For you concerned parents...

[bogie]

For you concerned parents or students...

I just heard an interesting thing on the radio... Didn't catch quite where to grab the stats, but the gist was that...

Cheerleading

...is the most dangerous high school sport, with the highest serious injury rate.

Now...

SOMEWHERE, the stats are there. And I'm sure that somewhere, one can find a "serious injury rate" statistic for high school shooting teams.

Are you following me?

Next PTA meeting or school board meeting, stand up there, and ask if you can help form a shooting team for your high school. Then when someone gets up on their two hind legs and blathers about how dangerous it is, respond with how dangerous cheerleading is, and _how many times more likely_ (bet it's a lot more than 42...) their little darlings are to end up dead or in a wheelchair than if they competed in organized shooting sports.

 

[GCW5]

As a parent of 3 sons, all played high school, I'm not supprised. It was way harder for me to watch the little girls get thrown in the air and being caught, while standing on asphalt tracks, than it was for my wife to watch the our sons bang heads in pads on the field.

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

Guess I've never really thought of it before, but they get thrown up there pretty darn high, and all there is to catch them are a couple of skinny little girls...

BUT, if that doesn't work, you can always make an argument for the GOLF team as well.

What about La Crosse?

 

[silliman89]

Actually it was the most dangerous GIRLS sport. I can't find it, but as I recall I watched a video news story on my Yahoo home page this morning.

 

[Phaetos]

http://ezinearticles.com/?Cheerlead...-Top-7-Most-Dangerous-Youth-Sports?&id=127767

Cheerleading Injuries Double Since 1990

The Pediatrics study found that cheerleading injuries have more than doubled from 1990 through 2002. Participation, however, grew only 18 percent during that period.

Over the 13-year study, 208,800 5- to 18-year-olds were treated at U.S. hospitals for cheerleading-related injuries. Almost 40 percent involved leg, ankle and foot injuries.

Researchers say the actual number of injuries is likely much greater, though, because the study only involved ER-treated injuries, not those treated at doctors' offices or by team trainers.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2006/01/08/high_risk/?page=2

Last year, the NCAA's Catastrophic Injury Insurance Program found that 25 percent of its claims for college student-athletes since 1998 have resulted from cheerleading. "[That is] second only to football, and football was not that far ahead of it," says Juanita Sheely, NCAA travel and insurance manager. When you consider the ratio of college cheerleaders to football players—about 12 to 100, estimates Sheely—that 25 percent figure is shocking.

During the 2003-2004 school year alone, six cheerleaders across the country sustained catastrophic injuries, according to Mueller's research center. Among high schoolers, one hit her head and was put in a medically induced coma to reduce the swelling of her brain. Another was struck in the back by a teammate's shoulder, sustaining a spinal cord contusion, and yet another was injured when her teammates failed to catch her. At the college level, one fell headfirst into the ground and fractured a cervical vertebra and damaged her spinal cord, resulting in permanent disability, while another plummeted to the ground after being tossed in the air and was paralyzed. The one fatality occurred when a high school girl's heart failed during practice.

How's that for some stats?

 

[bogie]

BEAUTIFUL!

I'm gonna see if they've got anything about the shooting teams...

Guys, consider this:

If every progressive THR member with a high schooler went to a school board meeting, and suggested that they be allowed to form a competitive shooting team, and then when the regressive "concerned parents" freak out goes on to bring up the dangers of... ohmigawd... cheerleading... I think that could be VERY interesting...

 

[bogie]

Or....

How many of you are college students?

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/!ut/...aa.org/membership/champadmin/rifle/index.html

Maybe this'll work

 

[bogie]

You know, it's really, really sad when the latest TV shows get more play...

 

[bogie]

What kinda magazines do you think your kids' teachers have been shooting with... er... reading?

 

[230RN]

I've always maintained that with all the billions and billions of rounds fired in the US each year, and with a death/accident rate of ...what..? 30,00 or 40,000 incidents a year, shooting must be about the safest activity there is.

 

[gotarheels03]

I played basketball throughout middleschool and most of High school. I sprained my ankle once and suffered 2 concussions. I'd bet thats more dangerous than if I'd been shooting during those years.

 

[G.A.Pster]

irt:#1

Yeah, I think I recall hearing that somewhere too.

 

[Thain]

IIRC, Oleg made a very nice poster addressing just this point. Ah, here it is:

So, any Michiganders want to join me in lobbying LCC to start an NCAA Rifle team?

 

[svtruth]

Can't hellp but

comment. Jeff Cooper was probably fired and/or was present when over a million rounds were fired, he died quietly at home of natural causes.

 

[rxraptor02]

Thain,

As for the NCAA rifle team. I could see it happening at the great college Eastern Michigan University. When I was taking classes there I needed a gym credit. So I signed up for a trap and skeet shooting class. It had a large student population that even included female students who never fired a shotgun before. The college even has a indoor range that the ROTC students use.

As for high school:

If the class is tought by a NRA instructor( or similiar)
If the parents sign the release form(just like any other sport)
If there is a range or legal place to shoot
Require each student to take a DNR hunter training class or show proof of have taken one.

Then why not. I would help in this support of this in my local high school.

 

[Thain]

Yes, but I'm a student at LCC not at EMU!

LCC does run ROTC classes on behalf of Michigan State, and one of those classes does cover "small-bore rifle marksmanship" and "small unit tactics." I desperatly want into that class... but I don't want to sign on to ROTC.

I think I might start lobbying for a rifle/pistol team anyway. Might be nice to have a team that doesn't get over-shadowed by MSU.