High School High School Tryouts

[LittleMissA17]

We are mid-tryouts...it's awesome...

I'm stressing about what size team to take, how many alternates will be the right number. Balancing that with the knowledge that I know some of these skills are "once-a-years"

Going to start evaluating stunt groups tomorrow. I'm always trying to figure out how best to do that, knowing I've scored everyone on everything on which they are going to get scored, without showing my hand to the rest of the table.

My coaches would put everyone with different people and score you individually. So say a more talented flyer goes with a less experienced base. If the base is using her back, not using legs, etc. and the flyer and backspot are both doing their jobs, they'll score the flyer high but the base lower. And when they evaluate backspot they'll make the groups turn to the side to see what the back spots are doing.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

My coaches would put everyone with different people and score you individually. So say a more talented flyer goes with a less experienced base. If the base is using her back, not using legs, etc. and the flyer and backspot are both doing their jobs, they'll score the flyer high but the base lower. And when they evaluate backspot they'll make the groups turn to the side to see what the back spots are doing.

That sounds awesome. I know how to evaluate their abilities. What I meant was, I'm pretty much 90% sure who's going to make the team, but I don't want to let them know that by who I match up tomorrow.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

My coaches would put everyone with different people and score you individually. So say a more talented flyer goes with a less experienced base. If the base is using her back, not using legs, etc. and the flyer and backspot are both doing their jobs, they'll score the flyer high but the base lower. And when they evaluate backspot they'll make the groups turn to the side to see what the back spots are doing.

Yep! I switch up groups because I can tell when folks are choosing the experienced flyer or bases to "make them look good." They can't hide your poor technique.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Yep! I switch up groups because I can tell when folks are choosing the experienced flyer or bases to "make them look good." They can't hide your poor technique.

What's more frustrating for me is when I've got a kid who I know is really good, but she's playing down to lesser talented kids because they're her friends. I just want to choke her.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I don't see that as much, my kids are show-offs for the most part.

What I can tell you is that I do have a couple who love to fake like they're "not good" so their friends can stroke their egos.

You know, the girl who throws a perfect 3 to a tuck, and goes "Ohmygosh guys that was sooooooo bad. I'm so not making it."

Cue all her friends "Ohmygod Suzy that was amazing you are soooooo good."

Stop it.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I wrote this last year for a coaching email group I'm in. You have to be a coach or have a sense of humor to read. So if you're a parent with a limited sense of humor, I apologize in advance.

The types of kids you meet at a high school cheer tryout:

1. The Know Everything. She cheers on some Senior 2 Half Year team at an all star gym, and therefore knows EVERYTHING. She can be found attempting to correct random groups in clinics, even though she just started flying extended preps 3 months ago.

2. The Nervous Nellie. That girl at clinics who learned a new dance 20 minutes ago and is now hyperventilating over the fact that when she practiced it her group for the first time, she started off on the wrong foot. She is now convinced that she is not going to make Varsity.

3. The Attention-Seeker. She masquerades as Nervous Nellie for attention. Ex: She throws a perfect running 3 BHS to a tuck, says "oh my gosh you guys, that was sooooo bad. I'm so not making it." Her friends run to her and shower her with "Oh my god stop it you're like sooooo amazing" every time. She can also be found on social media posting her "awful" tumbling which is followed by 20 "stop, you're amazingggggg" comments.

4. The Complacent Veteran. You know her. She's cheered for 2 years and headed into her senior season. She feels like she's got it in the bag. She is 5 minutes late because Starbucks. She talks for 20 minutes and stretches for 3. She talks around the mat for 15 minutes and throws one pass. You see her sitting and talking to her group mates about their hair when they are supposed to be working on the dance. It doesn't matter. She says she's "totally making it anyway." (lol)

5. The Question Asker. She is likely fueled by her mom's questions because she will not stop asking them. "Do I have to throw standing tumbling to make it?" or "Can I make it with a straight up lib?" or "Will I still make it if I just throw a round off BHS? What about a cartwheel round off BHS?" She also appears to have not read any of the tryout packet because her questions are answered in it.

