This is Cheerleader for, "I'm OK."

She was supposed to dismount to the front of the human pyramid, where two cheerleaders were ready to catch her, said the squad's cheerleading coach. But Yamaoka lost her balance and tumbled off the back, landing on her head.

When the pep band fired up SIU's fight song "Go Southern Go," Yamaoka gave a two-handed thumbs up from the gurney, then moved her arms - the only things not strapped down - in time to the music and cheered. After falling 15 feet and landing on her head, Yamaoka was motionless for a few minutes on the court, but says she recalls hearing SIU's fight song and couldn't resist leading the cheer as she was taken away in a brace.


"As long as my arms were functioning, I could do the fight song," a groggy Yamaoka said.