Cheerleading, it’s all pom-poms and smiles. Just look cute and spirited on the sidelines right? Actually wrong. This sport comes with many dangers and injuries, some even life changing. The month of March in national cheerleading safety awareness month. Some of the ADM cheerleaders have some reminders of why safety in cheer is so important and how this sport is more than just pom-poms and smiles on the sidelines.
Brooklyn Moore, a Freshman on the ADM cheer team, experienced a major concussion during the 2025-’26 season. “Right now it’s just a sport but if you get a concussion or injuries that can affect you from doing certain things in life because you weren’t being safe in a sport, you can affect your school and general health.” Moore said.
Yes the same can be said about any sport when you get a major injury but it’s the skills and action that are performed during cheerleading make cheer dangerous and injury prone. “Whenever you tumble it affects all your joints in your body and can cause further injuries.” She said after being asked the specific parts of cheer that cause these injuries.
Moore later pointed out that many people only see the impressive tricks and skills performed at games or pep rallies because that’s the primary job for cheerleaders at those events. People aren’t seeing all the work being put in along with the mental and physical injuries that come with it.
Brenna Lucht is a Sophomore on the cheer team. Lucht explained the dangers that the cheer team encounters daily during their season, “We’re in a building with no air conditioning and then practicing for two hours, and with stunting we have girls being launched really high into the air so we need to make sure we catch them and don’t let them fall on the ground so girls don’t get concussions or other injuries.” Dealing with no air conditioning while throwing girls high in the air or being thrown in the air is very dangerous. There are various health concerns from heat stroke to broken bones. Safety is highly important to keep all the girls in good health.
Claire Roorda, a senior who’s been on the cheer team for four years, has experienced and observed many injuries during her time on the team. “It’s important to be safe so that we can have our whole team there, especially for competition because it’s such a high-risk high-reward sport. You have to really put your body on the line so it’s important to have everyone there and be safe so you can do everything to its fullest potential.” Throughout her four years Roorda has watched many injuries arise and learned how to keep everyone safe to ensure an injury free season. Roorda says that sideline cheerleading is different from competitive cheerleading though.
She said “You want to have everyone there because you need a bigger team so you can be loud and be vocal towards the stands and you can do simpler skills.” Although competitive cheerleading has more risk of injury and the importance of safety is higher, there is still risk with sideline as they’re still throwing girls in the air and creating pyramids to wow the crowd.
Isla Thompson is a Freshman who had various ankle sprains throughout her cheer season. “I would say something that makes cheer dangerous is stunting, because it’s really easy for one of our flyers, or honestly anyone, to get a concussion-especially if you don’t catch your flyer.” Thompson said.
After being asked how they ensure safety at practice Thompson responded with “If somebody hits the ground everybody has to do bear crawls to make it a team effort so that hopefully it doesn’t keep happening over and over.” Thompson also exclaimed how it’s hard for the girls to keep a smile on their face all while they’re pushing their bodies to the limit and fullest potential. As well as making sure everything they’re doing is being executed safely, but still performing for the crowd.
A lot of risk comes with sidelines. There are various injuries that happen every year on the cheer team. This is why safety is extremely important for them as they are throwing girls in the air, being thrown in the air, and putting a large amount of pressure on their joints when tumbling. This sport is far more than smiles and pom-poms.