6. The Crier. Forgot a part of the dance? Come off the mat and cry. Mess up a motion in the cheer? You guessed it. Forget that this is JUST clinics. You need to start the waterworks now.

 

[Official OWECheer]

What's more frustrating for me is when I've got a kid who I know is really good, but she's playing down to lesser talented kids because they're her friends. I just want to choke her.

Are her friends jealous and trying to get her to dim her shine?

@oncecoolcoachnowmom LOL I love this! #3 is the funniest.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

I wrote this last year for a coaching email group I'm in. You have to be a coach or have a sense of humor to read. So if you're a parent with a limited sense of humor, I apologize in advance.

The types of kids you meet at a high school cheer tryout:

1. The Know Everything. She cheers on some Senior 2 Half Year team at an all star gym, and therefore knows EVERYTHING. She can be found attempting to correct random groups in clinics, even though she just started flying extended preps 3 months ago.

2. The Nervous Nellie. That girl at clinics who learned a new dance 20 minutes ago and is now hyperventilating over the fact that when she practiced it her group for the first time, she started off on the wrong foot. She is now convinced that she is not going to make Varsity.

3. The Attention-Seeker. She masquerades as Nervous Nellie for attention. Ex: She throws a perfect running 3 BHS to a tuck, says "oh my gosh you guys, that was sooooo bad. I'm so not making it." Her friends run to her and shower her with "Oh my god stop it you're like sooooo amazing" every time. She can also be found on social media posting her "awful" tumbling which is followed by 20 "stop, you're amazingggggg" comments.

4. The Complacent Veteran. You know her. She's cheered for 2 years and headed into her senior season. She feels like she's got it in the bag. She is 5 minutes late because Starbucks. She talks for 20 minutes and stretches for 3. She talks around the mat for 15 minutes and throws one pass. You see her sitting and talking to her group mates about their hair when they are supposed to be working on the dance. It doesn't matter. She says she's "totally making it anyway." (lol)

5. The Question Asker. She is likely fueled by her mom's questions because she will not stop asking them. "Do I have to throw standing tumbling to make it?" or "Can I make it with a straight up lib?" or "Will I still make it if I just throw a round off BHS? What about a cartwheel round off BHS?" She also appears to have not read any of the tryout packet because her questions are answered in it.

6. The Crier. Forgot a part of the dance? Come off the mat and cry. Mess up a motion in the cheer? You guessed it. Forget that this is JUST clinics. You need to start the waterworks now.

I think you left off a couple:

7. The one with more guts than brains: This one throws her tumbling skill relentlessly in her efforts to "do her full at tryouts." At some point you have to either stop her, or direct her to a good brand of floss to get all the carpet fibers out of her teeth.

8. The Adamant Flyer: Has never been on top of a stunt any day in her life. Has no air awareness, nor body control. Is often terrified of heights. Yet, feels the coaching staff have somehow short-changed her an opportunity by not allowing her to go up on stunt day.

9. The competitor: Is often a younger sister of someone who is already on the team. Somehow caught wind that her sister was going to make varsity and she was going to make JV. Progressed from a backhandspring to a tuck, both standing and running, in one week so as not to be separated from big sis.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

The scenario most common for me is with FRIENDS trying out.

They've cheered Pop Warner together since 5. They've cheered Middle School. They cheered JV together for two years.

They're a package deal.

Then one of them doesn't make Varsity.

That's rough.

Our JV and Varsity have a separate tryout. So the friend who doesn't make it has to decide to try out. Most times, they do and they are still BFFs even if not on same team.

However, I did have a pair of friends stop being friends because they did the "I won't cheer if you don't make it" thing. Suzy made Varsity and Sally didn't. Sally expected Suzy to turn down the spot. She didn't. Sally ended up making JV but fell out with Suzy because she didn't turn down a Varsity spot for her.

