High School High School Tryouts

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Oh stunt groups.

They're always an issue.

I started making groups myself because I got so many "I CAN ONLY STUNT WITH ________." and the same bases and backs being overused.

I switch them out periodically as well.

I love seeing the look on their faces when they're being asked to step out of their comfort zone.

I also tend to have (and I think most of you can relate) a lot of girls can who CAN DO BOTH but WANT TO FLY EXCLUSIVELY.

Like, they want to try out as a flyer not realizing that they are better at basing. But they shoot themselves in the foot by insisting on trying out as a flyer. I try to impress on them that it is best to do both.

I also have the issue of JV Flyers Who Are Not Varsity Flyer Ready. You know, the girls who flew on JV (in the equivalent of Level 2 stunts) but are not quite as experienced as your Varsity flyers in the more difficult stunts. They can base and back at a Varsity level EASILY but are insisting on flying. I plan to spend a lot of time breaking them up, having them base, and encouraging them to base primarily. We shall see how it goes for them as our clinics officially start shortly.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Oh stunt groups.

They're always an issue.

I started making groups myself because I got so many "I CAN ONLY STUNT WITH ________." and the same bases and backs being overused.

I switch them out periodically as well.

I love seeing the look on their faces when they're being asked to step out of their comfort zone.

I also tend to have (and I think most of you can relate) a lot of girls can who CAN DO BOTH but WANT TO FLY EXCLUSIVELY.

Like, they want to try out as a flyer not realizing that they are better at basing. But they shoot themselves in the foot by insisting on trying out as a flyer. I try to impress on them that it is best to do both.

I also have the issue of JV Flyers Who Are Not Varsity Flyer Ready. You know, the girls who flew on JV (in the equivalent of Level 2 stunts) but are not quite as experienced as your Varsity flyers in the more difficult stunts. They can base and back at a Varsity level EASILY but are insisting on flying. I plan to spend a lot of time breaking them up, having them base, and encouraging them to base primarily. We shall see how it goes for them as our clinics officially start shortly.

I had one girl at our tryout who kept migrating toward the one group that could base her. She can do some basics, but she's not going to fly for me....ever. Why? Because she's got no experience, she's been a base on all stars, and I've set with flyers until her junior year. Then guess what happens her junior year...two more legal midgets with good flying skills come from the middle school. It's just not going to happen for her.

 

[Crazy Cheer Mom]

I'm nervous for my tryouts because I'm changing things up this year. In the past the jv sideline became my competitive team,until I had issues with commitment levels for the comp team. So now I'm splitting them. And i will be choosing who competes, outside judges will choose the general sidelines. I'm tired of babying parents and taking girls who think they're better than they are. It's time to get real. However jv in my county is not considered a sport so we compete to prep for Varsity...and because I'm just competitive by nature. Lol

 

[Chs1]

Very nervous and not sure how to conduct tryouts this year. It's usually a very stressful time for the me and the other coach:

1. In my county we can't have tryouts until August 1st, which extremely frustrating. Not only does it cause stress on the parents cause they have to turn their money in for camp, practice wear, warm ups, etc. literally the same day they tried out, but also we have to RUSH to make sure all the new girls and JV know the cheers and dances by he first game, we end up fighting (not literally) over practice space with other sports, and were given just a month to learn a routine, find a place to practice and tweak it, have our music come in, find uniforms to fit everyone (which last year was very difficult) and to throw full outs to make sure they can actually do the routine and pray for the best. (Most of the time their stuff isn't in until half of football season is over)

2. I'm kind of leaning towards having outside coaches and I'm still in the room and have the final say, it's just we had an issue with a girl....Suzy who didn't have tumbling made it over Molly who did. (btw we can't enforce tumbling on the girls on the score sheet anymore ) Molly's mom works for the Superintendent and went straight to her, called a meeting and they basically forced us to take Suzy off and put Molly on.(with the excuse of we messed up scores, which we didn't) Now, there were 2 other girls whose scores were higher than Molly's also. Well we had to take them too. Molly was a junior who will now be a senior who I'm sure her mom will be expecting her daughter to make it again. Every year there's a senior who doesn't make it....I wonder who it will be this year.

When the administration doesn't even back you up it's very hard to do anything without getting hell for it. Just thinking about tryouts just gives me a headache and makes me want to run and hide under a rock.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Very nervous and not sure how to conduct tryouts this year. It's usually a very stressful time for the me and the other coach:

1. In my county we can't have tryouts until August 1st, which extremely frustrating. Not only does it cause stress on the parents cause they have to turn their money in for camp, practice wear, warm ups, etc. literally the same day they tried out, but also we have to RUSH to make sure all the new girls and JV know the cheers and dances by he first game, we end up fighting (not literally) over practice space with other sports, and were given just a month to learn a routine, find a place to practice and tweak it, have our music come in, find uniforms to fit everyone (which last year was very difficult) and to throw full outs to make sure they can actually do the routine and pray for the best. (Most of the time their stuff isn't in until half of football season is over)

