High School Creative Ways To Let Girls Know They Have Made The Team.

[Cheergrandma]

My granddaughter's Middle School doesn't have cuts. It's a small school and the principal believes anyone who qualifies grade-wise (2.0 or better) makes the team. And that goes for ALL sports (football, basketball, soccer, etc). The teams usually end up in the top three in the county in most sports, much to the dismay of the "bigger" middle schools who have cuts and umpteen players. A tribute to the coaching staff. :D

 

[MaddiKate]

At our school, tryouts are usually the first Thursday of May. The following afternoon (Friday), we go in the cafeteria after school, where the coaches are. There are a bunch of folded papers on the tables, all with the roster for each squad as well as the date and time of the next meeting. Everyone's paper is exactly the same.

Then right after announcement, the incoming senior cheerleaders meet up and plan a sleepover or late-night get together. They get the addresses of each non-senior girl, call the parents to explain if they're new, and then we go around at night and kidnap everyone (blindfolded and all). We have them all hold hands while blindfolded and walk them through somewhere, such as the grocery store or city park. They stay blindfolded until we get to our designated meeting spot (usually a senior girl's house), take off the blindfolds, and welcome them to the new squad :) some years we have sleepovers, but this year we just had an ice cream sundae bar and had fun getting to know the new girls!

 

[Onfire381]

Hahaha, I get it. Though I definitely just thought "What if instead of confetti... it was glitter." :eek:

Must be an All Star cheerleader....lol!

 

[MaddiKate]

Please please please get all parties etc approved by your AD or Principal to be sure it isn't considered hazing. Hazing has become a huge problem in high school athletics and even something that seems innocent, like "kidnapping" and blindfolding the new girls for a surprise-that's legally considered hazing.

Don't worry, our coaches help us with ideas for our kidnapping and we always call the girls' parents (or just the girl if they're a returner) and our coach makes sure we're being nice ;)

 

[MissBee]

Don't worry, our coaches help us with ideas for our kidnapping and we always call the girls' parents (or just the girl if they're a returner) and our coach makes sure we're being nice ;)

Even with "parent permission" legally it's considered hazing. If it's something that one group does to another group within the team, it's hazing and it's illegal.

 

[cheerdancemodel]

At my school, our tryouts are 5 days long (4 days learning choreo & cheers, last day is the actual tryout). We usually have over 150 girls audition which is why we have three teams (var, JV, & freshmen). On the first day of tryouts, each girl is given a number. What my coach has done in the past years is just post three lists (one for each team) outside the school either late Friday night or early Saturday morning.
Usually this method has proven to be successful, but last year it actually caused a lot of drama. It was my first year trying out for the team at the end of my freshmen year and I was so excited to cheer with my friends. Three of my friends had been on JV the previous year but I was unable to tryout due to medical reasons. Anyways, the night after the last day of tryouts (Friday) we all decided to have a sleepover so we could go to the school in the morning to check the list! (This already sounds like a bad idea...) My dad, however, had to bring me some of my stuff that night and on his way home I asked him to check the school to see if the list was up. It was 1:30 am and of course my dad saw my coach just as she was posting the list. He called me and I asked him if he saw my number and all of my friends' numbers. One of my friends and I had made varsity while our other two friends did not make any team. Unfortunately those girls got really mad at me as they saw it was unfair that I had made the team & they didn't while they were returning girls. Lots of tears that night and even some ruined friendships. Luckily I cheer for a different school now but that night was one I won't forget.

Anyways, long story short, no matter what way you decide to tell your girls, someone is always going to be upset. Unless every girl makes the team of course, but don't stress out about it too much! There will be drama no matter what and it builds character to lose every once in a while ;) Obviously no one wants to face the reality of getting cut from a team, but it's something that I think everyone needs to experience at least once. Hopefully no one will have to experience what I went through though. We teenagers can be quite dramatic :rolleyes:

 

[TheTalkedAboutMinor]

Have them go into a room one by one. If they make the team, a track of heavenly angels singing opera will turn on, a spotlight will shine on the cheerleader, giving her an angelic glow. Then majestic doves will fly into the room and gracefully hand the cheerleader her poms, uniform, and bow, Cinderella style. Then confetti cannons will go off and circus acrobats will flip on the trapeze 30 feet above. Then, the acrobats will do double tucks and land on the floor. Then they will do an elaborate pom number, and then they will prop the cheerleader on to a chair and do the Hora and sing Hava Nagila. Then the cast of High School Musical will perform "We're All In This Together". And then fireworks will go off in the distance and she will have glitter thrown on her. This is my personal preference, so get to know each girl so that you can mix it up to meet each individual need. For example, if a cheerleader is a Christian, unlike myself, you can do a jazz rendition of Amazing Grace instead of Hava Nagila. Or, if she is afraid of fireworks, you can have strobe lights or something of that nature. Just make each acceptance unique for each girl. The end :)

 

[omgitssydthekid]

We had two rounds of tryouts at the high school I went to. The first round was your traditional cheer, chant, fight song, three jumps, and tumbling. If you made it through the first round, you had a month of consistency practices to see how consistent your skills were. Stunting was also a big part of the second round and attitude played a large part as well. Both rounds people were cut/found out if they progressed via letter that was handed out. The first round was handed out a few hours after the formal tryouts occurred, and the second letter was handed out at the last "practice" before JV and Varsity were split. We usually had about 100 girls try out and about 20-30 make Varsity, and 10-20 make JV.

