Gimme an "Ouch"!

It would appear that cheerleading is the most dangerous high school sport in the last 15 years. According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, cheerleading accounted for 65.2% of high school catastrophic injuries among all female sports.

Researchers have long known how dangerous cheerleading is, but records were poorly kept until recently. An update to the record-keeping system last year found that between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes, with the vast majority (67) occurring in cheerleading. The next most dangerous sports: gymnastics (nine such injuries) and track (seven).

Of course, from the guy's side, I can think of at least two high school activities far more dangerous. The first would be openly ogling the cheerleaders from the stands while sitting next to the squad co-captain's boyfriend. The other would be having your mom find the "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders" edition of Playboy under your bed.

While I sustained no permanent or fatal physical injuries from either incident, the psychic damage has been crippling. I just can't admire a good Arabesque Twist the way I once did and enjoying the Tuck/Eagle Spreads are a thing of the past.

(By the way, I bet the "National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research" has at least one staffer who "researches" Youtube all day for sports bloopers. I totally want that job.)