It was in the second half of a womenAEs NCAA championship basketball game at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk last March, when the crowd suddenly hushed. University of Georgia cheerleader Christine Conley had lost her balance while being held aloft by her male partner. Her head smacked the court with a thud. Conley was kept overnight for observation at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, then released. It was her second brush with disaster u she had a similar accident during her freshman year of cheerleading for Georgia. Conley is doing fine now and is engaged to be married next fall, but her story remains among the cautionary tales emerging from the increasingly popular world of cheerleading, an activity getting under way in earnest this month at local middle and high schools. Most squads have evolved from a prim presence on the sidelines into glitzy, high-intensity, acrobatic, competitive teams.
