Harrisonville High on the toughest winter sports

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Two Harrisonville High School (Mo.) athletes who play two different winter sports were given the same questions about how tough their sports are. Their answers are here to determine which sport is really the toughest. In this case, senior basketball player Zach Bundt squares off against cheerleader and recent graduate Makayla Bollinger.

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pajamas25Basketball players run and lift weights to help them prepare them for games.

Some may not find this a fair fight, but the answers below may surprise. you.

Q: What makes your sport more physically demanding than others?

Zach Bundt: In basketball, we're always conditioning. We constantly lift and run lines for missed free throws and fouls. You never know how big the guy you're going to be guarding really is, and sometimes you draw somebody twice your weight. It's extremely difficult to defend or post up someone who is 6'7" and weighs 260. So we're constantly working so we can be prepared for situations like that.

Makayla Bollinger: We do a tremendous amount of lifting, but we don't lift weights. The thing that makes cheering so tough physically is that we are lifting people over our heads, not a weight bar. It requires an extreme amount of flexibility as well.

Q: When things go wrong and someone is injured, what are the most common types of injuries?

Bundt: The most common injuries a basketball player sees is to their lower leg. Ankle and knee injuries occur more often than anything else because people often come down wrong going for a rebound.

Bollinger: The majority of injuries in cheering are minor sprains and pulls from the simple lack of stretching. Rarely people have serious injuries from falls that can result in hospital time.

Q: What are some of the mentally demanding aspects of the sport?

Bundt: We usually play most teams twice, so we always want to beat a team that got us the first time and we know that teams we beat are going to come out hot against us. So we have to be settled and calm for every game to just compete. Individually there's always a desire to beat the guy you're guarding and score 30, but those mental stresses don't help the team out any. We just have to stay focused on our plans and play as a team for all four quarters.

Bollinger: The biggest mental stress a cheerleader has is to remember their routine. Nothing is worse than someone coming out and running into someone else or completely skipping a step in the show. Another thing we have to deal with is the drama. There are 20 girls on a squad. The drama gets ridiculous at times. Not only are you constantly seeing these girls at school, but during the season they're basically your sisters. The final thing that is the absolute toughest part about being a cheerleader is that it is a 24/7, 365-days-a-year sport. You never stop being a cheerleader because there's always another sport going on.

Will Osburn is a senior at Harrisonville High School in Missouri.
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