The LZHS varsity cheerleaders are beginning to prepare for the upcoming cheer competitions held every weekend, starting in December.

            The varsity cheerleaders will have a competition every Saturday starting December 8. Each competition will take place at different high schools. The teams competing at each of the high schools vary at each competition. The cheerleaders may not know how many teams they will be going against until the day of.

            “The competitions can be stressful,” Sarah Blechschmidt, sophomore varsity cheerleader, said. “We have to make sure we know exactly what we’re doing before we get out there and compete.”

            A deduction (points) is taken off for even the smallest detail such as somebody wearing jewelry, or having a jump that is slightly off the rest of the team.

            “There is a lot of pressure during competition season with routines because every little detail matters, but when they talk about the competition coming up there is excitement, so I would just say overall the girls are more determined than they were during football season,” Kimberly Philipp, junior varsity coach and English teacher, said.

For every competition, cheerleaders have to learn the routine and perfect it, to achieve the highest score possible.

 “We are practicing the routine over and over consistently running through formations, practicing stunts, doing double duty on everything. The girls are expected to prepare outside of practice which means stretching, practicing jumps and listening to the music portion on their own,” Philipp said.

Competition day is an all day event, the performance may be at 11am, and awards could be at 9pm.

            “We get to the competitions early to get ready and warm up and then we compete and wait for the awards,” Kristinna Schaar, sophomore varsity cheerleader, said.

            Before every team performs, the competition announcer says “(Team) you may now take the floor,” signaling the team to start their performance.

            “The number of teams that compete varies at each competition,” Schaar said.

            At the end of the competition, each team receives a score from the judges. The place each team comes in is determined on the score they received.

Side Bar:

            Nothing protects a cheerleader from slamming into the ground. Cheerleaders do not have any protection from injuries besides a soft mat that is not always present when performing. With an increasing rate of concussions, news laws could be made to make this “sport” safer.

            “We send them to the trainer, and go from there, if a girl was to get kneed in the back of the head at practice, I would sit her down, talk to her, ask her questions, make sure she doesn’t go to sleep and have someone get the trainer, I would never leave her side,” Philipp said.

            A mouth guard, helmet or some sort of padding is a typical thing to see in a sport where injuries easily but not in the cheer world. When a cheerleader is twenty feet off the ground, the only thing they have to rely on, is their teammates that they put their trust in.            If new laws are made it will change where cheerleaders perform, how they perform, and who the instructor is.

            “School sports associations should designate cheerleading as a sport, and make it subject to safety rules and better supervision. That would include onsite trainers, limits on practice time and better qualified coaches,” American Academy of Pediatrics said.

            This would minimize cheerleader’s stunts, but maximize their safety.