High School Coach Question

[SparkleSpankies]

I am a HS coach and I am running into a situation I have never had an issue with before. Typically, I would cut this person on previous year behavior. My assistant and I are instructed to tell the AD who we are cutting and why, usually it is b/c of a score range situation.

We have a girl who was an 11th grader on JV last season. Without going into too much detail, she worked hard over the summer so we gave her some "privileges" such as JV captain and other things. When the going got tough on JV, she quit b/c she just couldn't manage to get along w/ the "younger girls" and found another more important activity. My gut is no matter what she scores, cut her. We don't need that attitude.

Typically if the girl leaves the team for a humble reason, they would have a home with us, but this reason is just too much for me.

We spoke w/ the AD b/c her and parents came to the pre-tryout meeting which was completely unexpected. He said, I can not cut her unless she scores low and obviously I can not fix the scores, plus I video tape so you would see that she isn't a terrible cheerleader. He usually completely backs me up and supports anything I want but acted like we were wrong in this situation of knowing ahead of time we want to cut her. The JV coach last year said she never wore the right practice outfit, was not a good leader, tried to make things optional, etc. Her leaving the team was a blessing, the only reason she wasn't asked to leave was it was late in the season and we just wanted to get through drama free and we spoke to her a number of times about all of this and her mother, we had actually benched her from an important game last season because of attitude and missing. We told him all of this and he suggested a meeting w/ her and parents during tryout week to address the concerns as we can't ask her not to tryout. He is aware the answers she is going to give will be what "we" want to hear.

He usually backs me up and I feel like if she scores well, we will have to take her. All I can think of is have a 10 point scale on questions/interview/past history and maybe she will fail there?

Any thoughts would be welcome!!! I can not take this girl nor am I willing to take a chance on people saying I fix scores, however, without his backing, I am stuck in a hole.

Has anyone been in a situation where you have felt pressured to take someone that was not a good fit?

 

[FamousxMindset]

I am a HS coach and I am running into a situation I have never had an issue with before. Typically, I would cut this person on previous year behavior. My assistant and I are instructed to tell the AD who we are cutting and why, usually it is b/c of a score range situation.

?

You can't just say she isnt welcome to come back?

 

[SparkleSpankies]

You can't just say she isnt welcome to come back?

I am not allowed to! I asked!

 

[FamousxMindset]

I am not allowed to! I asked!

The next best thing is to collect teacher/coach evaluations and make that a heavily weighted portion. Or you can explain to her that if her attitudes doesn't improved she will be excused from the team with a one chance basis and her, the AD, and her parents.


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[SparkleSpankies]

I am not a teacher, but I have a few really good friends that are teachers in the school and they just think she is so sweet! The AD knows and I think the only way around it is to heavily weight past performance and interview/questionnaire. She would get a great teacher rec!

I was considering adding "x" points for a returning member based on how many years they participated, so a senior who cheered 3 years coming back for final year would get 5 and work down from there, quitting would take you back to square 1 so even though she will be a senior, she will go back to zero... My assistant feels the same. My JV coaches have documentation on every time she wore a wrong outfit, etc. I just need the AD's support so I need to be very creative when she is cut to cover my bases!

I just want thoughts! Help me be creative and work through the process.

 

[5-6-7-8]

I like the idea of heavily weighting the interview portion.

Can you also add a "prior coach recommendation" to the scoring somehow? Then you could rely on the documentation your JV coach has.


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[ashscott41]

If the AD suggested a meeting, I would try to schedule one with the parents, JV and varsity coaches, and possibly even the AD, but without the daughter present. They may not even be aware of the problems she caused last season. If I know anything about teenage girls, if she is there she will cry, say the coach is biased against her, go on the defensive, all that jazz. Show them the documentation of rules broken and explain that should she make the squad, this behavior will not be tolerated. You might want to add a demerits system in your handbook so all parties are aware of your expectations. Not dressing properly =1 demerit, being late, skipping conditioning, bad grades etc. At 5 a meeting with parents is required and you get benched for a week; at 10 demerits you are asked to leave the team. If you accumulate too many you won't be allowed to try out for future teams. Something like that may cover you in case you have another girl like her in the future. I know this is an awful situation to be in and I'm wishing you luck!!


