A thumb injury―to a soccer player, it means nothing, but to a cheerleader, it means quite a bit more.
It’s needed for the basics of cheer―stunting and tumbling. With a thumb injury, it makes these things impossible, as it did for senior Erin Kelly.
Kelly dislocated her thumb in the middle of the season at practice while stunting, ending her cheerleading career. She was catching someone, but her hand was facing out. The girl came right down onto her thumb.
“[My thumb] was pushed down, and it looked disgusting,” Kelly said. “I just started freaking out, and I just fell down to the ground. It was really painful.”
The doctor told her that she would be off the cheer mats for four weeks. Kelly had an MRI done to see if surgery would be needed, but after getting the result back, the doctor told her that she would not need it.
And this wasn’t the first time that Kelly has been out due to an injury. Just last year, she broke her hand by doing a backhandspring. She jammed her finger and heard it crack.
“[I’ve been cheering] since I was 5 so it’s really sad that I had to miss two seasons,” Kelly said.
As a senior on the varsity cheer team for all four of her high school years, Kelly says it’s hard to watch the team and not be able to participate. However, Kelly still goes to one practice a week and will still be there to support her team at all the competitions. She is still able to cheer at the football games, but she is unable to participate in any stunting.
Because of this, Katie Host, one of the team’s three alternates, has been taking her place. With their first competition taking place on Sunday, Oct. 22, Host had a whole routine that she had to learn.
“I had eight practices to learn the routine and I wouldn’t say it’s been difficult but rather challenging,” Host said. “However since I’ve been cheering for years, I have the experience and expertise to get up to speed.”
After all of Host’s hard work, Kelly had said that she did a great job at the competition considering that the team came in first place.
With winter cheer approaching quickly, Kelly doesn’t know if she is willing to be back for that season.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to do that,” Kelly said. “I’m scared, and I feel like it will still hurt when I try to do stuff.”
On November 5, the team traveled to Pinkerton to compete in the state championships. The team put up a good fight and got the outcome they wanted.
“I was so proud of my team when they first called that they got first,” Kelly said, “but after all the celebrating, I was upset that I didn’t get to compete with them.”
As many athletes know, it’s hard to come back after one injury, but for Kelly, she’d be coming back from two.
“I was expecting this year to be a good year,” Kelly said. “I think I’m done with cheering after two injuries, I’m just kind of done with it.”
