I went into Cheerleading not knowing that it’s one of the most dangerous sports ever; I thought it was all about cheering on the sidelines during football games. It wasn’t until my 4th day of cheer ever that I found out there’s a huge component to Cheerleading: stunting. I fell in love with it though. I got to throw people, and in the end, it looked cool in our routines. It was all fun and games until the beginning of my Sophomore year (literally, on the second day of school).
Usually, JV practices in the dance room that no one at SR knows about. The room with floor to ceiling mirrors was the perfect spot to not only practice but to hang out during your free time. We didn’t have to practice before or after anyone else; the dance room was designated for Cheer (specifically JV). Old alums got to sign the walls and put up cheer drawings on the walls for underclassmen to look up to. Again, most days JV practiced in the dance room but, days leading up to a rally, we practiced with Varsity in gym 2. That was no different on August 18th, 2022.
Right after school, I went to gym 2, met up with my teammates, changed into my practice clothes as usual. Once it hit 4:30, we got started with our warm ups. We went through what we were supposed to do for the upcoming back to school rally smoothly. Hell, I was goofing around with my teammates in the same year as me as I tried something new. Afterwards, the coaches split the gym in half, Varsity in the front, JV in the back, doing our own things. Ironically enough, it was our first football game of the season too, meaning we had to practice our routine. My stunt group was practicing our portion of the routine when it went downhill.
As a backspot, you have one important job. No, it’s not pulling up the flyers’ ankles to relieve weight off the bases (although that’s a HUGE plus). You never let your flyer hit the ground. If they do, you better be down there with her. As my stunt group was practicing, my flyer just wouldn’t get up. If anything, she was falling down…onto my knee. We both hit the ground and I realized my knee cap was out of place. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time that’s happened but it always went back in place on its own. This time though, it just stayed dislocated. Once the realization hit, so did the agonizing pain. I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I let out a horrific scream followed by tears alerting everyone of my situation. Luckily, no hospitals were needed [yet] and my knee went back into place with the help of the athletic trainer (shoutout Ysa). But I couldn’t go back to cheer for 3 weeks and I missed the first week of school.
I got a lot of questions after that about my knee and how it happened. I mean, I was stuck in a brace that was so bulky, there was no hiding it. Although it was maddening to relive the experience, my teammates showed how much they cared about me. We had this rule in Cheer where if a flyer falls or gets injured, everyone had to run around the football field. This rule didn’t apply to bases or backspots but my teammates begged our JV coach to let them run after I dislocated my knee.
A month later, I had an MRI done on my knee just to see if everything was healing okay. I honestly went into it thinking it was their protocol and that everything would be fine. As I was sitting in the doctor’s room on the bed with the crappy paper over the bed, the doctor gave me an ultimatum. I could either live with a torn ligament and risk having dislocations for the rest of my life or I could get a donor ligament to replace the one I tore (a.k.a. surgery).
It didn’t hit me that the doctors were saying I needed surgery until February 21st, 2023, when I actually got it. I got through Cheer without any other incidents and luckily, ended off my season with a good note. I was dedicated to pursuing Cheer all four years of high school so I tried to not let surgery stop me even though it was literal hell. I couldn’t stand up without bawling my eyes out, it made me realize how much I took going to the bathroom for granted. Along with this I had to miss school for a month so I can heal to an extent.
When I got back to school I was still hobbling on crutches and discovering a new world called elevators. There is never not a time where I wouldn’t be in class without a little red lanyard with a key attached to it for the elevators. I didn’t really tell anyone I was getting surgery either so my disappearance and return came as a shock. Although people were sympathetic for me a lot of people were confused because the injury happened back in August and I’m just now getting surgery in February. But again, I was determined to cheer all four years and was willing to do whatever I took to do so. I used me being on crutches and me going to physical therapy as motivation to go back to cheer with all my friends.
Once I actually got out of my brace I was told by my doctor that I’m still not allowed to go back to cheer and I decided to make the hard decisions and not go back to cheer my junior year. I told myself and the coaches that I’m going to let myself heal for a year and come back my senior year and everything is going to be fine. I’ll be honest at first it sucked because all the friends I wanted to hang out with were all in cheer and I didn’t want to hear anything about it because I had just left(it was a touchy subject if you couldn’t tell). As soon as school started I realized how much time I have to myself because I don’t have Cheer anymore. I was finally allowed to sit in the stands and watch my first football game. I can actually go home after school which was the weirdest feeling ever. Although I missed cheering and my teammates / friends like crazy, I liked the free time I had.
The first semester of my junior year went like a breeze with all the free time I had but then the second semester had some other ideas in store. ASB last year hosted the winter formal and while me and some of my ASB friends were trying to kill time (because we had to be there). One of my friends started talking about lacrosse and how they’re[the team] were looking for more people, trying to convince me to join the team.
After the night it got me thinking about how much free time I actually had and how boring that was. Sure I get time to myself everyday after school but over and over again it gets boring. Tryouts were in February and I decided to put myself out there and join the team. Luckily because we didn’t have many people on our team our coach didn’t make any cuts, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this story. My first week of Lacrosse ever was probably like the week of hell because we did so much running and I wasn’t a runner. I was gassed after the first lap around the field, I felt like I was the slowest on the team. What made it worse is that catching and throwing with a stick is so much different than catching people from in the air. You think that would be more difficult but that’s just something I was used to.
I don’t think it was until after my first few games started to get the hang of what lacrosse is actually like that I started to fall in love with it. There wasn’t so much pressure to do your best like there was in cheer. There are multiple chances you can redeem yourself during a game. And I actually got to keep my Saturdays to myself. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my teammates and all but lacrosse was just a whole different environment when it came to teammates. We actually try to make an effort to bond with one another and the team bondings any chance we get. I felt like I could just go up to anyone on the team and just start spilling my whole life story to them without any judgment. Some of the people I met on the cross that year became some of my closest friends today.
Although we didn’t have that much of a successful season last year, the bond alone just made me convinced to join the following year (my senior year). For once I was okay with not cheering for all for years. Lacrosse wasn’t planned with cheer but I’m glad I have my surgery because I don’t think I would have joined without it.
