FOCUS: Orange County Focus is dedicated on Monday to analysis of community news, a look at what’s ahead and the voices of local people. : PERSPECTIVE : Bodies vs. Spirit: Preventing Injuries to Cheerleaders

Changes in the world of pompons and human pyramids are reflected by the inscription on a T-shirt that is popular at local high schools. It reads: “If football was any harder, it would be called cheerleading.”

In recent years, cheerleading has evolved from a sideline show at football games into a gymnastic sport that dazzles spectators with acrobatic flips and skyward leaps.

But as the routines become more complicated and daring, some school districts and their insurance underwriters have grown increasingly worried about safety. Those concerns have prompted school officials to impose rules as well as outright bans on some acrobatics deemed too risky.

“When a lot of parents think about cheerleading, they don’t realize that it is really a very physical sport that can result in harm,” said Lewis Bratcher, principal at Santa Ana High School. “People don’t think about it in the same way they think about football or another sport.”

Bratcher is leading a new committee, formed this fall in the Santa Ana Unified School District, to consider cheerleading safety rules and study insurance liability issues. Other districts have recently taken similar actions, in some cases distributing national safety guidelines to coaches in an effort to keep pace with the changes.

“It’s no longer about rah-rah-rah for the football team,” said Cindy Kingman, adviser for El Toro High School’s cheerleading program. “It used to be about pretty girls doing dances and a few cheers without getting too sweaty. Now, it’s very physical and very gymnastic. . . . The girls are really sweating.”

School officials, students and coaches insist that the trend toward more rigorous cheerleading routines has not resulted in an increase in accidents. But they acknowledge that, as the stunts become more complicated, the potential for injuries rises.

Statistics compiled by the Consumer Products Safety Commission indicate that cheerleader injuries nationally have increased in the past five years. About 15,700 of the nation’s estimated 3 million high school and college cheerleaders required emergency room treatment last year, compared with about 11,700 in 1991, 14,700 in 1992 and 15,600 in 1993.

The commission does not break down numbers specifically for high schools, and some coaches say that the riskiest routines are done only at the college level.

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High school cheerleading remains a safer activity than sports such as football, said Kevin Jones, vice president of the Dallas-based National Cheerleaders Assn.

“If you take cheerleading and football, there just isn’t any comparison,” Jones said. “But I think when a cheerleader gets hurt, you see a lot of attention focused on that. It leads some school districts to look at safety restrictions.”

Many educators have begun studying guidelines published by the National Cheerleader Assn., which sponsors competitions and cheerleader training camps.

The guidelines prohibit a variety of stunts including jumps from pyramids and any aerial maneuvers in which cheerleaders do not land on their feet. The association also mandates that pyramids be no more than two people high.

In some cases, schools have added their own modifications and variations. The Garden Grove Unified School District, for example, decided last year that each cheerleader involved in an aerial routine must be “spotted” by a squad member on the ground.

Other districts strongly urge coaches to take care when selecting music to accompany routines. Disco music, they say, can cause cheerleaders to lose their concentration or attempt to rush through their stunts, increasing the likelihood of injury.

While not eliminating all risks, the rules do represent a major safety improvement over a decade ago, school officials say.

Tom Anthony, associate superintendent for Capistrano Unified School District, said he pushed for a ban on trampolines and springboards after witnessing at another school system in the early 1980s how potentially hazardous they are.

“At the time, we were probably doing some dangerous things,” Anthony said. “We were using the trampolines, which allowed people to project themselves to extreme heights. We had a few accidents. . . . I think we are much more aware of safety issues now.”

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Veteran cheerleading coaches and sponsors agreed. Maria Hoffman, former pep squad adviser at Cypress High School, said that a decade ago some of the top squads performed a variety of high-flying routines including “elevators,” in which cheerleaders leap off three-person-tall pyramids.

“In the early years, they did some outlandish stuff,” Hoffman said. “A lot of that wouldn’t be permitted today.”

Occasionally, the new emphasis on safety causes friction. In 1992, the Anaheim Union High School District prohibited two squads from performing a pyramid routine at a national championship because the stunt was not covered by the district’s liability insurance. To perform, the squads had to buy separate coverage.

But for the most part, cheerleaders have embraced the rules. “Everyone knows how important it is,” said Julia Linzey, 17, captain of El Toro High School’s squad.

Julia’s coaches have added an incentive to help keep it that way. They require the whole squad to do pushups whenever a teammate falls during a routine.