2. I'm kind of leaning towards having outside coaches and I'm still in the room and have the final say, it's just we had an issue with a girl....Suzy who didn't have tumbling made it over Molly who did. (btw we can't enforce tumbling on the girls on the score sheet anymore ) Molly's mom works for the Superintendent and went straight to her, called a meeting and they basically forced us to take Suzy off and put Molly on.(with the excuse of we messed up scores, which we didn't) Now, there were 2 other girls whose scores were higher than Molly's also. Well we had to take them too. Molly was a junior who will now be a senior who I'm sure her mom will be expecting her daughter to make it again. Every year there's a senior who doesn't make it....I wonder who it will be this year.

When the administration doesn't even back you up it's very hard to do anything without getting hell for it. Just thinking about tryouts just gives me a headache and makes me want to run and hide under a rock.

QUIT

Literally


If they're going to pull that kind of male bovine fecal matter, tell them to go autologously fornicate, and quit,

 

[Chs1]

Trust me, it has come across my mind multiple times and on occasion I've had to stop myself from just out right leaving. If it wasn't for my girls who have made it fairly all three years and now going on their senior year I would have left by now.

 

[AScheer]

Trust me, it has come across my mind multiple times and on occasion I've had to stop myself from just out right leaving. If it wasn't for my girls who have made it fairly all three years and now going on their senior year I would have left by now.

It will always be someone's senior year. It will always be hard to leave. From the sounds of the environment though it doesn't sound like it will ever be good enough to support a program. Another school will back you and appreciate you and those kids will mean just as much to you. None of us get paid enough to put up with crap like that! You should enjoy the season and the process of starting new seasons!

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

It will always be someone's senior year. It will always be hard to leave. From the sounds of the environment though it doesn't sound like it will ever be good enough to support a program. Another school will back you and appreciate you and those kids will mean just as much to you. None of us get paid enough to put up with crap like that! You should enjoy the season and the process of starting new seasons!

This.... Repeatedly


It's not like there are people knocking down the doors for these jobs

 

[AScheer]

On another note... I LOVE TRYOUT SEASON! It's just a breath of new life. Figuring out a big puzzle of who is a good fit and who goes on what team. Seeing all the possibilities of the new year. I know the kids and parents hate it but it's one of my favorite times of year!

 

[Official OWECheer]

QUIT

Literally


If they're going to pull that kind of male bovine fecal matter, tell them to go autologously fornicate, and quit,

*smirks*

 

[CheerMom333]

Having a hard time understanding how high school cheer politics work! Here are the scenarios we encountered and I am trying to figure out if this is the norm.

Suzy A is an automatic varisty returner with an injury so could not tryout at all at "mandatory" tryouts

All star Suzy B was away at comp and was allowed to submit a video for tryout and skip "mandatory" days and automstically made Varsity

Suzy C has a back handspring which is the minimim requirement for Varsity but has a family everyone loves so she came and went for "mandatory" tryouts and got a Varsity spot

Suzy D has terrible cheer skills, sloppy tumbling but weighs 60lbs so she was put on Varsity as an incoming freshman. She is at least 15 inches shorter than the rest of the team.

Suzy E can do back hand spring but is a sloppy cheerleader and does not like spotting but has a Varsity spot.

Then we have Suzy F,G and H who fell repeatedly in tryouts but made Varsity spots because of who they know. (Coming from their own mouths, stating they knew they had spots on Varsity)


I just heard from a woman who was one of the judges last year at the high school. That all judges scoring was totally dismissed and tons of bottom ranking girls were put on Varsity because of similar reasons as above from this year.

Why have judges at all? Why not put the best people on the team if you constantly stress how much you want to win?

I assumed my kid would make a team based on her skill level and that it would be fair. No such luck.

For any coaches out there, or parents or girls who witnessed it first hand, have you ever seen the favoritism come back and bite the coaches in the butt?

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Having a hard time understanding how high school cheer politics work! Here are the scenarios we encountered and I am trying to figure out if this is the norm.

Suzy A is an automatic varisty returner with an injury so could not tryout at all at "mandatory" tryouts

All star Suzy B was away at comp and was allowed to submit a video for tryout and skip "mandatory" days and automstically made Varsity

Suzy C has a back handspring which is the minimim requirement for Varsity but has a family everyone loves so she came and went for "mandatory" tryouts and got a Varsity spot

Suzy D has terrible cheer skills, sloppy tumbling but weighs 60lbs so she was put on Varsity as an incoming freshman. She is at least 15 inches shorter than the rest of the team.

Suzy E can do back hand spring but is a sloppy cheerleader and does not like spotting but has a Varsity spot.

