Sweat drips down their faces and the room is stifling hot as the  cheer team maintains its focus in its warm-up before it begins practicing its routines.

With the ability to separate itself from being a sideline cheer team, competitions and disciplined practice make this team just as athletic as football or basketball.

“We’re a co-ed squad who tumbles, stunts and dances,” Alyssa Santos, 19, psychology major, said.

Monday and Wednesday evenings are dedicated to practicing routines which involves very intricate stunts often times resulting in injuries to the nose, mouth, or other parts of the body.

“Not everyone thinks it’s a sport; they just think they scream, jump up-and-down, ra-ra-ra, but if they happen to come to practice and see what we do and actually try to attempt what we do, then they’ll understand,” Crystal Oropeza, co-cheer coach, said.

Their routines consist of ranges from stunts requiring balancing on one leg on the palm of their teammates, backhand springs, human pyramids, and jumping from the air onto their teammates in a very well thought-out blind landing.

“We get bounced around, we don’t have a room, we need a room,” Oropeza said.

“When I’m at the football games, I see the cheerleaders doing flips and high jumps during halftime,” Royshaun Lewis, defensive back, said. “They are loud, energetic and really coordinated.”

Lewis said that the cheerleaders are dedicated to their craft.

Unlike the football team that has a dedicated area of space to practice, the cheer team does not, practicing in areas such as the Schauerman Library lawn, the baseball field, or the Physical Education North Building.

“I have seen them practice by the weight room. We (the football team) have seen them practice before we practice and they are still practicing after we are done with our practicing,” Lewis said.

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s website, the organization doesn’t define cheer as an official sport leaving it up to the college itself to decide.

“Cheerleading can be a dangerous sport because of the safety concerns when they throw them on the air,” Luis Villegas, 21, film and media studies major, said.

Villegas said that he knows of the cheerleading on campus because he has a classmate that is part of the team and has seen her in her uniform a couple of times already.

In a statement released Monday the American Academy of Pediatrics urged cheerleading as an official sport, stating it would give valuable protection including well-maintained facilities, mandated sports physicals and surveillance of injuries.

Cheerleading is one of the highest risk sporting events for direct catastrophic injuries that can result in permanent brain injury, paralysis or death, according to the AAP’s statement.

“Danger is present in any sports; it is out there,” Ashley Barajas, 18, nursing major, said. “But if you really like what you are doing, then you will take all the precautions that you have to so that you will be safe.”

From an outside perspective cheerleading may seem like a delicate sport led by pom poms, however any cheerleader knows the risks associated with the sport; injuries to the knees, wrist, lower-back and head, including concussions.

In the most extreme cases a catastrophic injury such as a skull fracture, spinal injuries or paralysis may result if a cheerleader falls from the top of a pyramid, lift, or basket toss if a stunt is not performed correctly, according to healthychildren.org.

The NCAA has set standards defining a sport as existing for the purpose of athletics competition, not to support or promote other athletic activities.

However, the NCAA also defines a sport as being able to offer scholarships, recruit participants, have practice opportunities and regular-season competitive opportunities and conduct state, conference, and national championships.

In 2011, the Warrior cheer team placed third at the Cheer Pros Co-Ed Division, according to EC Matter’s February 2011 newsletter.

“We went the past two years. They placed second two years ago and third last year, but we’re striving to get first,” Oropeza said.

The team will maintain its goal of placing first at the next Cheer Pros Co-Ed Division, which takes place in March 2013 in Long Beach.

“This year we’re striving for a higher title and get into a division,” Santos said.

For the 22-member cheer team, its coaches and adviser, cheerleading is more than just about toe-touches, raising pompoms, and screaming chants.

“We’re putting in a lot of practice, a lot!” Santos said. “And in our spare time we still practice doing tumbling and stunts.”