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OkillSports 22SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2011 Abbey Park cheerleaders pay a price for their successBy Chris ZelkovichPLENTY TOTORONTO STARCHEER ABOUT:Dont mention pom-poms to the Abbey Members of the Park Eagles.Abbey Park EaglesIts not that the members of the high cheerleading teamschools two-time national champion cheer-huddle up during leading team dont have a sense of humour, a practice last its just that what they do has as much in week at the common with waving pom-poms as table school. The Eagles hockey has to the NHL game.recently won theIn fact, the Abbey Park team is basically grand champion-cheer-less. The team's only actual cheering ship of the this school year came during a fundraising advanced division basketball game.at the national Training for acrobatic tumbling routines cheerleadingjust doesnt allow time for either rah-rah-rah championships in or sis-boom-bah.Niagara Falls, theIt bothers us a lot when people think we second straight should be cheering at football games, says year they captured18-year-old team member Lauren Chandler. the honour.Nobody really We're prettyunderstands what ADRIAN VECZAN / we do and that TORONTO STARtough. You havewere not waving to be. The weakber into the air and catching her after a few school when it was called Queen Elizabethleading is basically tight sweaters, short skirtspom-poms. Even ones get weeded spins.Park. Cheerleaders train just as hard as ath-and corny slogans.some of the new out pretty fast.Another member of the team suffered a letes in other sports.Its hard to change peoples views ongirls who came out concussion and Chandlers sister, Paige, In fact, two members of the team arecheerleading, admits co-coach Taryn Davis.didnt realize how Abbey Parkchipped a tooth colliding with another gym-nationally-ranked gymnasts, the sport thatBut if they really saw what we do, they wouldtough this is.Eagles cheerleadernasts knee. There were also numerous sprains, competitive cheerleading most closely resem-realize that the girls are athletes and that its aWere pretty Lauren Chandlerscrapes and bruises that naturally come with bles.competitive sport.tough. You have to flipping yourself and others into the air.When the team entered the stage at theAttitudes are changing, says Ontariobe. The weak ones You get hit with knees and elbows all the nationals in Niagara Falls, there was cheering,Cheerleading Federation president Amandaget weeded out pretty fast.time, says Lauren Chandler. But we dont but it came from the audience. After that, itMaronese, whose organization oversees aboutTough is barely an adequate word to really mind. Its like all sports.was three minutes of a high-energy gymnas-4,000 competitors. A move to standardizedescribe the 42-member Abbey Park team While there is debate about whether com-tics floor routine.rules across the country will only take that athat handily won its advanced girls division at petitive cheerleading qualifies as a sport There were flips, cartwheels, lifts and toss-step further, she says.the national high school championships the NCAA is considering a move to have it es. At one point, there were six girls flyingThe girls certainly put in their hours. Theyrecently.declared thus those involved say theres no through the air.practise at least five hours a week at the schoolChandler suffered nerve damage to her question about it.Despite the fact not a pom-pom could beand the Oakville Gymnastics Club and put inlarynx in January when she was struck in the Sure its a sport, says Abbey Park co-found nor a go-team-go heard, the Eagles stillas many as 14 hours a week leading up tothroat by an errant elbow while executing a See Cheerleaders, page 23coach Laura Krumpek, who competed for the cant get away from the perception that cheer-basket toss - basically throwing a team mem-