High School Confessions Of A High School Cheerleader

[CheerRehab]

-stop talking during games!
-call appropriate cheers for the plays (pay attention, learn the rules)
-stop complaining that you're too cold, too hot, the sun is in your eyes
-stop unzipping the back of your skirt at halftime
-stop pulling your skirt up/rolling it/having it hemmed to make it shorter
-pay attention to your flyer
-catch your flyer
-stop complaining so freaking much!
-if you bully someone on the team online you're off the squad
-don't sit back and play on your phone while your teammates make the banner

 

[coachrah]

Little Sis had been to UCA camp several times but the rest of her squad hadn't (we moved to new school system) & they were all surprised that it wasn't fun fun fun kinda camp ... it's more like BOOT CAMP.

Little's "Three Things You Need to Know About Cheer Camp" are:
1. You will get hurt.
2. You will get in a fight.
3. You will cry.


#1 is you will get hurt.? That should be the #1 reason not to go!

(1. You'll either actually get injured or just feel like you want to die coz you're so exhausted & sore & bruised.)
(2. Expect drama and fights between people and understand that as much as you LOVE everyone right now, you will despise nearly every person on your squad by the last day of camp. This will pass once you get home and get some rest, but it's sucky when it's happening.)
(3. You'll cry at least once - maybe multiple times - either coz you're sooo tired, you're fighting, you're hurt, you messed up in evals, you didn't make All-American, your team didn't place where you wanted, or some other random reason but it WILL happen. To everyone. At least once.)

These are like the best 3 things bout camp I've ever seen coz it's so accurate plus short & easy to remember.
Hurt. Fight. Cry.
YES!
Obviously there are lots of good things bout camp (and as a coach I saw a lot of positives) but girls should def be warned about the not-so-good things! Little was prepared so she wasn't surprised or freaked out when all 3 happened to her squad but the other girls acted like it was the end of their cheer life forever. She spent lotta time telling everyone "it's ok, this is normal ..."

 

[coachrah]

sorry about that mispost...

#1 reason is you will get hurt? Should be the # 1 reason not to go!

 

[gymcatmomx2]

I graduated with a class of 32 (largest ever). My son has a class of over 250 (Yikes). I coach at a school with a total high school population of under 100. I couldn't imagine having over 1000 kids in a school. While I would have enjoyed and welcomed larger than what I graduated with, I think anything too big and I would have been lost. I'm glad I knew everyone I went to school with and never encountered many of the problems that other, larger, schools deal with. Thank goodness for rural Illinois!!

I use to think the same way about larger high schools, especially since my graduating class only had 50 students. But my 2 CPs go to a school that has approximately 2200 students and I couldn't be happier. Our FB team has won back-2-back state championships, our student and parent sections are huge and they all cheer with the squad. (It helps when you have successful athletic teams). Our main stadium, where Varsity plays, doesn't have a track either but the school's actual football field, where the Freshman and JV games are played, does.

 

[Big_Sis]

sorry about that mispost...

#1 reason is you will get hurt? Should be the # 1 reason not to go!

(1. You'll either actually get injured or just feel like you want to die coz you're so exhausted & sore & bruised.)

Well, I explained further into the post ^ that "hurt" could be super sore muscles or bruises from stunting. I guess you could change it to "you will feel like you've been hit by a bus" but it's not as short for memorization purposes! hahaha

Since camp is usually before summer conditioning, many people on the squad are slightly out of shape so the muscle strain is tough. Also, all 3 of the things I mentioned are mainly due to exhaustion & sleep deprivation coz there is so much work going on from dawn till late at night. Camp is definitely a test of your will.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Wow it's so weird to me that some high schools are that small. I can't imagine only having like 200 or less kids in my graduating class in high school. My school had close to 3,000 kids and there were about 750 in my graduating class. I think it's around 2,600 now since they opened a new high school in the county. Pretty much all the high schools in the area have around 2,000- 2,500+ kids, it's really interesting to see the differences throughout the country.

 

[vannahlexis]

My school had a little under 400. I want to say I graduated with a class of like 96? I thought that took forever, I wouldn't be able to sit through a bigger graduation!


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[Official OWECheer]

I think teams should start getting appopriately long, Panthers-type skorts or short instead of skirts, but you can't have more than one person use them because of hygiene reasons; and a lot of cheer programs get absolutely no help from their schools. Which reminds me of something:

Pet peeve: when schools expect you to pay for things like uniforms, but won't let you fundraise for them. Yes, because everyone can pay for everything out of pocket. :banghead:

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS. WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO WORK ON YOUR TUMBLING?

The Lord God himself could not get you your standing tuck in 2 weeks when you just started landing your BHS last week.

 

[iCheer247]

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS. WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO WORK ON YOUR TUMBLING?

The Lord God himself could not get you your standing tuck in 2 weeks when you just started landing your BHS last week.

Extremely accurate. I'm the only girl on my hs team that tumbles year round and it boggles my mind that others wait until the tryout mtg (less than a month before tryouts) to get new skills. It doesn't work like that.


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[Ems]

Ever since Ive done college cheer, I really hate the way high school cheerleaders rally. Like, the diagonal wave/jazz hands/spirit fingers thing with one hip cocked out, with one foot forward deal.
Hate it. With a passion. Especially when I see it in college tryout videos. Perhaps my biggest pet peeve of high school cheer.


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[Official OWECheer]

Ever since Ive done college cheer, I really hate the way high school cheerleaders rally. Like, the diagonal wave/jazz hands/spirit fingers thing with one hip cocked out, with one foot forward deal.
Hate it. With a passion. Especially when I see it in college tryout videos. Perhaps my biggest pet peeve of high school cheer.


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Spiriting looks way better with poms.

 

[AScheer]

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS. WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO WORK ON YOUR TUMBLING?

The Lord God himself could not get you your standing tuck in 2 weeks when you just started landing your BHS last week.

Agree. I had 3 girls that had tumbling their tumbling a month and a half ago, but decided they didn't need to work between the seasons. At tryouts they decided to not throw what I know they have and water it down. I gave them 0 points for tumbling. I didn't reward their watered down pass anything. They might as well have not thrown anything.


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[AScheer]

Ever since Ive done college cheer, I really hate the way high school cheerleaders rally. Like, the diagonal wave/jazz hands/spirit fingers thing with one hip cocked out, with one foot forward deal.
Hate it. With a passion. Especially when I see it in college tryout videos. Perhaps my biggest pet peeve of high school cheer.


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This times 100. I was actually having that conversation 2 weeks ago with another coach. Can't stand it!!


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[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Um. Yes.

I have had entire privates during which we did nothing but game day skills.

That included:

How to spirit/rally like a college student and not an 8th grader.

How to work signs/poms/props and incorporate them well.

How to hit clean and on count during a fight song.

Projection in cheers and not singing the words.

These sound like basic things, but generationally, there are kids growing up now for whom there has ALWAYS been all stars. So many of them have never done school cheer. So when it's time for college, we are starting from square one.