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Time To Cheer For Cheer!

The Girls and Boys who cheer on all the sports in the State of Oregon are such an important part of the High School experience. Yet when do we turn our attentions to them and give them their due? Well rarely at best. But the world of Cheerleading, which we feel is as true sport in the finest sense of the word, is about to come alive in grand fashion at the annual OSAA / U.S. Bank / Les Schwab Tires Cheerleading State Championships.

The annual competition is going to be held this Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland and will showcase 72 Teams from 6 separate divisions from around the State of Oregon. Schools big and small will send their best cheer squads to compete with one shot at a State Championship.

The information on the event was provided to us by the OSAA Staff who by the way do an amazing job in all sports and their Championships! This one is just a lot of fun to attend.

Time To Cheer For Cheer!

 

   The Girls and Boys who cheer on all the sports in the State of Oregon are such an important part of the High School experience.  Yet when do we turn our attentions to them and give them their due?  Well rarely at best.  But the world of Cheerleading, which we feel is as true sport in the finest sense of the word, is about to come alive in grand fashion at the annual OSAA / U.S. Bank / Les Schwab Tires Cheerleading State Championships.

The annual competition is going to be held this Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland and will showcase 72 Teams from 6 separate divisions from around the State of Oregon.  Schools big and small will send their best cheer squads to compete with one shot at a State Championship.

The information on the event was provided to us by the OSAA Staff who by the way do an amazing job in all sports and their Championships! This one is just a lot of fun to attend.

The information is as follows:

(Feb. 8, 2012) – The OSAA / U.S. Bank / Les Schwab Tires Cheerleading State Championships are scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 11 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.  Nearly 1,000 cheerleaders representing squads from 72 Oregon high schools will compete for titles in seven divisions.  The morning session begins at 10 a.m.  The afternoon session starts at 3 p.m.  Each will conclude with all-state team performances and awards presentations.

Tickets, available at the Memorial Coliseum Box Office, are $9 for adults and $6 for students.

All seating is general admission.  Gates open at 9:15 a.m. for the morning session and 2:30 p.m. for the afternoon session.

Performance orders may be viewed online at   osaa.org/cheer/

 

The event is huge with 72 Teams that made it this far having to have made it to two sanctioned competitions during the school year as a pre-requisite to get to the Coliseum tomorrow.  We spoke to Molly Hays at the OSAA who is heading up the event and asked her some questions as to the format and the event overall.

"It's going to be a very exciting event for everyone.  This year there are 6 more squads then last year and it is growing for sure.  Almost 1,000 students will compete which is amazing," said Hays who is in her first year overseeing the event for the OSAA.  

"The 1A, 2A, and 3A will all compete in one Division for that Title.  There is a 4 A Large School Division, a 5A Small Division, a 6A Small Division, and a Blended 5A and 6A Large Division.  Finally there will be a championshop handed out in the Co-Ed Division for teams with girls and boys in which 11 teams will compete this year," said Hays who clarified that 6 Championships are on the line this weekend in that order.  

Each group has a time slot and will compete against other  teams in their level until a Champion is crowned.  Just imagine trying to get 1,000 fired up kids with gear and equipment in and out of the facility let alone their screaming and exuberant families and fans!  This really is something to Cheer about!

"Each Squad gets one shot.  Two Minutes and 30 seconds including mandatory Dance and Cheer components to prove they are the best and take home the Trophy and bragging rights too.  So this will be a terrific time for people to see these kids at their very best," concluded the Director.

It is going to be an awesome day for Cheerleading!


Is Cheerleading Needing a Wake Up Call?

Imagine how hard they work?  Year around just about and to get down the routines which have a mandatory Dance and Cheer Component the work has to be intense,  Some of the high flying throws and gymnastics alone rival anything you will see in any other level of sport in the Pacific Northwest and Nationally too.

That fact raises an interesting question.  Is Cheerleading a sport?

Technically in Oregon?  No.  At least not yet.  But maybe it should be.  There is no longer a question of the rigor or commitment the sport demands.  It is more a question from the OSAA stand point and the National standpoint if Cheer wants to be treated as a sport.  

If it is then that comes with potential restrictions that may hamper the activity as all Prep Sports are limited to a specific season or calendar year for participants and coaches.  

Cheer goes all year by its very nature.

Some see that as a small thing to work out and the benefits too great not to have the classification in place.  Title 9 is a topic regularly raised when looking at equality in High School sports with the premise being there should be a complete balance in girls and boys sports.  That balance might be well served by making cheer a sport.  But there is a more important aspect for Cheerleading that many feel is a bigger and more pressing issues.

The OSAA has a myriad of rules and protections in place that bind their member schools and the sports they compete in.  Many of these rules regulate things aimed at keeping the athletes safe.   One such area is Concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury.  And with Cheerleading this is a big topic right now.

Just ask Alexis Wallace who is a student and Cheer leader at Beaverton's Sunset High School.  In her Freshmen year she was completing a back tuck and landed on her head and neck.  Underneath her was a hard surface with a 1" foam pad on top of it.  Not much to protect the youngster at a time we now know she was most vulnerable; adolescence.