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[Tosh]

Hey lady, I feel your pain and I do know a bit more details. I would recommend that you let it go and if her scores are high enough, let her get on the team. What we as coaches have to make certain of is that we have a good skill set team and most importantly, have alternates. This is something the AD can not object to. So leave her where her scores place her and just make sure you do not put her in anything important so that if she repeats the things that casued issues last season, now you have grounds to cut/demote her from her current position.
You never know, maybe this year her skills are good enough to have her on varsity and hopefully the issues you had with her last season will be gone, and now you have a good varsity cheerleader. If things are not working out, then just cut her on those grounds.
Do not give yourself a headache over it now. Everything will work out just fine and no headaches......

 

[SparkleSpankies]

If the AD suggested a meeting, I would try to schedule one with the parents, JV and varsity coaches, and possibly even the AD, but without the daughter present. They may not even be aware of the problems she caused last season. If I know anything about teenage girls, if she is there she will cry, say the coach is biased against her, go on the defensive, all that jazz. Show them the documentation of rules broken and explain that should she make the squad, this behavior will not be tolerated. You might want to add a demerits system in your handbook so all parties are aware of your expectations. Not dressing properly =1 demerit, being late, skipping conditioning, bad grades etc. At 5 a meeting with parents is required and you get benched for a week; at 10 demerits you are asked to leave the team. If you accumulate too many you won't be allowed to try out for future teams. Something like that may cover you in case you have another girl like her in the future. I know this is an awful situation to be in and I'm wishing you luck!!


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We already have the documentation which is somewhat aggravating that the AD seems to not support us.

The meeting is going to happen for sure. Her mother knows all of the issues and was involved in all of them, and we have documentation about everything she did and didn't do all season along w/ various emails copying the AD between her parents and us. If anything I have more then enough documentation to cover.

I honestly think she needs to be there b/c she is very coddled... oh honey you need to be nice. I think looking at her reactions and how she conducts herself will be a true indicator to the AD to back us up.

We in any sport/activity are not allowed to tell someone they can't tryout - no matter what.

 

[cheerologist]

I added a clause to my cheer handbook saying that if a cheerleader quits the team for any reason during season, that cheerleader is not permitted to tryout for the next season. (They'll have to wait a year - in this case, your girl will be graduating so you don't have to worry about it!) Perhaps add that to your handbook so that you are in the clear in the future?


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[SparkleSpankies]

I added a clause to my cheer handbook saying that if a cheerleader quits the team for any reason during season, that cheerleader is not permitted to tryout for the next season. (They'll have to wait a year - in this case, your girl will be graduating so you don't have to worry about it!) Perhaps add that to your handbook so that you are in the clear in the future?


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Again, even if it is in there, I am not allowed to say no to someone "trying out". So That is still were I am stuck. The school will not allow it. I just was curious to see the experiences out there and well, looks like I am in a league of my own! It will all work out!

 

[cheerologist]

Again, even if it is in there, I am not allowed to say no to someone "trying out". So That is still were I am stuck. The school will not allow it. I just was curious to see the experiences out there and well, looks like I am in a league of my own! It will all work out!

Since you're "stuck", I'd recommend just sitting the girl down for a chat before tryouts, and talked out your concerns - that way, she'll think about the right thing to do - either not try out, or work harder on her attitude and mending those relationships with the team... You need cheerleaders to be committed, and she needs to understand that.


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[SparkleSpankies]

We are! I just was hoping someone else was in the situation at some point or another!

 

[gymcatmomx2]

Unfortunately it looks like you are stuck with this girl for the foreseeable future. I am hoping that she just had a rough time lat year and that hopefully she has gotten over it.

I know that on my oldest CP's cheer squad, one of the girls received the silver heart award for her caring and supportive attitude her first year. The following year she was lucky she wasn't kicked off for breaking rules and having a lousy attitude. Situations can be reversed; these are high school girls and tend to be a bit moody and somewhat crazy on occasion. I speak from experience, I am a mom of 2 teenage girls!

 

[BuegeSmalls]

We had to get a teacher recommendation and a coach's recommendation for our HS tryouts, which we got scored on for our ending total of points. Maybe you could do that. If you HAVE to take her can you make her an alternate until she fixes her attitude and whatnot?

We actually had a girl that was asked not to come back after her. sophomore year. She just had a bad record with missing games and practices and her attitude a lot of the time I believe. I felt bad for her because she really did love cheerleading but I understand where the coaches were coming from. I'm not sure if she will be allowed to tryout for her senior year or not though.


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