National Cheer Safety Foundation Discover 30 Unreported Catastrophic Injuries to Cheerleaders Since 1982

    /24-7PressRelease/ - IRVINE, CA, August 08, 2008 - The National Cheer Safety Foundation is now sharing online cheer injury data with Dr. Fred Mueller, Founder and Director of the Catastrophic Sports Injury Research Center in an effort to reveal injury data that will help alert industry leaders to troubling injury trends and be a catalyst for developing additional prevention strategies that will decrease cheer injuries resulting in death or disabilities. After reviewing over 200 cheer injuries, 30 classified as catastrophic plus the deaths of Ashley Burns and Lauren Chang, a pattern of delayed emergency medical services emerged and the NCSF jumped in to expand the Rehearsed Catastrophic Injury Emergency Plan for Competitive Cheerleaders to a comprehensive 9 page color guide to aid coaches during emergencies. The guide is free and can be downloaded at www.nationalcheersafety.com/emergencyplan.pdf .

"For cheerleading injuries to account for 2/3 of all catastrophic injuries to female athletes in high school and college is a huge red flag that will require identifying what factors put athletes' at risk for injury to begin with, implementing new strategies, studying effects and making new changes to increase effectiveness. We have to stop comparing cheerleading injuries to other sports, or defending the alarming number of life altering injuries and get serious about learning from injuries that have already happened," stated Kimberly Archie, Executive Director of the NCSF.

After completing this year's annual report Dr. Fred Mueller advised that, "Cheerleading should be considered a sport and as such should have qualified coaches, safe facilities, pre-participation physical exams, sports medicine care, and safe travel. Cheerleading will then receive the recognition it deserves, and injury prevention will play an important role," Dr. Fred Mueller is also professor of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The NCSF also assists cheer programs throughout the United States receive low or no cost Automated External Defibrillators or host their own heart screening. Coaches or gym owners that are interested may contact the foundation at 1-800-596-7860 for more information on how to participate. Memberships are available online for $35 and include a 60 page Cheer Safety Handbook for parents, quarterly newsletter and Annual Cheer Injury Report. The group's efforts will continue to concentrate on injury reporting and prevention . Four year college cheerleading veteran Krista P., also an online injury reporting participant who survived two catastrophic cheerleading injuries, wants cheerleaders to know, "It is imperative that cheerleaders receive proper medical treatment for their injuries and report them for research to the NCSF."

The NCSF sponsored events for National Cheer Safety Awareness Day include a Heart Screening in Anaheim Hills, CA, a Candle Light Vigil in Medford, MA and various cheer programs across the nation gathering to remember athletes like Ashley Burns and rehearse the Catastrophic Injury Emergency Plan for Competitive Cheerleaders. Heart screenings were made possible by the generosity of Heartfelt Cardiac Projects, Bogifit Youth Conditioning Center, Dick Butkus Center for Wellness

About National Cheer Safety Foundation
The nation's premier parent found cheerleading safety organization, the National Cheer Safety Foundation (NCSF) is dedicated to raising the bar in cheer safety to reduce injury, disability, and death from cheerleading injuries and assist families affected by cheerleading injuries. The NCSF has working partnerships with the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research and the National Center for Sports Safety. For more information on the only not-for-profit educational organization for cheer parents, visit www.nationalcheersafety.com. To report cheerleading injuries for research go to www.cheerinjuryreport.com .

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