On October 7, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law which made high school cheerleading a state-recognized sport. Joining at least 35 other states, including New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire, California is now choosing to recognize and value their athletes by requiring state-wide safety procedures and guidelines for coaches and athletes. This is a huge step forward for the sport (yes, I said sport). Requiring proper safety procedures and training for coaches severely decreases the risk of injury. These precautions can help combat the inherent safety risks present whenever cheerleaders are lifting people in the air or throwing their bodies upside down to perform a stunt or tumbling pass.

The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research has released data gathered between the 1981 and the 2013 school years, and has reported that there have been over 120 catastrophic injuries (injuries where death, paralysis, or other severe injuries with long, sometimes even never-ending recovery periods occurred) acquired from cheerleading routines, and thousands of unreported “lesser” injuries (such as muscle tears, broken bones, or concussions) as well. With cheerleading’s new classification as a sport, the more serious injuries cheerleaders acquire should disappear from the NCCSIR’s radar.

As a lifelong cheerleader, I’m very vocal about my desire for cheerleading to be considered more than just an “athletic endeavor." While I love cheering on the sidelines (Go Pirates!), nothing holds a spirit stick to competing. Competition cheerleading combines acrobatics, gymnastics, dance, and the crowd-leading skills game-day cheerleaders embody to craft a perfect routine. These routines are scored by human judges following strict guidelines set forth by a governing body--much the same way that gymnastics, diving, or dance are judged. Technique and execution of stunts and tumbling are weighted on the score sheet, as well as a routine’s overall effect on the crowd. Countless hours of practice (my high school team had practice or competitions up to six days a week during the height of our season) go into perfecting a single two and a half-minute routine. Without official recognition as a sport, 99.99 percent of cheerleaders aren’t competing for college scholarships or a professional cheerleading career. Cheerleaders are sacrificing friends, social lives, and even sleep because they absolutely love their sport!

The risks of the sport will never outweigh the benefits for me though. While I’ve had my fair share of sprains, strains, and mild concussions, bonding with my team has made me a much stronger person--and I’m not just talking about being physically stronger. I’ve learned how to take constructive criticism and make corrections. I’ve trusted people to have my back when I attempt something new, and have felt them be there to catch me. I can be that support system for others because I’ve had people to lift me up, both literally and figuratively. I’ve learned to positively present myself online and in person, in uniform and out, because there’s always someone looking up to you. Volunteering has become a hobby of mine, partly because of how much fun I had volunteering with my cheerleading teams. My time management skills are on absolute fire because I’ve had practices and appearances take over my schedule since I was six years old, and I can speak in public now because I’ve had to smile like an idiot while shouting at people who generally ignore my presence on a weekly basis. Cheerleading, with or without its new classification as a sport, has made my life infinitely better, and I hope that it can have that influence on other people as well--and the way to do that is by formally declaring it a sport and making it as safe as possible.