OT Being A Cheerleader Back Then, Was It Really That Big Of A Deal?

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

So do these schools w/ highly skilled HS cheerleaders, that aren't also all star cheerleaders, develop those altheletes' skills themselves w/in the school program?

Around me our schools just don't have the equipment (tumble tracks, pits) and can't devote the practice hours necessary to develop advanced tumbling skills - kids have to walk in w/ those skills or the squads just aren't doing them. Maybe other areas are different.

My HS girls take tumbling elsewhere if they are not all star kids. It's entirely possible to be good at cheer having never done all stars. There have been UK cheerleaders who were exclusively school cheerleaders, but they are also KY natives, and that state houses some of the top HS teams in the country.

 

[vannahlexis]

So do these schools w/ highly skilled HS cheerleaders, that aren't also all star cheerleaders, develop those altheletes' skills themselves w/in the school program?

Around me our schools just don't have the equipment (tumble tracks, pits) and can't devote the practice hours necessary to develop advanced tumbling skills - kids have to walk in w/ those skills or the squads just aren't doing them. Maybe other areas are different.

No girls at my school cheered allstar. A few times a year we'd have our tumbling coach come in to work with us. I used to go to tumbling clinics on weekends and one or two other girls did as well.

So most of our tumbling was taught within the school program

 

[mamabear]

I live in a NJ county where cheer is taken very seriously. Four of our five high schools placed very high nationally. From what I have seen, the girls are expected to take elite tumbling at our all star gym, and actual practices focus on the routine and dance.

 

[cheer25mom]

So do these schools w/ highly skilled HS cheerleaders, that aren't also all star cheerleaders, develop those altheletes' skills themselves w/in the school program?

Around me our schools just don't have the equipment (tumble tracks, pits) and can't devote the practice hours necessary to develop advanced tumbling skills - kids have to walk in w/ those skills or the squads just aren't doing them. Maybe other areas are different.

Our local private schools who are not ground bound typically pay an allstar gym to train their team. At least 4-5 high school squads train at our gym, and our coaches travel to a couple that are over an hour away to train them.


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[gymcatmomx2]

I graduated from high school in 1981. You have to keep in mind that there was no such thing as all stars - or even rec league - then. If you didn't make your school team, you didn't cheer, period. It's not like you could go find another place to cheer, or cheer at a lower level.

There may have been some 'popularity' factor, but for girls who loved to cheer it could be devastating to not make the team. I think that was a bigger factor that the popularity issue.

I also object to this statement in your post: If so, why was it such a big issue then, but people could care less about school cheer now? According to the NFHS, there are about 400,000 people who cheer for their high school (this number is a few years old...I couldn't find an updated one). I think its fair to say that people still care about school cheer.

I completely agree with you that people most definitely still care about high school cheer! At our tryouts last year, there were 10 girls that had been on one of the squads previously that didn't make any squad. Some of the parents hired lawyers and filed a grievance with the school. At another high school close to us, 3 parents filed grievances with the school board when their daughters failed to make the squad. In both cases, the school and/or district ruled in the parents favor.

In all honesty, only one of the cases was an actual legitimate case. In the other, they won due to a technicality. The previous coach handed out a form that had the incorrect tryout formula.

 

[darlingsmomx4]

We are in a small town and the highschool cheerleaders are 4 time state champions and literally they do think because of that they run the school. My daughters have known girls who loved cheer but quit because of the drama the cheerleaders are known to cause. People go to the allstar gyms to prepare to try out for highschool here.

 

[WinstonsGirl]

I'll speak to my area of Canada. It may be different in other parts of the country though. If you were a cheerleader at my HS, you were a total loser. We were not the popular kids. Lots of people, especially the 'regular HS sport' athletes made fun of us cos we just 'shook pompoms' and cheered for the real athletes. But we were good, and throwing a back tuck basket is a pretty good way to shut everyone up. We didn't hear a lot of negative after that, but you could see the eyebrows go up if you said you wanted to try out.

It has gotten a lot better as the caliber of many HS teams continues to rise.

 

[CheerBank]

Cheer was not popular at all where I went to school (I grew up in one of the NYC boroughs). We did not have a football team and I believe the cheerleaders cheered for the basketball team (which was not very competitive). I cannot recall knowing one person who tried out for cheer.

Cp's HS has cheer but they are second class citizens compared to kickline and danceline. It used to be that if you did not make one of those teams in middle school, only then did you try out for cheer. The cheer coach finally got permission to hold cheer tryouts before danceline/kickline tryouts so that only the kids who truly wanted to cheer would try out and too bad so sad for the dancers who did not make their teams. We did at one point have an excellent youth league program which fed into the middle school cheer program, however that program no longer exists and the last group of that kids is now entering high school. I would not be surprised if at some point soon cheer was relegated back to a sideline activity.

