These athletes flip over backwards, get thrown into the air, and are routinely dropped. Yet they wear no pads, or helmets, (or, some might say, enough of anything else) and they are on the sidelines for most of the game.

It's the Viking cheerleaders, who no longer are content to shake pom -poms, and yell "how funky is your chicken."  Rather, theses athletes give the football players for whom they cheer a run for their money in the toughness department.

"Long gone are the days when the most difficult or dangerous stunt was standing on someone's shoulders," said Wareham High School cheerleading coach Madeline Sylvia. "Back then cheerleading was accurately listed as an activity."

The advent of a more acrobatically inclined form of cheerleading is due in large part to its evolution into a competitive sport. Wareham competed in the South Coast Conference championship last year, coming in fourth.

Though she has never been a cheerleader herself, Sylvia has been a coach for 28 years.

"I had some of these kids' parents in Pop Warner," she said of her current squad.

Coach Sylvia prefers cheerleading that gets the crowd involved. As far as tricks for competitions, "They always want to try bigger and better things," which increases the risk of injury.

Sylvia also noted that "We have next to no gymnastics...we only have three tumblers which limits us in our scores." Some members of the squad take gymnastics classes at their own expense to try and build their skill set.

Senior Hailee Boucher represents the type of well-rounded athlete that the modern cheerleader has become. This season is the twelfth year that she has been cheerleading, and she also plays softball and volleyball.

Marcus Monteiro stands out as both the teams' top tumbler as well as the only male on the squad. After playing football his freshman year, Monteiro made the switch to cheerleading.

"I used to worry about what people would think, but once I got to High School I stopped caring."

During practice you can catch Monteiro spotting a teammate as she practices back walkovers.

Spotting is a very important part of the sport.

While practicing basket drops (a trick where a cheerleader is pushed by the feet, while standing, into the air, then thrown as high as possible and caught) at a recent practice at Wareham High School, Taylor Conner, one of three team captains, yelped as she was nailed in the face by a flying teammate.

She shrugged it off as an occupational hazard.

"I've had worse than this. I've sprained my neck," says Conner.

"A lot of hard work and bumps and bruises are experienced from the start of the season to the end, said Coach Sylvia. "We are continuously conscious of safety during practices and games."