For the first time in her four years of high school, senior Tressa Brown was able to go to cheer camp. She had also been cheering all four years and had been looking forward to it the whole time. However it all came crashing down her first day.
Once they arrived into cheer camp at UC Santa Cruz, the cheerleaders had begun to do stunts and afterwards cooldowns. During one of those cooldowns, one of the flyers “didn’t turn all the way,” said Brown, causing the formation to break and for Brown to fall off and nearly faint. Not realizing her hand was broken she left to go to the medics where they told her to just put ice on it.
“I’ve never broken a bone, but I still knew something was wrong,” said Brown. “My hand was just hanging with no support.”
She was later taken to the ER where the doctor took an X-Ray and revealed that Brown had broken two of her metacarpal bones in her left hand. As a result she was no longer allowed to participate in the rest of the cheer camp activities and had to watch from the sidelines. Luckily the other girls at camp were very supportive and “spoiled me a lot, I was very blessed to have them,” said Brown,
”It sucked because all my four years I always wanted to go to cheer camp and the time I went, I didn’t get to experience it the way I wanted to,” said Brown.
As horrible as that was, Brown still had to pay for the full cost of cheer camp, $400, despite not being able to participate.
“I didn’t get to stunt, I didn’t get to learn new cheers, learn new routines,” said Brown.
Not to mention that Brown is still suffering the effects of the broken hand, despite the injury happening in mid-July, especially at school. Brown is left handed, so she was left having to write with her right hand. Luckily many of her teachers are understanding of her situation and allowed her to bring in laptop, but not owning one personally she is stuck writing everything or having to wait to get home to type things up.
Not to mention that Brown still has to miss out on cheer practice and is stuck missing 3 games.
“It’s a major setback, but I’m ready for a major comeback,” said Brown.