Had an interesting day today with this odd combination this evening. At Branson at yet another competetive cheerleading competition of my niece's. Large event. Many teams. So lots of girls (and boys) from 6 years old or so up through late teens all decked out in their various uniforms and other competitve gear. What is startling at first about these things but which becomes so common as to be almost dismisssed is the number of injured kids. They still travel with the teams and show their support. But any mass of cheerleaders is going to have within it more than a few braces, bandage wraps, casts, braces and crutches.
My niece's squad is 28 girls normally. My niece led her team across the floor when they went on. She did so on crutches with a broken toe and ligament damage in the foot. She was followed by another teammate also on crutches with an ankle broken in two places. My nieces foot injury happened just after she got out of a brace for a sprained wrist which, itself, followed a broken finger. The other 26 members of their team that did take the floor and perform had one arm in a cast, one elbow brace, and two braced knees. Cheerleading is not for sissies.
In the same convention center was an MMA card tonight. So the two crowds were mixing in the open areas of the convention center. Sitting in a bar and restaurant killing a couple hour dead time there are kids on the floor playing iPads and Kindles and Nintendos and eating chicken strips, grownups scattered around and the cheer and MMA crowd just chilling. One of the MMA fighters commented that he'd seen a lot of injured girls running/hobbling/rolling around and wondered what was up. Told the guy to check the stats on injury for kid's athletics. Cheerleaders get hurt, and get hurt seriously, more than football, soccer or any other. Cheerleading isn't for sissies. "No way" is the guys interested response. Smart phones come out, injury stats are looked up, one MMA guy passes the phone to another and another. Finally a big whistle and a "damn......, and they still keep doing it? These girls are tough!"
That was good enough. But it was followed by couple of the guys sporting their own injuries having to compare notes with the kids scattered around the floor. Then before long the floor is littered with MMA brawlers and cheerleaders in uniform, makeup and bows busily and happily sitting with each other chatting and laughing and comparing injuries. It was a priceless scene.
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Topic: Cheerleaders and MMA (Read 648 times)