Then we have Suzy F,G and H who fell repeatedly in tryouts but made Varsity spots because of who they know. (Coming from their own mouths, stating they knew they had spots on Varsity)


I just heard from a woman who was one of the judges last year at the high school. That all judges scoring was totally dismissed and tons of bottom ranking girls were put on Varsity because of similar reasons as above from this year.

Why have judges at all? Why not put the best people on the team if you constantly stress how much you want to win?

I assumed my kid would make a team based on her skill level and that it would be fair. No such luck.

For any coaches out there, or parents or girls who witnessed it first hand, have you ever seen the favoritism come back and bite the coaches in the butt?

Short answer: hell yea

Long answer:

I've watched the program at one of our rival schools unravel over the last five years because of similar garbage. Sometimes it takes a long time, but no program can survive a coach that pulls that crap and be successful for very long.

I mean, the program at the school where I'm about to start my third year as head coach had unraveled for the same reasons which led to my employment.

The failure of such coaches is inevitable, but sometimes what goes around takes its sweet time to come around.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

I'll also add that coaches who stress how much they want to win typically do so as a cheap cover up for all the shady crap they do.

If coaches would stress building better athletes and instilling character traits that lead to success, the wins will take care of themselves.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Having a hard time understanding how high school cheer politics work! Here are the scenarios we encountered and I am trying to figure out if this is the norm.

Suzy A is an automatic varisty returner with an injury so could not tryout at all at "mandatory" tryouts

All star Suzy B was away at comp and was allowed to submit a video for tryout and skip "mandatory" days and automstically made Varsity

Suzy C has a back handspring which is the minimim requirement for Varsity but has a family everyone loves so she came and went for "mandatory" tryouts and got a Varsity spot

Suzy D has terrible cheer skills, sloppy tumbling but weighs 60lbs so she was put on Varsity as an incoming freshman. She is at least 15 inches shorter than the rest of the team.

Suzy E can do back hand spring but is a sloppy cheerleader and does not like spotting but has a Varsity spot.

Then we have Suzy F,G and H who fell repeatedly in tryouts but made Varsity spots because of who they know. (Coming from their own mouths, stating they knew they had spots on Varsity)


I just heard from a woman who was one of the judges last year at the high school. That all judges scoring was totally dismissed and tons of bottom ranking girls were put on Varsity because of similar reasons as above from this year.

Why have judges at all? Why not put the best people on the team if you constantly stress how much you want to win?

I assumed my kid would make a team based on her skill level and that it would be fair. No such luck.

For any coaches out there, or parents or girls who witnessed it first hand, have you ever seen the favoritism come back and bite the coaches in the butt?

Short answer: Yes it does. Maybe not immediately but I always see programs deteriorating over time.

As coaches, they may be pleasing the parents, but eventually cheer becomes a joke to the point that you can't pay kids to try out. Because even sideline cheer programs suffer once kids know they'll always make it and skills don't matter.

 

[gymcatmomx2]

Having a hard time understanding how high school cheer politics work! Here are the scenarios we encountered and I am trying to figure out if this is the norm.

Suzy A is an automatic varisty returner with an injury so could not tryout at all at "mandatory" tryouts

All star Suzy B was away at comp and was allowed to submit a video for tryout and skip "mandatory" days and automstically made Varsity

Suzy C has a back handspring which is the minimim requirement for Varsity but has a family everyone loves so she came and went for "mandatory" tryouts and got a Varsity spot

Suzy D has terrible cheer skills, sloppy tumbling but weighs 60lbs so she was put on Varsity as an incoming freshman. She is at least 15 inches shorter than the rest of the team.

Suzy E can do back hand spring but is a sloppy cheerleader and does not like spotting but has a Varsity spot.

Then we have Suzy F,G and H who fell repeatedly in tryouts but made Varsity spots because of who they know. (Coming from their own mouths, stating they knew they had spots on Varsity)


I just heard from a woman who was one of the judges last year at the high school. That all judges scoring was totally dismissed and tons of bottom ranking girls were put on Varsity because of similar reasons as above from this year.

Why have judges at all? Why not put the best people on the team if you constantly stress how much you want to win?

I assumed my kid would make a team based on her skill level and that it would be fair. No such luck.

For any coaches out there, or parents or girls who witnessed it first hand, have you ever seen the favoritism come back and bite the coaches in the butt?

This makes me sad and angry at the same time. I live in Texas where high school cheer is almost as important as football. Parents have hired lawyers and filed grievances with the school board when their daughters didn't make the team. If there is any shady stuff going on, I think it's the parents' responsibility to bring it to the attention of the school board. I have personally witnessed grievances that were unfounded and grievances that were absolutely right.

If you feel that the judging was not above board, then by all means you need to put a spotlight on the issue. There will be people that will judge you, but honestly, they are going to judge you no matter what. My oldest CP was Varsity captain her senior year, and my youngest was JV captain last year and made Varsity this year. I have seen and heard it all. Most of the schools in our area have experienced some type of drama with regard to cheer tryouts, but everyone of them made modifications to correct the errors.