Written by Becca Raab |

Although many have different opinions, cheerleading is in fact a sport. Cheerleading is a combination of dance, gymnastics and stunting. If dance and gymnastics are considered sports, cheerleading certainly should be since it not only includes those skills but also cheers and stunts. Cheerleading has always been considered an activity or after school club, but I think the world should take a step forward to finally name it an official sport. There were even rumors that cheerleading was going to be a part of the Olympics sometime soon! That would be a huge step for society because cheerleading will be valued internationally if it is associated with the Olympics. I think it is quite silly that many people are greatly against cheerleading being a sport.

I hate when people say, “Oh, cheerleading is easy.” Actually, cheerleading can be very difficult, especially when trying to hit a perfect stunt.Cheerleading had an enormous amount of injuries compared to some of the other commonly known sports. Often it is ranked right behind football as the sport with the most injuries. Every year, at least 16,000 cheerleaders are injured because it involves intense stunts and tumbling. Injuries range from simple sprains to concussions to broken bones. I have even seen cases where a girl became a paraplegic or totally paralyzed.  No one would really expect such serious injuries to happen from cheerleading, but they indeed happen quite often. No doubt stunting is the most dangerous part of cheerleading. Throwing a girl up in the air and then catching her, while not letting her hit the ground is literally putting someone else’s life in a cheerleader’s hands.

A special shout out to Morgan Cheer because we are increasingly improving this year. We are a very close team and looking forward to what the seasons will bring. It is only the beginning of the season, and we are already proud of what we have accomplished. We are also excited to show everyone a lot of cool dances, cheers and stunts that we learned at Pine Forest Cheerleading Camp this past summer. This year we are eager to try new things and work hard to cheer for the football as well as the basketball team! We hope that the school and students will recognize our hard work and consider us a part of the sports here at Morgan.