IT'S ALL DONE IN GOOD CHEER CHEERLEADING HAS ITS RISKS, REWARDS.

Byline: Gerry Gittelson Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Being a high school cheerleader isn't as fun and easy as it looks. The prestige factor remains indisputable, but the girls endure daily workouts all year and often are in greater risk of injuries than athletes, with the exception of football.

Proof? More Utah high school students are injured cheerleading than playing baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball or wrestling, according to a recently published report by the Utah Department of Health Violence and Injury Prevention Program.

There's no reason to believe things are different in Santa Clarita, and an informal poll of local cheerleaders confirms the danger and hardships associated with cheerleading practices and maneuvers.

``Everyone thinks it's so glamorous to be a cheerleader when they see us all dressed up in our uniform,'' said Hart High cheerleader Kristy Morgan, a junior. ``But they don't see us out here all summer working hard, when we're sweaty and gross.

``When I was a sophomore, I broke my nose when another girl fell down on me, and right now I've got a bad knee. I just had an MRI done. It hurts, but I'm still out here everyday.''

Hart's Sarah Fisk, a senior, can relate. She lives with constant bruises on her body and said she sleeps with a heat pad.

``I need it, because my muscles are so sore,'' Fisk said. ``I've seen girls get broken backs and all sorts of things. You just have to endure.''

The stories are similar at Valencia.

``Last year, I got stitches in my eyebrow when I got cut trying to catch a girl, and we hit,'' said junior Stephanie Cassotta. ``The blood squirted open and got all over. It was gross - but I was back the next day. The whole year, it's nonstop.''

Valencia junior Amber Spaulding has suffered two ankle fractures but keeps bouncing back.

``We're not out here just sitting around,'' she said. ``We work two to four hours a day every day, all year.''

According to a report comparing sports and cheerleading injuries in the Minneapolis-based medical journal ``The Physician and Sports Medicine,'' cheerleading injuries tend to be relatively severe in terms of time lost. The most common injuries occur to ankles, with head and neck injuries less common but more severe.

Cheerleading began more than 100 years ago, when a University of Minnesota football fan stood in his seat and led the crowd in a verse in support of their team. From that humble beginning has blossomed a competitive athletic activity that includes nearly a million participants at the elementary, high school, college, and professional levels.

Cheerleading competitions are held at regional and national levels, and training is a year-round activity. Cheerleading routines can include gymnastic elements, tumbling runs, partner stunts, pyramid formations and dance routines.

The arduous preparation involves lots of running and training. At Hart, the girls run a mile a day, with Devon Lindvall and Shallon Glendinning usually leading a brisk sub-seven- minute pace.

``Then we do jumping jacks and kicks and crunches and up-downs,'' Fisk said. ``The up-downs really kill - it's like Pilates.''

Part of the fun of being a cheerleader is the team usually works out right alongside the football team.

Sometimes, the girls watch the football players and try to copy their workout. Cassotta wonders what it might be like if things were the other way around.

``It's so easy to throw a football,'' she said. ``I'd like to see one of those players try to throw a cheerleader in the air.''

Spaulding nods in agreement.

``The football players work hard, but we work just as much as they do,'' she said.

Despite the risks and significant obligations - which include a cost-covering fee of about $2,000 per cheerleader at Hart - just about every cheerleader would do it all over again.

``Oh, it's well worth it,'' Spaulding said. ``I love it.''

Gerry Gittelson, [phone]

gerry.gittelson(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Hart High's cheerleaders perform a routine during a game at College of the Canyons.

David Crane/Staff Photographer