The result was a severe concussion with blackouts and nausea.  Weeks of dizziness and migraines followed but like the toughest of boys she tried to return.  Her parents Chip and Tammy recognized the severity of the injury and sought out a Cat-Scan and the best medical doctors they could.  Ali was lucky because most kids go back after a few days or weeks unresolved.  In her case it was a 10 month setback.

Since that injury she has suffered through 3 years of Post Concussive Syndrome and effects that have hurt her ability to manage school work and life in general.  She suffers mood and other issues beyond the norm and is living the life only a severely injured athlete can understand.

"It's been tough.  And I know I was lucky to have such good parents and care.  But there is no doubt in my mind that having better protections would have made the situation better for me," said Wallace.

Wallace is not alone in her concerns.  A closer examination of the facts shows why Cheerleading is in a potential crisis.

In a recent study the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research they concluded that Cheerleading accounts for 65.1 percent of all catastrophic sports injuries female athletes have incurred over the past 25 years.

During that time, 67 of the 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes occurred in cheerleading. Studies also show emergency room visits among cheerleaders of all ages have soared over the past decade, including injuries suffered by those who were 13 or younger.

As she recovered Ali was not satisfied with the fact that Cheerleaders should not be afforded the same rights as kids defined as "athletes".  So she went to work helping to found BrainChampions.org; a group comprised of athletes in all youth sports who have either been catastrophically injured or killed by concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury in the pursuit of their sport.

That involvement helped her to become educated and to become an educator.  So much so that she has successfully lobbied the Athletic Director at Sunset High School to include all the schools cheerleaders in annual concussion baseline testing through ImPACT; the leader is such testing.  This means all cheerleaders at Sunset High School have a neuro-Psychological test to compare their brain function to in the event of an incident like what happened to her.  

"If we would have had ImPACT it would have helped my Doctors and Coaches see more about the extent of my injury and to know when I was back at the level of brain function I had before I was hurt. I think it would have made our medical bills a bit lower too," she said smiling.

Does she think ImPACT should be mandatory and that Cheerleaders should be treated the same as their Athlete counter-parts?

"Yes for sure.  We have to have this for all Cheerleaders at every level.  Just like we need mandatory education of Cheer Coaches and advisors.  Because right now we are doing things as dangerous or more so then any other athletes.  But we don't have those same protections," she offered.

Wallace said, "Safety and the health of our athletes needs to be the main focus right now."

This season at Sunset, a team that competes in the Small 6A Cheer Division, they started the year with 16 girls.  But her concerns for her team mates became all too real as 5 girls on the squad have gone down with concussions suffered during the season.

"It has been a tough year. WIe have 5 inured girls. 1 Senior, 1 Junior and 3 Sophomores.  Only one of them has made it back on the team and all of their injuries are stunt related," she stated.  

Is she sorry that the squad adopted ImPACT?  After all it has kept 4 of the 5 out as they can not yet pass at their baseline levels.

"No! We have no regrets as we know through good medical follow up, the ImPACT Test,  and our knowledge of the dangers we face that this was the right thing to do."

That is 33% of the Squad injured.  A really high percentage even by cheerleading standards.  Like she said it has been a bad year for injuries at Sunset.

Undeterred by her injuries and still firmly involved in the very sport that injured her Alexis Wallace is headed to the OSAA U.S. Bank / Les Schwab Tires State Cheerleading  Championships with her Apollo Squad.  Even with 11 she likes their chances.

"We have placed in the Top 5 every year the past three years.  I am optimistic we will be ready and are really looking forward to it," said the Senior who has a stop an Interview for the Portland Rose Festival Court tomorrow before she hit the Coliseum.

OregonPreps.com will be there tomorrow to cover the event and support Ali and all the girls.  

Like they say in the Cheerleading universe… Bring It On!


Editors Notes

Molly Hays and others at the OSAA were very supportive to the concept of Cheerleading being considered as a sport and said that schools and the Cheer community itself needs to further the discussion

The main benefits as we see them would be enforceable standards on mandatory education of all coaches and staff Via Oregon's Max's Law and other controls on Heat Index etc. .  Having said that we believed Cheerleading to be a sport and therefore feel it should be treated as such.

It is no doubt something that the discussion needs to be forwarded on as soon as possible.  And Cheerleading does not need to be a sport to have protections put in place.  Alexis Wallace is a perfect person to consult on this issue for sure!

Washington athletics are regulated by the WIAA and they leave it up to the School Districts to set Criteria if Cheerleading will be a sport.  That is a pretty good approach as well.

http://www.wiaa.com/ConDocs/Con273/transitionchart.pdf

I am the Founder of the Northwest Prep Report. For 17 years I have led the way to the best of my ability to promote the best talent from the Pacific NW free of charge. It is my pleasure to continue to serve High School athletes from all over the Pacific NW and beyond. Formerly with Rivals.com my sites have now crossed over 8,000 stories, 7 MILLION Video Views, and 15,000 regular followers. Together with the best football people in the USA we pursue excellence for our NW athletes.

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