You're exactly correct when you say at the competitive level they have lots of rules. The rules are very strict, as well. If broken, deductions are made. No one disagree's there.

There are many rules and the ones that are most important to coaches, owners and event planners are the judging rules. Nationals events are key and these kids go from competition to competition but if something horrible goes wrong that the judges do not know about, nothing happens to the coaches, owners or event planners.

My daughter has a brain injury do to pure greed to place at a National. Her teammate was injured, brought to the hospital,this is all during warm ups(which no one see's except for the coaches, owners and event planners).Her teammates stunt group tossed the girl 20ft in the air and no one caught her and she came full force slamming on the floor. The stunt group was mortified but also the entire team. No one drops a flyer and the unthinkable happened. They were hysterically crying. Her teammate was just lying on the floor not moving, someone said they thought they saw an arm move but barely, they were devastated.

You mentioned in another article how scary that is to fall like that and also how your sister's teammate fell and how scary that was for her. So, you can understand how the mental state of these girls were at this moment. All they could think about was if their friend/teammate was going to make it as the ambulance took her off to the ER. My daughter said no one could stop crying and they all just wanted to go to the hospital to see her and say that they loved her and were so sorry, incase she died. That's how convinced these girls were and how scared they were.

The coach, owner, and event planner should have called it off,(same event planner where Lauren Chang died two months later, my daughter happened to be a back spot as well and said she could believe it, because she got kicked and hit all the time)but instead, as these girls stood trying to comprehend what just happened, and all they could think about was their dying teammate(as they thought at the time) their coach broke other rules, that are obviously not enforced, because I would know. I've lived it. They took a girl from a lower level to replace the "dying" teammate and the coach even started switching other girls around, and telling them to hurry and teach this new girl the routine. And chanted..."do it for..., which I won't mention the injured girls name" so they tried as hard as they could to teach a girl they have never practiced with, the routine. Which makes for a greater risk of injury and extremely dangerous. Especially when thats all they do before competition season starts to practice for hours and hours with the same people. They build trust in eachother.

So, my daughter became the new girls back spot and still during warm-up they praciticed as well as they could but they were all still crying and extremely upset. Then the new girl fell on my daughters face/head full force making her cry even louder. Her stunt group asked if she was OK, stunned and dazed, she said she thought her nose was bleeding but it wasn't.

Her coach said after that she never noticed because all the girls were crying so much and they were in such a hurry to compete since they were holding things up. So, instead of telling the girls that they had no alternate(thats besides the point), and they were in no condition to compete that day, greed got in the way. The coach, owner and event planner knew what had happened to their teammate and safety was not put before competitiveness. Also, the psychogolical/emotional state these girls were in doesn't take a rocket scientist to see they should not be competing but they were sent out to compete anyway. No one stopped it!

If that new girl fell on my daughter again, (and the DVD shows her very wobbly that it's frightening to watch) her specialist said her brain was injured so severely that she could have easily died. My daughters life was cheerleading, she had been doing so for over 7 years and that's all she spoke about and now she has to write up and down her arms to remember things or she will forget. If she wrote them in her planner, she would forget to look.

She's had many wonderful coaches, and I made sure this coach was certified, just like all her coaches, and she had all the proper certifications. Very impressive, I thought. It's sad because it becomes all about winning to some of them. The girls love to win, as well. It's a great feeling, but they still have fun together if they do not, and this day they were in no condition to compete such a dangerous routine.

Now, who knows what the future will bring. She was 16 in 11th grade, getting ready to take prep classes for the SAT's and making lists of colleges to look at for the summer but then everything came to a hault. I can't even list what she had to go through and she's still suffering. She is just starting to be able to even hear the word "cheerleading" before she would leave the room. I don't know why, I can only assume it's hard for a young girl to handle that her life as she once knew it is over. We couldn't visit colleges, we could only make sure her brain totally rested as much as possible. Blood flow to the brain is bad.

What happened to her, is not something you ever want to see your child or anyone elses to go through. I pray everyday that no one gets hurt that has that same coach. The team last season left. The parents were outraged, but new parents and athletes have joined and there's nothing I can do, I reported her but no one cares. So, I pray nothing happens to them and try to get the word out that more needs to be done with the organizations that certify the coaches. They need to finally take responsibility after all these years. Parents can only do so much, check certifications (in my case and many others, it didn't matter)report neglience (in my case and many others it didn't matter). Bottom line, parents are not coaches, and kids are paying the price.