High School Changes To Illinois Hs Comp Schedule

[KDCheerMom]

Is anyone hearing about potential changes to the Illinois HS Comp Schedule for next year (2014)? I heard today it might change to a summer schedule which would like allow athletes to compete during the summer and still compete all star during the regular season. This would completely separate it from the sideline schedule.

 

[SuperSand5]

I coach in Illinois...I know there was talk over the past couple of years to have the competitive season during the fall sports season. All the coaches and athletic directors that I talked to were not in favor of a change like that.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

I sure hope not. Us small schools would not have a squad to compete with. Most of my athletes are involved in multiple sports with softball in the spring and volleyball in the fall. Moving it to a summer or fall sport would eliminate any chance of us being able to compete as I know it would with many area schools.

 

[cheernerd5678]

We do that in MO... Regionals in July with State in September or October. I think it makes it so much easier to do allstar, because it really only overlaps with practice time and not actual competition seasons. We had a cross country runner who cheered this year so it's possible to do two sports, just hard to schedule but you can probably make it work


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[cheerIL]

Any change like that would have to be proposed by a member high school (principal), discussed at town hall meetings (currently on-going), then placed on the ballot by the IHSA Board of Directors for vote by the member high schools in January. The recently released list of by-law proposals contain no such proposal so we are looking at the same season structure at least through 2014-2015. While there is a slight possibility that our competition season gets moved to the fall, there is virtually no chance that we will ever compete in the summer.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

This is interesting to me. What is the current structure/schedule? In MD there are two cheerleading seasons, fall and winter, and competitions for both seasons. 2 county championships, 2 regional championships, 2 state championships. Works well for the all star cheerleaders because they can cheer fall, which ends in November, and still do all star.

 

[cheerIL]

A move of the competition season to the fall is highly unlikely for several reasons:
1. It would kill the small schools who have a large number of competitive cheerleaders participating in cross country or volleyball in the fall. Yes, a move to the fall would free up girls basketball players, but I would venture that the number of girls BB players interested in crossing over to cheer is much smaller than cross country or volleyball

2. There is something to be said for having our state competition within the "normal" cheer season. The rest of the cheer world is putting on competitions from November through February so it makes sense that we do the same. This allows our athletes to participate in events outside of IHSA HS events.

The rationale for a move to the fall begins and ends with more gym space being available in the fall (and this is a valid argument). However, teams would still need space to practice during the winter season as high school's would still have sideline cheerleaders at basketball games who would need time and space to safely prepare for the games. The IHSA will never listen to the rationale that moving a season allows kids to participate in both school and all-star cheer. It simply is not a concern of theirs.

 

[KDCheerMom]

@cheerIL thanks for the information...probably just a rumour going around among a few moms.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

We do that in MO... Regionals in July with State in September or October. I think it makes it so much easier to do allstar, because it really only overlaps with practice time and not actual competition seasons. We had a cross country runner who cheered this year so it's possible to do two sports, just hard to schedule but you can probably make it work


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Perhaps this works at your school, but at the school I coach I am limited to 1, yes 1 practice a week during volleyball or softball season. There would be absolutely no way that we could be prepared with only 1 practice a week and there would not be enough girls to participate if you had to choose between the two sports. Literally, our entire high school population is 98 students. I have 8 of 10 cheerleaders who participate in cheerleading, volleyball, softball, summer league softball, and summer league volleyball. While we would have summer to practice, we are also limited to 25 contact days with our athletes during the summer months. 25 practices is not enough to take a brand new team from zero to hero. I don't see it ever happening, but if it does there won't be much competition in the small varsity division anymore.

 

[cheer coach k]

@KDCheerMom it was voted on and denied (thank god) so we are safe!

 

[KDCheerMom]

@KDCheerMom it was voted on and denied (thank god) so we are safe!

thanks...honestly we were hoping for it but I certainly understand the position of the high schools as well. Good luck to your school.

 

[AScheer]

To all the coaches that share athletes with other sports, is that really that common of a problem and do you have to allow it? Maybe since we are in a heavily sports driven area of the south, but this isn't a common problem here. It's pretty much expected by the time you get to high school you pick your sport. Kids know they better not ask their coach if they can be excused for another sports practice and if they do they should expect to be on JV or an alternate. Even in middle schools most kids start choosing their main sport to focus on. There are occasionally sports that don't interfere: soccer and softball for example, track and most anything else is another example. But many sports/activities here (cheerleading, dance, baseball, basketball, football, even band) is pretty much year round thing when you get to the high school level. I assumed this is how it was everyone or is this just a southern thing?

 

[KDCheerMom]

To all the coaches that share athletes with other sports, is that really that common of a problem and do you have to allow it? Maybe since we are in a heavily sports driven area of the south, but this isn't a common problem here. It's pretty much expected by the time you get to high school you pick your sport. Kids know they better not ask their coach if they can be excused for another sports practice and if they do they should expect to be on JV or an alternate. Even in middle schools most kids start choosing their main sport to focus on. There are occasionally sports that don't interfere: soccer and softball for example, track and most anything else is another example. But many sports/activities here (cheerleading, dance, baseball, basketball, football, even band) is pretty much year round thing when you get to the high school level. I assumed this is how it was everyone or is this just a southern thing?

It sounds like it depends on the size of the high school. Ours is large - so you tend to see a lot less multi-sport athletes - most choose one and then train in the off season with competitive leagues. Most leagues accomodate for this and don't overlap with HS seasons. Not the case with all star and HS cheer.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

To all the coaches that share athletes with other sports, is that really that common of a problem and do you have to allow it? Maybe since we are in a heavily sports driven area of the south, but this isn't a common problem here. It's pretty much expected by the time you get to high school you pick your sport. Kids know they better not ask their coach if they can be excused for another sports practice and if they do they should expect to be on JV or an alternate. Even in middle schools most kids start choosing their main sport to focus on. There are occasionally sports that don't interfere: soccer and softball for example, track and most anything else is another example. But many sports/activities here (cheerleading, dance, baseball, basketball, football, even band) is pretty much year round thing when you get to the high school level. I assumed this is how it was everyone or is this just a southern thing?

The school I coach at is a whole whopping 98 kids. I have 10 cheerleaders of which 8 of the 10 played volleyball and 7 of the 10 play softball. I could tell them from tryouts that they aren't allowed to participate in other sports, but then I honestly wouldn't have a team. When I was in school, most of us played multiple sports, most small schools are this way. Now larger schools seem to have a different split of students that do multiple sports, but even in the town I live with a school population of 1300 students, most athletes do two sports still. The boys is either football/basketball or football/wrestling, some do football/wrestling/baseball. As far as the cheerleaders, many of them are also volleyball players or softball players. Perhaps its a regional thing, but it's very common here.