Cheering Through Recovery: Freshman cheerleader Gia Tuso cheers throughout the entire year while recovering from ACL surgery

Standing at the edge of the mat, then-eighth-grader Gia Tuso got ready to run suicides for the conditioning portion of her East cheerleading tryout. Just like the other girls, Tuso would run, do pushups and sit-ups for the panel of judges. 

But none of the other girls had an ACL tear.

After successfully completing the suicides in the time allotted, Tuso felt accomplished. However, she couldn’t ignore the throbbing pain in her right knee and didn’t run as fast as she could’ve. 

But it was okay as long as the coaches didn’t know her knee was injured. 

Tuso tore her ACL before cheer tryouts. She had done toe touches, cheers and stunting all throughout the tryout process — without telling any cheerleaders about her recent injury. 

“I didn’t want to be known as the girl with the injured knee,” Tuso said. “I wanted the coaches to look at my skills, I didn’t want anyone to look at me differently because of my knee.”

Despite her knee problems, Tuso’s hard work paid off, and she made the freshman cheer squad. Making the team when she wasn’t at her full potential was a huge accomplishment for Tuso.

Throughout the rest of her season, now-freshman Tuso spent a lot of time at the front of the mat, cheering on her teammates while her knee was recovering. Tuso would put her energy into her smiling face and sharp motions — since she was unable to stunt or jump.

“I was always thinking ‘I could be doing that,’ or ‘I could be showing off what I have,’” Tuso said. “But I figured that if I couldn’t jump, I might as well just show off other aspects of my cheerleading like smiling or hitting motions super sharp.”

Tuso became her team’s biggest cheerleader, rooting for her teammates as they tried new stunting skills.

“I wanted to let them know that even though I couldn’t be with them in the stunt, I was still rooting for them and still here to support them,” Tuso said. 

Tuso came to every practice she could, despite being told by coaches to take off as many recovery days as needed.

“[Tuso] always works so hard to get better,” fellow cheerleader and freshman Ashley Freund said. “Even when she was in a giant knee brace and when she could barely walk, she still had the most contagious energy and was helping the team in ways she didn’t need to.”

Instead of doing traditional stunting positions like basing or flying, Tuso would front spot for a group. This way, she could still provide support to her team without straining her knee. 

“[Front spotting] allowed me to help my team when they needed extra support,” Tuso said. “If a group couldn’t go up without a front spot, I was there to help. I know I didn’t have to, but it made me feel like I was still part of the team.”

Almost a year later, Tuso has now been cleared to jump and stunt for the last three weeks. She’s able to step onto the mat and jump as much as she wants, while still smiling and using sharp motions that she was able to perfect due to her injury. She’s specifically involved as a secondary base, supporting her group while they do difficult one-legged stunts — no more standing at the front of the stunt group.

“The first day I got back, our group hit a really difficult stunt,” Tuso said. “It was nice to be part of everything.”