Rough and tumble

Emily Richmond, Las Vegas Sun

Saturday, April 14, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.

In November, after his daughter shattered her forearm during a high school cheerleading practice, Assemblyman Garn Mabey took a deep breath.

"Accidents happen," he told himself.

But when 17-year-old Sarah Mabey's injury failed to heal properly, her father took a closer look at the safety regulations surrounding high school cheerleading - which, nationally, leads to more serious injuries among female students than all other women's sports combined.

Mabey, a physician, wasn't happy with what he found out.

The stunt his daughter had been rehearsing at Bonanza High School violated the safety standards recommended by national cheerleading associations. He also learned that Nevada has no training or certification requirements for spirit squad advisers or coaches, often teachers or parents who volunteer for the job.

"You go to the games, they throw the girls up in the air, and I've always felt a little uncomfortable," Mabey said. "We need to make sure the coaches are trained and these kids are safe."

Under Assembly Bill 386, authored by Mabey, R-Las Vegas, and approved unanimously by the Assembly Education Committee this week, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association would be required to adopt mandatory qualifications for spirit squad coaches. Additionally, the state association would draft safety standards that "substantially comply" with the spirit squad rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations and the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators, according to the bill's language.

The two organizations outline proper technique for tumbling and stunts, recommend limits on riskier maneuvers and offer certification programs for coaches.

AB386 is expected to find strong support when it heads to a floor vote in coming weeks.

Just how strict Nevada's regulations would become remains to be seen. Eddie Bonine, executive director of the state activities association, said he knows one thing already: There should be a requirement that only squads with certified coaches be allowed to compete in the state championship.

The Nevada Spirit Coaches Association sponsors workshops and seminars to help members earn credentials from the national association. But participation by Nevada's high school coaches is optional. The group expects coaches to follow the National Federation of State High School Associations' rules. It even levies fines for violations. But there's little teeth to the enforcement, largely because its expectations are not backed up by state law.

"They don't follow the rules because they don't have to," said Nicole Chappell, the Southern Nevada director of the spirit coaches association.

The group meets twice a year to hand out copies of the rule book and go over changes, but many coaches don't show up. New coaches may not even know there are rules.

In Nevada, cheerleading falls under the heading of "spirit squads" in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association's rule book and is not subject to the more rigorous regulations for sports.

Bill Garis, Clark County School District athletic director, said he agrees with Mabey that it's time to update the regulations.

The days when pompom girls kept both feet firmly planted on the sidelines are long gone, he said.

"Those squads have become very technical and athletic," Garis said. "I was always very nervous when I was a principal, watching kids being flipped up in the air 20 feet."

Following a string of serious cheerleading accidents across the country - especially on slippery floors - several national associations limit the types of routines and stunts that may be performed during college basketball games and other indoor venues. And as of the 2006-07 school year, the NCAA requires all its cheerleading coaches be certified.

From 1982 to 2005, the number of high school and college students participating in cheerleading skyrocketed - as did the number of injured cheerleaders. Cheerleading accounted for the majority of the most serious injuries to female high school and college athletes during that period, more than all other sports combined, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.

One reason: more difficult maneuvers. Routines typically include complicated acrobatics and risky stunts in which smaller, lighter girls - called fliers - are tossed into the air by teammates.

Two years ago Ashley Burns, a 14-year-old flier on her Medford, Mass., high school squad, died from a lacerated spleen after she was caught awkwardly by her teammate.

The growing popularity of cheerleading in Southern Nevada is evidenced by the numerous private studios, gyms and training centers that have begun offering classes in recent years. These so-called all-star gyms also have squads that take part in private competitions. The state activities association limits participation in outside leagues, and as a result, many cheerleaders must choose between their high school squads and the more competitive private squads.

Bailey Mills, who graduated from Sierra Vista High School in 2006 and is a student at the Community College of Southern Nevada, chose the varsity squad over the all-star league.

Cheering at the games "was a big part of the fun," Mills said.

Because of the outside training they receive, more students are bringing a higher level of skills with them when they try out for the school squad. Some high school coaches are unprepared to supervise the stunts their students are learning elsewhere and are unfamiliar with the safety recommendations.

"The majority of the high school coaches I've met have either zero training in cheer, or cheered for a year in high school," said Nicole Henigen, a former cheerleader and owner of Las Vegas Elements Training Center, which has racked up 20 national all-star titles in its first year of operation.

One of Henigen's coaches, Stacey Wilcox, said she has worked with several local high school squads on choreography and tumbling. But her offers of assistance are frequently rebuffed by advisers who say they don't want their varsity squads risking injury by participating in the more strenuous routines.

Wilcox, a certified coach who has more than 21 years of experience in cheerleading, said private gyms are safer than the school programs because they provide padded mats and appropriate supervision. By comparison, Henigen and Wilcox said , they've seen school squads practicing in cafeterias, in libraries and on pavement. Their students often come in with sprains, bumps and bruises from practices for school teams.

At 5 feet, 2 inches, Sarah Mabey was a flier on the Bonanza varsity squad. In November her squad was practicing a stunt in which two of Sarah's teammates grasped her feet and raised her up over their heads. The lift didn't go smoothly, and Sarah wobbled for a moment before crashing to the floor, landing on her right arm.

She learned later there should have been at least three people serving as the "base" for the flier.

The Bonanza squad comes up with its own routines, said Sarah, who has never trained at a private gym.

"One of the other girls said, 'Hey, we should try this,' " Sarah recalled. "We didn't know we shouldn't have been doing it."

She's in favor of more training for coaches and limits on stunts but doesn't want cheerleaders grounded entirely.

"That's part of the excitement of it, flying up into the air," Sarah said. "You can still have that and be safer at the same time."

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