Competition, Dinner Dance, Church Singing, Oh My...

This weekend has been a very busy one for me. Saturday started off bright and early at 5:30 A.M. when I woke up to get ready and leave for a cheerleading competition. We loaded the bus at 7:00 A.M. and arrived at 9:00 A.M. We performed at 10:20 A.M. and did a fabulous job. All our stunts hit and everything we changed worked out, even though we only had one practice beforehand. We ended up placing second out of four squads which I am very satisfied with. Right after my squad performed most of us left because that night was the Senior Dinner Dance at our school and most of the girls had hair appointments to attend. So after leaving I arrived home around 12:30 P.M. and started to get ready. I was finally ready around 4:00 P.M. when my family, my boyfriend and his mother arrived to take pictures. We then left at 5:00 P.M. to go get group pictures with some of our friends. Finally we made it to the dance around 6:00 P.M. We had a blast and danced the night away. One big plus about the dance this year was the food was actually very good and you got a lot more to eat than usual. And then to top this hectic weekend off, I had to wake up around 8:00 A.M. this morning to go sing at a church with the ensemble. Most of us were extremely exhausted from the dance last night, but we still pulled off a great performance. And now finally I get to take a breather a rest for the rest of my day.





America's Living Longer

As the technology and grade of health care rises, so does the number of years we are living. According to an article on The New York Times website, the life expectancy in the United States has risen above 78 years of age.


The estimate of 78 years 2 months is for a baby born in 2009, and comes from a preliminary report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts do not believe there is one simple explanation for the increase, but better medical treatment, vaccination campaigns and public health measures against smoking are believed to be having an impact. The infant mortality rate hit a record low of 6.42 deaths per 1,000 live births, a drop of nearly 3 percent from 2008. Male life expectancy is roughly 75.5; for females, it is about 80.5.


As the mortality rate goes down and the life expectancy goes up, one question comes to mind; won't this also cause population to increase? And where will all these people be living? Our planet is already tight on space. So maybe in the near future we'll finally see scientists start to really take a look at how we could live on another planet.

High School Competition Squad of the Week

Peachtree Ridge High School Varsity Coed  2008

If you're not first, you're last. Well I think it's OK to get second place, which is what this squad did. Second place doesn't mean you had a bad routine or you did awful; it just means one other squad did better than you. This squad really only had one little fall, which probably cost them the first place title. However this routine was packed full of cleanly executed and difficult stunts and tumbling passes. This just goes to show, second doesn't mean last.

Back to the Grind

This Saturday, after two months off, I finally got back into competitive cheerleading. And what a way to come back it was; I came back right in time for a national competition and my secondary base was taking the SAT's, so the girl that had been filling my flying position was now my base. One good thing about coming back for this competition was I had three practices to get back into things instead of the usual one. However, those first three practices really made my muscles sore and tired me out. Cheerleading works muscles you hardly ever use and after not using them for two months, waking up the morning after practice was not a fun time. We ended up getting second at this national competition, even though we received a fifteen point deduction for an illegal stunt. However, in warm-ups I was so nervous I didn't know if I was going to make it through the routine. After being out because of breathing problems, going back to the one thing that gave me trouble breathing was a scary thought. Somehow I manged to push through and ended up being fine and hitting all my stunts and tumbling passes.

We have another competition this coming Saturday and I'm glad to say my base will be back. This is also the say of the Senior Dinner Dance, so it will be an early morning and a long ride but hopefully we can pull out another win.

March is National Cheerleading Safety Month

While some people do not view cheerleading as a sport, I hope everyone can agree on its dangers. Because cheerleading is the number one most dangerous woman's sport, the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA) is hosting a course to educate coaches on how to spot and perform cheerleading stunts and tumbling safely.

Varsity, the leading organization in cheerleading camps and education, announced that it will provide free safety certification courses to the first 200 coaches to log on to the National Federation of State High School Association’s website to take the course in March. This initiative is part of National Cheerleading Safety Month and Varsity’s ongoing mission to raise awareness about the importance of coaches’ education in keeping cheerleading safe for all participants.

“Athlete safety is of paramount importance to us,” said Founder and CEO Jeff Webb. “We want every school’s cheer program to take advantage of the best resources available, and are excited to provide this opportunity to coaches nationwide.”

Providing this program for coaches will hopefully cut down on the number of injuries. I've seen at least one girl on my squad each year get injured, from getting a finger nail ripped off to the tearing of ACLs.

More than 22,000 coaches have already completed the comprehensive risk management course on site and online. The course was created by the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators (AACCA), the leading safety certification and risk management organization, founded in 1987.  Varsity, which includes the Universal Cheerleaders Association, National Cheerleaders Association and United Spirit Association, has worked with AACCA for more than 20 years, providing a comprehensive safety training curriculum for coaches, advisers and students of school-based programs.

