Stuck on The Sidelines

When Ashton Hawkins began her cheer performance at the homecoming assembly, she had no clue that the conclusion of the routine could mean the conclusion of her career. 

“The day of the performance I’ll just be thinking about it and I’ll be really nervous but as soon as the music starts, I’m not nervous anymore and I just do it.”

The performance for the cheer team went exactly as planned, every stunt hitting as practiced.

It wasn’t until Hawkins had to throw a backhandspring that things started going south.

“When I went to do the backhandspring, [my elbow] snapped.”

Despite the inconvenience of a bum elbow, Hawkins helped her team to finish a stunning performance.

“I came out of the backhandspring and thought ‘hmm, that wasn’t supposed to happen… but I had a lot of adrenaline and kind of just ignored it at first.”

It wasn’t until the homecoming football game that Hawkins realised she had a serious problem.

“It got to the point where I couldn’t even move it. It was swollen and hurt a lot. That’s when I decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to keep going.”

At this point, Hawkins has made a trip to both the ER and a sports medicine doctor in the days since her injury. She knows she has a torn UCL in her left arm but not if she will need surgery or what this could mean for her senior season.