 

[seein_starz]

Put the numbers of the girl in a balloon (with glitter if you want) and you could have a different color balloon for each team, they pop the balloons to find out who made it!


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[CoachErica09]

I'm coaching at a new high school this year (with a few assistants) and the AD would like for me to hold tryouts, select the top 50 girls (we currently have 65 registered for tryouts)...and train them all as one big team for 2 months before deciding who will be on JV/Varsity.

We are going to post numbers for the initial "first cut" of 50...but any suggestions on how to let the girls know what team they make in November? I am trying to stay away from 1. Having another tryout and 2. Calling the girls over 1 by 1 and telling them what team they made to their face (I did this one year and the look on some faces killed me!).

Thinking of doing envelopes with different color glitter (Red for Varsity, and Blue for JV) with the meeting time and practice schedule for both groups inside. Any other thoughts? Thanks!!

 

[Jennie]

Thinking of doing envelopes with different color glitter (Red for Varsity, and Blue for JV) with the meeting time and practice schedule for both groups inside. Any other thoughts? Thanks!!

That sounds so cute!!



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[CEAisstronger]

I'm coaching at a new high school this year (with a few assistants) and the AD would like for me to hold tryouts, select the top 50 girls (we currently have 65 registered for tryouts)...and train them all as one big team for 2 months before deciding who will be on JV/Varsity.

We are going to post numbers for the initial "first cut" of 50...but any suggestions on how to let the girls know what team they make in November? I am trying to stay away from 1. Having another tryout and 2. Calling the girls over 1 by 1 and telling them what team they made to their face (I did this one year and the look on some faces killed me!).

Thinking of doing envelopes with different color glitter (Red for Varsity, and Blue for JV) with the meeting time and practice schedule for both groups inside. Any other thoughts? Thanks!!

We did the envelopes but it was just white envelopes.


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[Olivia Gelard]

I've had a few coaches since I've been cheering, and they all did something different. My freshman year, we all waited outside in the hallway, and then went in to meet with the coach and assistant coach one by one. They told us what we did well, what we needed to work on, etc., and then if we made it, they gave us the form for camp and the practice schedule for the first month.

My sophomore and junior year, my coach had a three-day clinic-style tryout, with jumps/dances/cheer/stunting/tumbling, and then on the fourth day, everyone went and tried out in pairs for the jumps, dance, cheer, and tumbling while the coach and assistant coach watched. They would score us on all those aspects, and after that, each girl had a formal stunt tryout with a group of her choice, where she would be scored on stunt difficulty and execution. Later that night, the coach sent out an email with everyone's tryout numbers either listed under alternate or competition team. I liked this tryout method better than how I tried out my freshman year, but it wasn't exactly fair for the girls trying out for the first time winter season, because they didn't have nearly as much time to learn stunts (or set stunt groups like the girls who had done fall season).

This year, my coach had a mainly stunting-based tryout. She had everyone switching around stunt groups a lot to try new combinations, but there wasn't as much of a formal tryout. She just told everyone one by one at the end of the last day who had made the team; we didn't take any alternates. For winter season we did take a few alternates, but they've all gotten in by now because we've had quite a few injuries!

At one of my friends' schools, when girls made the team, the coach would give them their game & practice bows, which I think is a cute idea!

 

[emma_tuttle]

a few teams give each girls an envelope, like pledging a sorority. then you leave campus and open your envelope. The envelope indicates if you made a team or not. If you made a team, your envelope is an invitation to welcome the new team party Monday after school. If you didn't make the team, you can deal with it in peace without having to see all the girls who did make it.

That's similar to how my school does it. We have tryouts on Saturday morning and then they tally scores and you come back at a certain time a couple of hours later and you get a piece of paper that says whether you made it and you have to leave campus before opening it. Granted, a lot of girls do open them together but that's by their own choice. I feel like an email would be better because that way each girl only has access to they're own unless they want to show other people. And with email.you could personally tell each girl what they needed to work on or what they scored well in. Just an athlete's opinion

 

[BuegeSmalls]

That's similar to how my school does it. We have tryouts on Saturday morning and then they tally scores and you come back at a certain time a couple of hours later and you get a piece of paper that says whether you made it and you have to leave campus before opening it. Granted, a lot of girls do open them together but that's by their own choice. I feel like an email would be better because that way each girl only has access to they're own unless they want to show other people. And with email.you could personally tell each girl what they needed to work on or what they scored well in. Just an athlete's opinion

My college does it like this but with an email. The one that says that you've made it says congrats and all that, and stuff about how more information will becoming later (like practice dates & what not. It also has the names of the other girls who made it. Not sure what the no letter says. Probably something along the lines of "sorry we cannot offer you a spot on this years team" or something. Pretty sure that they don't comment on what each athlete could have done better though, but they'd probably tell you if you asked.


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