Member-only story
In this life, there aren’t too many things that frighten me. Maybe I’m just not very smart, or maybe I’m adventurous. I’ll go with the second one because that sounds better. Either way, I’ll be honest; on a Wednesday night in January, I was shaking in my shoes at the Colville High School.
It all started when I interviewed Elaine Maddox, the Colville Cheerleading Coach and president of the Booster Club, about how well the program was doing and how they’d placed very well at the state competition in 2018. Elaine’s enthusiasm was infectious, and the conversation was informative yet lively. I had so much fun talking with Elaine, in fact, that I got that glint in my eye. Maybe you know that look; it’s the one right before someone says, “Hold my beer.”
Then and there we decided that I would come to one of the cheerleading practices — and be a part of the squad. “Let’s do this thing,” I told her.
My first hint that maybe I’d bitten off more than I could chew came when I started researching cheerleading online. I discovered that the most common injury is concussion. I also found that in 2016, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) voted that cheerleading should be recognized as a sport, and it began its three-year provisional recognition period, The New York Times reported. After that, the sport can petition to be included in the Games. That same year…
