TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – March is National Cheerleading Safety Month and one Tampa cheer team has been practicing ways to prevent injury and stay safe from COVID-19.
The South Tampa Titans are just one of the Pop Warner‘s cheerleading programs that teach girls ages 5 to 13 the skills and training that go into being a cheerleader.
“So we focus on nothing but training, stretching, conditioning. Each girl has to have twenty hours of conditioning before they can start stunting, tumbling, anything like that,” South Tampa Titans Cheer Director Danielle Norman said.
According to the National Center for Catastrophic Injury Research, cheerleading has actually become safer within the past 20 years due to more awareness and education.
“So we focus on a lot of cardio, we focus up on building their muscles up, their arms so they can hold people up in the air, each other, we focus on that,” Norman said.
The South Tampa Titans team has also been staying safe when it comes to COVID-19, Norman said there were no positive cases during their fall season.
Before every practice, coaches take temperatures and the cheerleaders must sanitize their hands to help stop the spread of the virus.
Registration to be part of the South Tampa Titans is open, you can head to their website to find out how to sign up.
