Cheerleading Safety From AACCA. Solutions to address the risks involved in cheerleading.

The National Federation of State High Schools Association just released results of a survey that shows nearly 400,000 high school student participate in cheerleading. The survey was the first comprehensive study of high school cheerleading participation. According to the study, released May 20, the current participation of freshman, junior varsity and varsity cheerleading in high schools is 394,694.

We are very happy to have a more accurate report of the number of cheerleading participants at the high school level. This number helps AACCA to gauge the effectiveness of our training programs, rules modifications and safety outreach programs.

In our effort to improve cheerleading safety, we’ve been working to get an accurate assessment of the risks of cheering. We are thrilled to learn that the NFHS will begin tracking cheerleading injuries through its partnership with Dr. Dawn Comstock, a sports injury researcher at Ohio State University. The inclusion of cheerleading in the NFHS sports injury studies is a very positive step as it will give us detailed data on injuries using the same methods as other sports.

Survey Highlights

• The new number only includes cheerleaders at schools that are members of the NFHS, which does not include a significant number of cheerleaders from private or parochial schools, and should only be used as a minimum estimate for overall participation. Including those other school would place the actual number of high school cheerleaders well above 400,000.

• With 18,922 NFHS high schools counted, the new figure of 394,694 translates to an average of 21 cheerleaders per school.

The new figure is more than four times the number that had been used in previous reports and studies of cheerleading injuries. When used in sports injuries research, the old participation numbers often produced catastrophic injury statistics for cheerleading that were inflated because participation was underreported, especially when compared to other athletic activity.

Other research from American Sports Data puts overall cheerleading participation at 3.73 million individuals, including school, recreational, collegiate and all star cheerleaders.