 

[Official OWECheer]

The scenario most common for me is with FRIENDS trying out.

They've cheered Pop Warner together since 5. They've cheered Middle School. They cheered JV together for two years.

They're a package deal.

Then one of them doesn't make Varsity.

That's rough.

Our JV and Varsity have a separate tryout. So the friend who doesn't make it has to decide to try out. Most times, they do and they are still BFFs even if not on same team.

However, I did have a pair of friends stop being friends because they did the "I won't cheer if you don't make it" thing. Suzy made Varsity and Sally didn't. Sally expected Suzy to turn down the spot. She didn't. Sally ended up making JV but fell out with Suzy because she didn't turn down a Varsity spot for her.

*eye roll* what a baby. Too selfish to handle a real friendship. It's a rather juvenile attitude to have in high school.

@OldskoolKYcheercoach #9... janky or clean?

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

*eye roll* what a baby. Too selfish to handle a real friendship. It's a rather juvenile attitude to have in high school.

@OldskoolKYcheercoach #9... janky or clean?

Oh no...like a boss. She had been working on it for a while, but only half-heartedly. It was actually a really cool moment for me last year. In a complicated mix of circumstances, they were both first-year athletes in my program. The older sister an incoming sophomore and the younger an incoming freshie. They're both athletic kids, but the older one had just worked her athletic ability a little harder. The younger one is so tiny, she'd always gotten by on being the kid the middle school coach would put on the team because they could do any stunt they wanted to with her. They're parents are divorced, and the mom doesn't get much help with extracurriculars.

The local all star gym was hosting a lot of "open gym" times, and we were holding tryouts. A huge number of my candidates were coming in, and I was coming in to spot them and get a feel for their abilities. So I went to the mother, and I asked her, "We have 49 people who showed up at the parent meeting. I know there are at least 30 that have good potential. So it looks like we may go back to having two teams like the program had before I started coaching this year. Would you be able to handle the transportation if they were on different teams?"

She wasn't very optimistic, and I don't blame her. I said, "I'll do my best to get them together, because I know it'll help you out. It's just going to be a hard sell to the other coaches."

Cue the first day of tryouts a week later: Little sis goes standing tuck and roundoff backhandspring tuck on the hard wood and is one of the top 20 scores legit.

 

[AScheer]

That sounds awesome. I know how to evaluate their abilities. What I meant was, I'm pretty much 90% sure who's going to make the team, but I don't want to let them know that by who I match up tomorrow.

Not sure what your current method is. I struggle to find the best way to do it as well, so I'm always up for new ideas on how to do stunt tryouts.

The way I've found so far that works best for me is to pull them a few at a time while we do open practice rotations. We keep 3 to 4 groups stunting at once and are very hands on. We switch them from group to group over and over. I use returners to gauge new people. A stacked returner group that can't get your butt in the air says a lot. I'll call people in and out as I need them and compare. And like you're saying I will purposely put randoms together to throw the kids off of who and what I'm actually looking at and considering.

In college we chose our groups and I hated it. As an incoming freshman it was stressful because you didn't know anyone and the pressure to get a good group was big. The next year, as one of the best veteran bases it was exhausting to get used so many times. Between my best friend and I, we were used in every single tryout group. Junior year our coach put a rule into place on how many times you could be used because it was getting ridiculous.

 

[AScheer]

I wrote this last year for a coaching email group I'm in. You have to be a coach or have a sense of humor to read. So if you're a parent with a limited sense of humor, I apologize in advance.

The types of kids you meet at a high school cheer tryout:

1. The Know Everything. She cheers on some Senior 2 Half Year team at an all star gym, and therefore knows EVERYTHING. She can be found attempting to correct random groups in clinics, even though she just started flying extended preps 3 months ago.

2. The Nervous Nellie. That girl at clinics who learned a new dance 20 minutes ago and is now hyperventilating over the fact that when she practiced it her group for the first time, she started off on the wrong foot. She is now convinced that she is not going to make Varsity.

