Cheering on a waiting disaster?

In 1898, University of Minnesota student Johnny Campbell stood in front of a crowd at a sporting event and led them in an organized cheer. Campbell noticed that the crowd was eager to join him, and eventually the entire audience was cheering with one, unified voice. This spontaneous action turned Campbell into the nation’s first cheerleader.

Cheerleading has certainly come a long way. Today’s cheerleaders are predominately female (Although President Bush as a cheerleader at Yale). Cheerleaders are expected to do more than unify an audience with a series of chants. Cheerleaders frequently perform dances and tricks once reserved for trapeze artists.

More importantly, cheerleaders may be in more danger than any other athlete in the country.

According to the New York Times, emergency room visits for cheerleading injuries nationwide have more than doubled since the early 1990s, far outpacing the growth in the number of cheerleaders, and the rate of life-threatening injuries has startled researchers. Of 104 catastrophic injuries sustained by female high school and college athletes from 1982 to 2005 — head and spinal trauma that occasionally led to death — more than half resulted from cheerleading.

All sports combined did not surpass cheerleading.

Inadequate training of coaches is the most frequently cited cause of injuries. Inexperienced coaches will have squads try complex stunts without following accepted step-by-step progressions to acquire the skills required to safely attempt the trick.

Perhaps there is a better solution.

PO ’76 knows this is dangerous waters because Stevenson cheerleaders are so talented and entertaining.

But….

If the IHSA banned cheerleaders from the sidelines of High School sporting events, what would be the result? Would crowds decrease? Would the games be less meaniningful, or even less fun?

Or, would thousands of girls from across Illinois be spared of the rising danger of life altering injury?