Built on a pyramid of broken bodies and the outstanding ability to trust another with your own life, cheer is a sport unlike any other and not for the weak of heart.
Imagine being tossed 20 feet in the air and your only means of protection is the complete trust that you place in the four girls who threw you. There are no helmets, no knee or shoulder pads, no mouth or shin guards, no chest protection, only a uniform, a bow and the assurance that your base won’t let you fall. The increase in risky cheerleading stunts make cheerleading one of the most dangerous sports in existence and require precision, timing and hours of practice with a skilled coach. The month of March is recognized as National Cheerleading Safety Month. Giving us a golden opportunity to spread awareness about the steps that our local teams are taking for cheerleading safety while enlightening our readers on the fact that though underrated, cheer is a limitless sport, making it absolutely savage compared to the rest. When you think of cheerleading, you probably envision the girls on the sidelines with pompoms and peppy chants, but cheerleading is no longer a pep squad team that leads cheers from the sidelines. It has become a competitive sport, and the cheers have developed into highly acrobatic and gymnastic moves with a higher degree of risk and difficulty. The popular sport now involves complicated choreography that includes tossing people into the air, back-flips, tall human pyramids and other dramatic and risky acrobatic stunts.
“Safety methods used in stunting are important so that flyers and bases alike are using correct techniques to prohibit injuries. These girls are doing “tricks” now that at one time were only witnessed in the circus. The degree of athleticism and strength required is immeasurable, but trust is the ultimate essential for a successful team,” stated SHS Varsity Cheer Coach Luci McNeely.
Luci and her husband, Bob, share an immense love for cheer and both serve as coaches for the local varsity squad. Sharing a strong passion for cheerleading, Luci has served as head varsity coach for football and competition cheer teams for the last 16 years now while Bob has served as assistant coach all the way. Accompanied by Whitney Thompson Brown, the three have led SHS to victory time and time again. The coaching trio shares a common passion for the sport, but understands the absolute seriousness of protecting the safety of Swainsboro High School cheerleaders and going the extra mile to ensure that all protocols are properly implemented and practiced for the protection of everyone on their team. “Accountability is what we practice and preach on and off the mat. Mistakes happen in sports but more importantly in life. It is how you respond to it that makes the difference. If it’s done wrong - do it three times right so that you remember the mistake. We call it the rule of three,” Head Coach McNeely further stated. She also touched base on training requirements of cheer coaches, “Coaches are required to take a rules clinic each year that follows GHSA guidelines as well as national federation,” Luci stated. “We risk serious injury if we aren’t following safety procedures and following proper technique in both stunts and tumbling.”
Going above and beyond, Swainsboro High School is made up of devoted squads who relentlessly bleed black and gold for their alma mater and those who walk its halls. Never allowing fear, tears, or tired muscles to break their confidence and determination for another win.
“These girls are true athletes. Many balance participation in multiple sports while also handling the the physical demands of this particular sport. These girls are in weightlifting just like all the other athletes at SHS. They also have a warmup regiment that involves bleachers and laps with small bursts of cardio. We always say, ‘If you can do it tired then you can do it rested without worry or hesitation.’ This sport is so physically demanding for tumbling, stunting, jumps and dance that you must be a full-rounded athlete to do it all,” Luci commented.
By exercising these safety protocols all while striving for overall team success, SHS cheer teams have brought home some major accomplishments during the 2021-2022 academic school year, the most recent victory taking place over the weekend when SHS sideline cheerleaders competed and placed fifth in the top six at the GHSAA Game Day Cheer state competition held in Macon at Mercer University on Saturday, March 5.
“We are a family and it’s a team sport. You are only as strong as your weakest member. Some of these girls do community service, work-based learning or take college classes, yet they never give up. They practice Monday to Friday until 5:30/6 p.m. and attend private tumbling lessons twice per week. In addition to this, they cheer at football games on Friday night, then get up early on Saturday morning for competitions and when Sunday comes around, we meet to review film, make necessary changes and practice,” Luci continued. “This was our first year participating in Game Day cheer which is only in its third year of a GHSA sanctioned sport. Our finals performance showed the excitement that we feel on the sidelines each Friday night. This year was a record-breaking year for cheer. Not only did the varsity football team make it to the final four, but our competition cheerleaders were also fifth in the state and game day cheerleaders were sixth. This was an amazing year with many spectacular experiences, and the girls looked astonishing.”
Coach Luci hopes that the community understands the incredible amount of effort these girls put in to make Swainsboro look good. The benefits of this program are measured not just in the skill and talent of these young people, but also in the life lessons of hard work, dedication and accountability they demonstrate. And, oh by the way, these young athletes make us all look good because it's one more thing we can be proud of in this place we call home.