3. The Attention-Seeker. She masquerades as Nervous Nellie for attention. Ex: She throws a perfect running 3 BHS to a tuck, says "oh my gosh you guys, that was sooooo bad. I'm so not making it." Her friends run to her and shower her with "Oh my god stop it you're like sooooo amazing" every time. She can also be found on social media posting her "awful" tumbling which is followed by 20 "stop, you're amazingggggg" comments.

4. The Complacent Veteran. You know her. She's cheered for 2 years and headed into her senior season. She feels like she's got it in the bag. She is 5 minutes late because Starbucks. She talks for 20 minutes and stretches for 3. She talks around the mat for 15 minutes and throws one pass. You see her sitting and talking to her group mates about their hair when they are supposed to be working on the dance. It doesn't matter. She says she's "totally making it anyway." (lol)

5. The Question Asker. She is likely fueled by her mom's questions because she will not stop asking them. "Do I have to throw standing tumbling to make it?" or "Can I make it with a straight up lib?" or "Will I still make it if I just throw a round off BHS? What about a cartwheel round off BHS?" She also appears to have not read any of the tryout packet because her questions are answered in it.

6. The Crier. Forgot a part of the dance? Come off the mat and cry. Mess up a motion in the cheer? You guessed it. Forget that this is JUST clinics. You need to start the waterworks now.

What about the "can we get water" girl? I always have at least one that will never stop asking for water or breaks! It's like do you know you're ruining every chance you have if you ask me for a break after every single thing you do! Do you think you will get 30 breaks every practice?!?

There's also the clueless girl. The one who thinks she's doing everything right and has it in the bag but is clueless to the fact that we can't tell if that sloppy lazy motion was a T or a high V. The one who is correcting the girl next to her, when she herself messes up the footwork every time.

And of course I always have at least 1 that I wonder if they've ever even seen a cheerleader.

 

[AScheer]

She wasn't very optimistic, and I don't blame her. I said, "I'll do my best to get them together, because I know it'll help you out. It's just going to be a hard sell to the other coaches."

Sisters are tough. I've cut a sibling while the other makes it a couple of times. I've also had this convo with parents before. In mine I always make sure they understand that if the kids have to be on the same team, it will be the lesser one. If Jenny makes varsity and Julie makes JV, but they have to stay together, then they both make JV. I'm not bumping a kid up who isn't ready but I can take a kid down. That will usually change a parents mind who just thinks it will guarantee Julie getting put on varsity.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Not sure what your current method is. I struggle to find the best way to do it as well, so I'm always up for new ideas on how to do stunt tryouts.

The way I've found so far that works best for me is to pull them a few at a time while we do open practice rotations. We keep 3 to 4 groups stunting at once and are very hands on. We switch them from group to group over and over. I use returners to gauge new people. A stacked returner group that can't get your butt in the air says a lot. I'll call people in and out as I need them and compare. And like you're saying I will purposely put randoms together to throw the kids off of who and what I'm actually looking at and considering.

In college we chose our groups and I hated it. As an incoming freshman it was stressful because you didn't know anyone and the pressure to get a good group was big. The next year, as one of the best veteran bases it was exhausting to get used so many times. Between my best friend and I, we were used in every single tryout group. Junior year our coach put a rule into place on how many times you could be used because it was getting ridiculous.

We did two days of it this year. I made groups on paper the night before. Then we rotated them through three at a time. The first day, I spent a lot of time switching out people who weren't as close in height as I thought. The second was much better. Both days started off very structured with the groups I had on paper, then branched off to include random ideas I had on the fly. "I wonder if this girl can fly." "I wonder if these two could base that itty bitty one together." "This kid is stronger than I thought, but how strong?" I do have the luxury of having girls in youth large, youth extra large, adult extra small, adult small, and adult medium sizes, all with experience as tops so I could just stair step my way up and see how a new girl did with various weights.