ShareThisOKLAHOMA CITY - People who say cheerleaders aren't athletes are wrong, said a 16-year-old, 5-foot-2, 110-pound varsity cheerleader who tackled a fleeing suspected shoplifter at a shopping mall.
Cheerleading "makes you strong," said Kealey Oliver, who will be a junior this year at Moore High School in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.
The girl said she was walking in the Penn Square Mall on Sunday afternoon when a man came running toward her with a bag in his hand.
People were yelling, "Thief, thief," she said.
Intending just to stop him, "I got in his way and grabbed him," she said. "I turned him over and put him on his stomach.
"It was more of an instinct thing."
She described him as about 6 feet tall and built like a basketball player.
Security personnel quickly took him away, she said.
A spokeswoman for Penn Square confirmed the incident, but would not give additional information, including the suspect's name.
Without a name, no incident report could be found, Oklahoma City police Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow said Thursday.
An incident report may have been filed under a different address, she said.
Oliver said she realized afterward she could have gotten hurt trying to stop the man.
Wardlow agreed, urging witnesses to a crime to get a good description and call police.
The girl always has been feisty, said RaeLynn Oliver, her mother.
Misunderstanding the rules of youth baseball, Kealey once tackled the pitcher of her own team, her mother said.
Kealey is a lifeguard at the Moore swimming pool this summer. Her list of activities has included competitive cheerleading, gymnastics and dance -- but no martial arts.
She is thinking of becoming a physical or occupational therapist.
Kealey said she got mad about a recent court ruling that cheerleading is not a sport. It "is one of the most dangerous sports, if not the most," she said.
"We get sweaty just like everyone else."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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