All-Star Cali Aces Jamz Incident

[cheerninja13]

This is horrable!!!! All comps should have rule that state that an EMT should be present at each proformance and that music should be stop in accout of ingury.

 

[cheerninja13]

And this is exactly what I'd do if I was a coach!!!

SAME!

 

[OMGitsMELANIE]

Does anyone have an update on how the girls are doing??

 

[Battle Bows]

While the situation was unfortunate, I am glad to hear that they are all okay and are healing/returning to practice!

 

[Battle Bows]

Does anyone have an update on how the girls are doing??

I only know about the two girls colliding during the fulls-
One girl is back at practice, and has her staples out. The other girl has her staples out but still has bleeding and should be back to practice in 3ish days, from what I heard on her instagram.

 

[KyleesDad]

I read this with interest as I have been considering pulling my daughter from competitive cheer. I grew up playing football, baseball and basketball. I will tell you that the athletes are much better taken care of and respected as athletes than cheer coaches do of cheerleaders (in my experience and from what i have learned over last year). it is not uncommon for girls under 12 to take advil before practice, knee braces and such for young girls. my daughter was reprimanded because she turned an ankle and had trouble doing tumbling,. she is 8 on Jr 4 team. I want her to cheer and she loves it, but at what price? this example shows me at no point during her comp career will the athletes and their safety be placed first. I am really disappointed. No matter how big the trophy or ego of a coach, the safety and well-being of the cheerleaders should always be put first.

 

[NEliteSteven]

I read this with interest as I have been considering pulling my daughter from competitive cheer. I grew up playing football, baseball and basketball. I will tell you that the athletes are much better taken care of and respected as athletes than cheer coaches do of cheerleaders (in my experience and from what i have learned over last year). it is not uncommon for girls under 12 to take advil before practice, knee braces and such for young girls. my daughter was reprimanded because she turned an ankle and had trouble doing tumbling,. she is 8 on Jr 4 team. I want her to cheer and she loves it, but at what price? this example shows me at no point during her comp career will the athletes and their safety be placed first. I am really disappointed. No matter how big the trophy or ego of a coach, the safety and well-being of the cheerleaders should always be put first.

No offense, but it sounds like you maybe just haven't found the correct gym.
As far as this incident at Cali, this was completely unexpected and an athlete error. They lined up in the wrong spot. I don't think it has anything to do with Cali not putting safety first.

 

[KyleesDad]

thank you for feedback and I thought that as well, although we have been at 2 gyms in 2 different states. I went out and visited several other gyms and spent some time speaking with parents at other gyms over the last year, as i was concerned about your point. Maybe we are, but if so, there are several people from several different gyms who have not found the correct gym. I meant no disrespect to the gym in Cali, just cant imagine being there and seeing that happen and not having a first reaction to aid the injuried. I think when I was coaching college sports, not sure if i could have seen something like that and stood by. I guess until you are there and see it, we are all just monday morning quarterbacks, not sure just how i am feeling now

 

[Just-a-Mom]

No offense, but it sounds like you maybe just haven't found the correct gym.
As far as this incident at Cali, this was completely unexpected and an athlete error. They lined up in the wrong spot. I don't think it has anything to do with Cali not putting safety first.

I have to side with KyleesDad on this. I have never, in 2 states and 4 programs felt like my kids' injuries were taken seriously. The only thing that seemed "serious" was the tone with which they were told they "have to" compete or they'd be letting their teammates down. No question about the injury or what the dr said or anything. I got as far as "We just left the ER..." before I was told "Um, we have a competition tomorrow. She's competing."

She didn't compete.

I think it's a tough call sometimes - it's very hard to tell when you're dealing with kids (and adults sometimes) what is actually serious and what isn't. My cp gets a cold and you'd swear from looking at her and listening to her she was dying of the black plague. But I will say there have been a few times that I've not appreciated the way a coach (who is usually someone in their early 20s, in college...not a medical professional) telling my child whether or not she has a "real" injury.

I'm torn because I know it'd be easy to swing completely the opposite direction and have a gym full of kids with papercuts saying they had to sit out. But I really do think cheerleading does a horrible job of preventing injuries and an even more horrible job of dealing with them once they happen. The concern is always the team and the trophy shelves rather than the athlete. And yes, I said always. I've never encountered anything else.

Yes, I think there are injuries and sicknesses that you can practice and compete with. But I also think there is a line and cheerleading doesn't seem to have figured out where that line is yet. All other sports my kids are in treat injuries very differently than cheer does. That's not to say the kids don't participate injured and sick, just that there's more consideration put into it.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I guarantee we come back to this thread in 3 months and nothing has happened. If fact, Im gonna bookmark this page on my computer and actually come back to in 3 months to see what the "USASF" does.