That being said, Long Island has quite a few highly competitive high schools where cheer is considered the be all, end all, and they have been very successful at UCA nationals. One of the districts last year was even willing to sacrifice all-day kindergarten rather than discontinue their cheer program when there were budget issues. It did not come to that, but those cheer parents would have won out over the incoming kindergarten parents!

 

[cheerisloving]

If you cheer at my high school you become more recognized among the school, and bonus points if you tumble or fly. Cheerleaders are at every event and form our own little 'clique.' We compete but we are not the top tier team but we have crazy talent and the school goes crazy for performances. I think the one real time that the cheerleaders are seen as a superior force is during basketball because our team is very successful and we do half time. This wasn't always the case, when I was in middle school the cheerleaders weren't good at all. My class and beyond really changed that culture. We also have girls that are class VPs or star in the musical so we have a pretty diverse team of successful and well known students. Granted, our school had just about 1,000 kids.

Girls do make a big deal of cheering at the school, but it's mostly girls that did JV and are striving for Varsity because we 'have the most fun'

Another school in our county is overshadowed by their stellar dance program who normally does the halftime routines in basketball and football. The cheer team is not the best so being on the team isn't all that great.

 

[FlexyTumblerMom]

I completely agree with you that people most definitely still care about high school cheer! At our tryouts last year, there were 10 girls that had been on one of the squads previously that didn't make any squad. Some of the parents hired lawyers and filed a grievance with the school. At another high school close to us, 3 parents filed grievances with the school board when their daughters failed to make the squad. In both cases, the school and/or district ruled in the parents favor.

In all honesty, only one of the cases was an actual legitimate case. In the other, they won due to a technicality. The previous coach handed out a form that had the incorrect tryout formula.

What was the legitimate case? The 3 girls clearly had superior skills but didn't make the team over girls who weren't as skilled? What was the case that was wasn't legit? Someone who really didn't have the top skills but tried to force herself on anyway? And what was the technicality that got her on?

 

[Official OWECheer]

Cheer was not popular at all where I went to school (I grew up in one of the NYC boroughs). We did not have a football team and I believe the cheerleaders cheered for the basketball team (which was not very competitive). I cannot recall knowing one person who tried out for cheer.

Cp's HS has cheer but they are second class citizens compared to kickline and danceline. It used to be that if you did not make one of those teams in middle school, only then did you try out for cheer. The cheer coach finally got permission to hold cheer tryouts before danceline/kickline tryouts so that only the kids who truly wanted to cheer would try out and too bad so sad for the dancers who did not make their teams. We did at one point have an excellent youth league program which fed into the middle school cheer program, however that program no longer exists and the last group of that kids is now entering high school. I would not be surprised if at some point soon cheer was relegated back to a sideline activity.

That being said, Long Island has quite a few highly competitive high schools where cheer is considered the be all, end all, and they have been very successful at UCA nationals. One of the districts last year was even willing to sacrifice all-day kindergarten rather than discontinue their cheer program when there were budget issues. It did not come to that, but those cheer parents would have won out over the incoming kindergarten parents!

I'm not sure whether I should be proud of that or disappointed...

 

[BuegeSmalls]

So do these schools w/ highly skilled HS cheerleaders, that aren't also all star cheerleaders, develop those altheletes' skills themselves w/in the school program?

Around me our schools just don't have the equipment (tumble tracks, pits) and can't devote the practice hours necessary to develop advanced tumbling skills - kids have to walk in w/ those skills or the squads just aren't doing them. Maybe other areas are different.

At my high school they started requiring everyone to be in a tumbling class. You could either take it at an all star gym or through school for less, (we brought coaches in). I did both.

 

[Official OWECheer]

At my high school they started requiring everyone to be in a tumbling class. You could either take it at an all star gym or through school for less, (we brought coaches in). I did both.

Did you guys have tumbling equipment?

 

[BuegeSmalls]

Did you guys have tumbling equipment?

I think we just had a cheese/triangle/whatever you call it mat and one of those "boulders", the round things for back handsprings.

 

[Official OWECheer]

I think we just had a cheese/triangle/whatever you call it mat and one of those "boulders", the round things for back handsprings.

How did that work? When I used to take tumbling they had us start out on the trampoline, then we progressed to the Tumble Trak, and then the mat (first with a spotter, then transitioning to doing it on our own on each surface).