Last summer alone, more than 300,000 cheerleaders completed a Safety Awareness Program at camps across the country. AACCA has been endorsed by the NFHS and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and is seen as the standard of care in cheerleading safety nationwide. 

My squad goes to a Varsity sponsored camp and every year the camp instructors go over safety rules and remind us of safe stunting techniques. Always remember to SLACK while stunting. "S" is for spotter. "L" is for know your limits. "A" is for positive attitude. "C" is for confidence. "K" is for knowledge.  Coaches can complete the AACCA Cheerleading Safety Course online by following the steps at aacca.org/safetycourse.

High School Competition Squad of the Week

Graves County High School Large Coed Varsity 2011

This week I decided to choose a coed high school squad. With a coed squad you have the opportunity to do single-based stunts and throw your tosses higher, thanks to the muscular men. This squad has definitely taken advantage of having guys on their squad; their tosses are double the height of any all girl squad I've seen and most of their stunts are single based. Even though most guys think cheerleading is a girls sport or not a sport at all, I encourage any guy to give it a try. I mean, what's more manly than throwing a girl around and not to mention you get to spend around ten hours a week with these girls.

Is Looking Good for Prom Worth the Risk?

With prom season coming up, many teenage girls and boys are hitting up the tanning salons. However, how many of them are aware of the damage it can do to their skin or the risk it can cause of developing skin cancer? According to a report on CNN.com, teenagers should be banned from the tanning beds (Teens should be banned from tanning booths, doctors say).

It's an activity the nation's pediatricians say is dangerous. Laws should ban minors from going to tanning parlors, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced Monday. This echoes positions of the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Dermatology. Melanoma affects the deepest layer of the skin and poses dangers because it spreads rapidly. Since 1992 it has been increasing by 3% each year in women between the ages of 15 and 39. "We are looking for legislation that prohibits kids from going to tanning salons. It's protecting our youth from something potentially harmful," said Dr. Sophie Balk, lead author of the statement written by an American Academy of Pediatrics committee.

The Indoor Tanning Association disagrees that tanning should be legislated. "We're talking about getting a sun tan," said John Overstreet, the association's spokesman. "This is a decision best left for parents, not the government. Let parents make the decision." He added that there is no scientific evidence that tanning is any worse at a younger age.

I will admit that I tan during the prom season, however, I usually only go for 16 minutes, once a week for maybe three or four weeks before the dance. I understand the risks and my mother even works in a doctors office, but I also life guard during the summer and I view my job as more of a danger for my skin than tanning for that little of time. I do not think that tanning should be out-lawed for teens but maybe some regulations should be put on it. Regulations that regulate how many times a week and how many minutes a teen is allowed to be in a tanning bed would seem more realistic than banning this activity. Because honestly you can buy a tanning bed to put in your home, so maybe teens wouldn't be allowed to tan in a salon but they could still do it at home. However, along with the regulations, tanning salons should be mandated to tell teen customers about the risks associated with tanning before they get in the booths.

While kids may not be more vulnerable to skin cancers, they are less capable of making responsible decisions, said Dr. David Fisher, chief of dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "The industry has exploited this fact," he said. "They have packaged deals for repeat use."  The ads appear before prom season and offer student discounts. "

There have been a few instances where statements have been made that [ultraviolet rays] are healthy because of vitamin D. That's an extremely irresponsible concept that leads children or parents to think, 'It isn't so bad. What's wrong with looking good for prom?'" Tanning is a poor method of getting vitamin D, doctors say. The safer methods are supplements or incidental sun exposure. There are two types of radiation. UVA rays cause deeper damage to the skin, leading to wrinkles and DNA damage that causes the darkening. UVB rays cause sunburns. Sunlamps and tanning beds emit UVA rays that give customers a glow without a sunburn.

In their quest for a glowing tan, teenagers are pre-aging their skin by 10 to 20 years, Fisher warned. "It causes them to wrinkle later on and increases risk of skin cancer," said Balk, an attending pediatrician at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore, New York. "It doesn't mean everyone develops skin cancer, but it increases the risk."

Aging your skin by 10 to 20 years, as a teenage girl this is not something I want to do to my skin. But also I want to look good in my prom dress, so for me choosing to only tan once a week for a few weeks seems like a good balance. I also do not plan to continue tanning in college; once I'm done with the prom-thing I'll also be done with the tanning-thing. Maybe some teenagers out there will rethink their tanning plans after knowing about the risk they are putting themselves at for cancer.