This is one of my favorite things you've ever said. You're so right, nothing will happen. It's been less than 2 weeks and I'll bet money it's already been forgotten.

 

[redsmom]

I just hope that Cali is requiring a release from a doctor for the girls with head injuries, you only get one brain and you need to protect it!

 

[FierceandFearless]

I just hope that Cali is requiring a release from a doctor for the girls with head injuries, you only get one brain and you need to protect it!

I'm sure they are.

 

[KikiD22]

My cp gets a cold and you'd swear from looking at her and listening to her she was dying of the black plague

Umm... Didn't your child recently have black plague?

Kidding. Sorry, couldn't resist. Back to the serious discussion now.

 

[wide-worlds-joy]

Ever since I saw this incident on Tumblr and then watching the video here, I've been really REALLY worried about the four girls who were hurt. Head lacerations are really freaking serious and they can cause all kinds of unanticipated problems, but also a torn ligament isn't anything to brush off. Broken ribs, even just cracked ones, mean that someone needs to just sit things out.

I'm still new to following the sport here, so I won't criticize the people on Jamz who were running the thing, nor will I make comments about the organizations who ensure standards, or the gyms themselves. But I worry about the girls.

In any other sport, from Golf to Tennis to Full Contact Karate, to Sumo to Mixed Martial Arts to Basketball, these injuries would bench the player for AT LEAST two months, if not for the season. I'm terrified that these four girls will be back in the gym, days after getting the staples out, casts off, or the bandages removed trying to get back to the same level they were at before the injury. Which could result in permanent disability.

And unlike Football or some other top level sport, there's no real retirement plan for a Cheerleader, no matter how many medals and trophies they have.

Heck, even as a Professional Cheerleader, like the Laker Girls or the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, there's nothing to support them, not even a paycheck in some cases. (I know a former DCC IRL and she was really forthcoming with a lot of info I didn't know, like the girls can't be fans of Football.) ALL there is is the sport and the pushing for excellence, but in this case it can lead to something that could potentially wind up causing chronic pain and disability from the time they are 20 until they die, and that would be a horror from this.

I don't know what the solution is, only that IMO all of us, fans, parents, coaches and athletes who love this sport need to get together and make sure the governing committees who are supposed to make it fun and fair for everyone know that we will not tolerate OR SUPPORT or put our children/bodies in harms way when there is nothing in place to either prevent or help recover from accidents like this.

If (gods forbid) a football team acted this way, whether college or professional, or for that matter, High School, the governing committees would come down on them like a ton of bricks and the guilty parties would lose their franchise so fast it would make their heads spin. There would be lawsuits and banning for life from the sport, and possibly jail time.

I am not saying that it should happen here, but I'm saying the disparity of action is really REALLY hypocritical. These girls are supposed to cheer and support athletes that are treated better than they are. If it were me, I think I'd be hella resentful.

 

[Callmeboots]

I think the reason why cheer is treated so differently than other sports when it comes to injuries is because in other sports like basketball or football, yes it may negatively affect the team if one player is out injured, but they don't need every single one of their players on the field at all times. In a routine, every single person is important, and most of the time teams don't have backups, because it wouldn't be fair to just have alternates learning and practicing a whole routine for months and then just having them sit out for the competition. Even in dance or other performance type sports, yeah, the formation might be off, but most of the time they don't have to be lifting other people, and nobody else is LITERALLY depending on them for something in the routine/game to happen.

Is it right that coaches push their kids to the very edge when it comes to injuries? No...but I can understand that moment of panic when it's a week before competition and a girl sprains something. It's usually not something as severe as a break where they put a cast on it, and there's really nothing you can do about it...it's more the smaller scale injuries, like a pulled muscle or a strained back...the grey areas. Where do you, as a coach, draw the line and just suck it up and say "we're just gonna have to deal and go out with what we have."

I've coached a team that had our main flyer quit the week before competition...the stunt group just marked the entire routine...we weren't all star, but they didn't mark us down for it. Had it been an injury, we would have had to do the same thing.

When I coached Pop Warner, if there was a girl not competing that was on the team, she had to have an absentee form stating why. I think EPs should have some sort of the same system in place. At least there would be some sort of accountability for it.

Like I said earlier in the thread, this whole incident has really made me more aware of making sure the girls know when to stop, and when I know when to pull them out, if there ever is an injury. I feel like I definitely sometimes get too caught up in the scoresheet and the performance that I've pushed aside minor injuries, but I'm going to try to reevaluate my stance on things like this. The girls' safety really is ultimately what's important, not the program's reputation on the floor.