A SPECIAL REPORT: CHEERLEADING : Pompom Time

Football players aren’t the only ones preparing for the fall season. Cheerleaders are busy practicing routines ranging from traditional yells to gravity-defying stunts. The award-winning squad at Van Nuys High, coached by Shari Brown, will hold three six-hour practices this week to perfect its tumbling and tossing.

Prize Winners

All-girl squads from Granada Hills, above, Agoura and El Camino Real high schools won first-place awards at the California Spirit Championships in March at Universal Studios. More than 4,000 cheerleaders competed in the event.

Dangerous Activity

In 1993, cheerleaders made 15,600 trips to hospital emergency rooms in the U.S. for injuries, according to a national study. A female cheerleader at Van Nuys suffered a broken arm last school year, and cheerleaders lose more than five times as many days to injury than football players, according to researchers.

Wanted: Coach

Canoga Park High cheerleaders won world and national championships in 1995, but the program has suffered since 13-year coach Carolyn Purkey quit last summer, claiming lack of support by school administrators. Her replacement quit after one semester, and the team has been without a coach since February, preventing it from participating in competitions.