was founded in 2003 [3]. Not all schools or gyms are currently certified by these organizations. As these organizations increase their presence, we begin to see noted improvement in the number of injuries (they are going down). This makes sense, increased education in the dangers allows coaches and administrators to better protect their cheerleaders.

This CBS news article/report is based on mostly conjecture, and poor quoting (based on the comments and the article distributed on Varsity). That being said, I still somewhat agree with their general position that negligence in coaching can cause injury. While it may be true that many schools and districts may, by law, require their cheerleading coaches to obtain certain certifications, not all enforcers of this policy know about this requirement. I see it like this, you wouldn’t take advice about how to sky dive from someone who has never even gone himself. The same holds true for some of the aspects of cheerleading. Yet of my high school cheerleading coaches, at least two of them had no prior cheerleading experience before being placed in charge of my team. I’m sure this occurrence is not unique to my situation.

What we should take away form this is that we need to continue to educate administrators about the dangers of the sport and continue to increase the level of training for coaches. Education won’t prevent all injuries, but it can help reduce the severity and frequency of injuries.

• Possible tear in the right rotator cuff, will need to get an MRI to confirm
• Possible tear in the meniscus on my left knee (though both of them are hurting), will be following up with Physical Therapy on them
• I need to see another doctor about my ankle

The good news is that the doctor didn’t feel that any of the issues I’m suffering from should prevent me from cheering in the near future, or make me more likely to end up in a wheel chair any earlier than could normally be expected.

I’m undecided how I feel about the creation of this game. I’m a very strong advocate of cheerleading. It has been a large portion of my life and I continue to devote countless hours to the sport. I coach, I train, and I work on proliferating the sport. While this game will help in popularizing the sport, it raises several concerns for me:

1. The Nature of the Game, this game focuses on basic dance moves. There are some screen shots of people doing jumps, but in general the goals are dance related. This is NOT cheerleading. Cheerleading involves aspects of gymnastics and jumping and stunting, all of which are left out of this game.
2. Potential for Injury, despite the fact the lack of stunting and tumbling exist in this game, I am also afraid that some of the jumping and whatnot required will lead to injuries. Cheerleading is already a dangerous, but what makes it so dangerous is the lack of good coaching, this game cannot possibly provide the required coaching.
3. Choice of Music, the music for this game is very teeny bopper. Not really what is used in most modern day cheerleading.
4. Lack of Coed Options, As far as I can see this game is designed specifically for women. There are no men in this game. This game is very female centric. I feel that I already have enough problems trying to convince men to join the sport, by creating a game like this we alienate men even more. This might be irrelevant if the game never reaches a high level of popularity, but if it does, this could actually be a factor.

Some of these factors are a little premature. This game might have no impact, or it might help boost our popularity in areas of the country or world where we are still an emerging sport, but I just wanted to state that I have my reservations.

In terms of composition, all the kids are facing the crowd, and the hands are all up in the air. The background isn’t really, but this was the best I could do. This brings up the difference between shooting composed shots and event photography. Sometimes you have no choice about your angle and you have to take what you can get, that is what happened here.

A large part of the funds came directly from the school including student, administration, and parent booster organizations. Thank you to all who helped!

Please, if you are available consider riding in the race. I unfortunately, will probably not be able to make it due to the fact that I have practice that morning.

Today I got slammed back into doing shoulder stands at CheerGym’s practice. This is a relatively simple stunt where you take a girl throw her up in the air and catch her on your shoulders. I got to do this with my good friend Chaz, and while it didn’t really hurt, I do have some marks on my shoulders from all of her foot prints.

This is actually a stunt I feel very confident with. I’ve used a technique, called the Waldren shoulder stand. With this technique, I catch the girl a little forward, but openning up my chest as she jumps up. The benefit is that I can see and place her feet on me. The drawback is that she normally has take to a step or two back once she lands. Sometimes this is okay, like at a game. Sometimes there are deductions for this, like at a competition.

Either way, was a fun practice, I look forward to doing more of these in the future.

This image is not from cheer gyms practice, it is from my freshman year of cheerleading at Villanova. The guys that have girls standing on their shoulders, they are doing shoulder stands (ps, I’m the guy on the right).

I have one global comment that I need to make. We need to push cheerleading competition etiquette. Seriously people, we are all there to watch the sport, but I feel that people get so concerned with seeing their team compete, that they forget that there are tons of other parents, coaches and cheerleaders looking to watch the competition. Here are my general suggestions:

• If you are standing, check behind you to make sure you are not blocking anyone’s vision. It is best to stand in front of a post, or other physical barrier, or by the edges.
• If you are sitting, please don’t talk to your buddies during the routines, especially if there are people sitting around you. Moving to get closer to talk quietly can also affect the eyesight of the people behind you and cause them to readjust.
• Don’t get up from your seat in the middle of a routine. It is generally disrespectful to move during a routine. Routines are only 2:30 at the longest, please wait to move.
• Remember to clap at the end of every routine. We have our favorites, but everyone is putting forth effort to compete and they deserve some applause.

Okay, so the last one gets into a whole different argument, but I think these are a few simple rules that could really make a cheerleading competition more enjoyable for everyone.

• Villanova Small Coed – Lets go Cats! My Alma martyr.
• Southern All Girl Division II – Good luck, your routine is fantabulous, wish you the best.
• Southern All-Girl Partner Stunt Groups – Both of the groups I’ve seen have great routines, really hope you do well. Special wishes to Cheri, Kay, and Haley, who I have had the pleasure of cheering with on my CT Spirit Onyx open team.
• Bill Mayo, University of Delaware, Coed Partner Stunt – Good Luck Bill, hope you do well, make ACE proud!

Regardless, I pursued. I continued to work on my layout, and finally figured out I was forgetting to flick out of my back hand spring. Even with that, I have not felt ready to throw my full. With only 2 practices left for me before we compete, I today had to be the day to throw it. I had no choice in the matter.

First running pass was a layout, very fishy, but the height was there. Second pass, I went for it, and nailed it. Now I know I only did it once, but still, after not having thrown something in about 6 months, getting it back is a sweet feeling. Well, that was my day 😀

Yesterday was Big’s day. He hit some amazing tosses with his partner, nearly getting to his next level of stunt. This was due to a HUGE improvement in technique for Big and I look forward to see how he does today with it. That wasn’t the limit to his success. He also strived in the second aspect of throwing oneself around, aka tumbling. He has grown faster in this area than almost anyone I have seen, starting from his level and really taking it up a notch. I attribute this to his incredibly positive attitude, and will power.

Little also had a good day, though he did it all on his own. His stunting was on par with his previous performances, but he was one of three people on the team to step up up and throw his tuck on his own. He landed all attempts cleanly, and was one of only three people on the team to attempt without a spot.

All in all, way to go guys. I can’t shout you out all the time (as the girls would get jealous j/k), but last night you really were awesome, and you deserve the credit.

I just want to point out that it is pure torture to hang out at the gym and not be able to tumble. AHHH!