In the legitimate case, the cheer coach had been warned previously about hiring unqualified judges. The coach picked people that she knew instead of hiring from a third party company. The girls that didn't make the Varsity squad threw standing backs and running layouts while there were a handful of girls who made the squad that threw back handsprings or just round offs. When the girls received the score sheets they compared their scores with the girls that made the squad; they saw on the tumbling section that girls who threw level 1 and 2 skills scored higher than girls that threw level 3 and 4 skills. The parents found out that the judges were dance coaches from a studio that the coach was familiar with. The grievance went all the way to the school board and they agreed with the parents. So in fairness to all, everyone who tried out was put on the squad, for both JV and Varsity. The school doesn't have a Freshman squad. This even affected the middle school squads since they used the same judges. To prevent that from happening again, the school provided a standardized score sheet that the judges used that gave a breakdown of standing and running tumbling skills and the score ranges for each.
As for the illegitimate case, the judging was sound (third party company was hired) but the parents who filed the original grievance stated that the natural break of 1.6 was not a large enough natural break. The cheer constitution does not specify how large the natural break should be. The scores are always close every year since this area is heavy with all-star cheerleaders. That original grievance was denied. However, one of the information sheets that was handed out at the parent tryout meeting gave the formula of how the tryout scores were calculated. 80% was from the tryout score and 20% was from the disciplinary score. But it was not a straight 80/20 calculation but that was what was on the information sheet. When it was brought to the administrators' attention, they calculated the scores using the incorrect formula and in so doing, there was still a natural break at 20, however the girls who made it changed.
So, to make it fair, the administration took the natural break using both methods which put 30 girls on the Varsity squad instead of 20 and added 3 girls onto the JV squad. The Freshman squad ended up with the same girls using both methods.
The school changed the policy of receiving copies of the score sheets. You could only ask to view your scores if you did not make the squad. If you made the squad, you could not see your scores.
