This year’s competition season has been an interesting one for the whole Parkway South High cheer team. This competition season, 4 injuries occurred within two months while preparing their routine, causing multiple changes to the routines.
Sophomore Aubrey Privett had a flyer fall on her shoulder, causing a tear.
“I haven’t been able to do anything in basketball and it’s so upsetting because I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am and now I’m back to stage one,” Privett said.
Although these cheerleaders have been struggling to adapt to the unexpected changes, they have been trying their best to stay positive under these circumstances.
“I’ve been working on keeping a positive attitude knowing I will be back soon and working hard to recover and get stronger,” junior Sarah Fehr said.
Fehr has been keeping her spirits high with her torn ACL and is preparing well to start cheering again soon.
Cheerleading as a sport is known to be fun and entertaining to watch at school sports events, but what people don’t know is that cheerleading can be very dangerous and can cause injury if not done right.
This year, the PSH varsity cheer team has had to endure 7 injuries out of the 20 people on the team. The team started off the football season well without any injuries, but as it went on things slowly started taking a turn for the worse. The injuries went from a sprained ankle to a torn ACL within the span of a month.
These injuries have been huge setbacks, one of the senior captains, Peyton Andell said. For the team only being three months into the competition season and as the team is preparing for it. Different types of injuries take different amounts of time to heal, so depending on how long a person is out, the team has to adjust and keep making do for that time. The team was definitely not expecting so many injuries this year.
“The injuries weren’t expected, especially not the amount that we currently have, but everyone is doing an amazing job showing up to practice with a smile and adjusting to the new changes,” she said.
Coach Kaitlin Dickson said that although it has been a struggle adjusting to the injuries this season, they still are working their hardest on staying positive and keeping an open mind. Many injuries can take a while to heal, especially if not taken care of right.
“A few things that help prevent injuries are using technique while stunting, building more strength, and working on flexibility. Also, giving your body the recovery time it needs by icing if necessary or letting coaches know if something’s hurting, even if it’s small,” she said.
Integrity and responsibility are core things that cheerleaders need to have when it comes to injuries. If they aren’t speaking up about their injury to continue, it can make the injury worse and lengthen the recovery time. The more severe the injury is, the longer it takes to heal, and Dickson talked about one of the longest times someone on the team has been injured.
“6–7 months between post-op and physical therapy, and then a gradual re-entry into cheer,” she said.
Even after being completely healed, there is still time needed to regain strength and get back to doing the same things as before the injury. Even something as small as a grade 1 sprain can take multiple weeks to heal if not treated properly and can restrict these cheerleaders from being able to start working again.
“Most of the injuries I’ve seen with high school cheerleaders are concussions, sprained ankles, or sprained wrists. Time is the biggest component of healing for most injuries. For ankle and wrist sprains, it’s good to do exercises to help strengthen the joint in addition to the rest to help prevent additional injuries.” trainer Abby Castillo said.
The more these cheerleaders follow these steps to recovery, the faster they can get back to working with the team. However, this season, the injuries on the team just occurred at the worst times and the cheerleaders couldn’t heal in time for competition, but that didn’t stop them from pushing through the obstacles and qualifying for state. Andell deepens our understanding, saying,
“The team had to adjust to new people in new positions which isn’t always easy, and we had to put what we wanted aside and do what was best for the team. In the end, all our hard work in adapting to the changes and staying positive paid off with us making state,” Andell said.