High School I Need Some Ideas!! First Time Coaching At A School That Never Had A Team For 4 Years.

Put it in the school's morning announcements, newsletter, website, and other forms of communication. Since it's been 4 years, none of the students should remember the previous cheerleading teams. Highlight the benefits (represent the school, varsity letter, lead pep rallies, looks good on college apps, etc) and emphasize the revamp of the program. Let them know that they don't have to be bendy like a noodle or a champion power tumbler to make it.

The school where I coach is a tech school, so there's only about 100 girls in the whole school. We don't have tryouts; if you want to be on the team, you're on. (I think some of the girls who are on now would have been too nervous or embarrassed to come to a tryout.) This makes for REALLY uneven skills (we have girls with back tucks and girls who can't manage a cartwheel or front roll at the beginning of the year), but some creative choreography makes it work!

We have only been running for two years, and we used to have some of the same problems you're talking about with kids dropping out of the team mid-season, mostly because they'd lose interest. The way we managed to fight that was to arrange for a really big deal performance every 6-8 weeks (homecoming, Christmas talent show, anit-bullying assembly, plus a few competitions), and no one wanted to miss those or look bad, so they'd all come to practice more regularly. Hope that helps a bit!

We always gave out little candies or different things to show that we were trying to be respected. Last year we made fortune cookies and put in different fortunes and gave them out on the first day of school. Try to arrange different activities for the student body to join in on. Dress up/spirit days, games, bonfires after games, just different activities. Try to get a couple of girls/boys from each grade to cheer so they can get their grade into it. We organized a bunch of little competitions for the school and whoever got the most at the end of the season got a pizza party.

It's hard when coaching a small school team. With only having 11 tryout I completely understand. My biggest tip is realize that you are starting from scratch. Set goals and remind the girls of those goals. Don't go lazy on them just because it's basically a new program, but encourage and praise them alot. I started coaching 2 years ago and was told when I was hired that I had 1 year to turn the squad around as it was very bad the year before. While it seemed daunting, it wasn't. Simple changes can make all the difference. I only have 7 girls this year as one quit, but they are an impressive team. Just have faith and work hard. Good Luck!

I walked in on a new team this year. The school is 7 years old and the program has been there since inception, however, there has been a huge divide. The varsity coach was not very experienced, the JV coach seemed to like drama and there was no consistency. While a lot of girls were excited for a new coach, many didn't try out again because they were afraid of change.

I have been working really hard to build their confidence in just themselves but also how they present themselves. For example, really integrating the girls with each other and show other members of school that cheerleading is fun, and it's a way to make great friends. Also just being sharper at games and people respect them and while they have no idea what they are really doing being sharp and in synch people like.

Also, things like candy bags for the teams and anything to promote school spirit! Just always be fun and be positive and explain to them this is a "team" sport and everyone is needed!

Well i guess we cant coach until next year. Thank you for all of the awesome tips!! Im kinda excited to coach.. My goals are to make the practices fun and a learning experience. I know we wont have a big team since theres not a lot of students that go to the school compared to the other schools in the area that we would be competing against. I think theres like 600 ish students.
When i cheered at the hs the students always made fun of the cheerleading team because they thought cheer was "to easy" and "looks borring". My goal is to show them that cheerleading is WAY MORE than girls with pom pons screaming "go team go". its a fun sport! I learned so much in cheerleading especially how to work as a team. I want to teach them that .
How can i show everyone in the school that cheerleading is more than just girls screaming "go team go"??

First, congrats, I know it's a year away but still this gives you the opportunity to start planning and replanning. lol
Secondly, first you have to convince your team that they are more than just girls with pom poms yelling Go Team Go. You also have to build their self confidence so that if someone does say mean things to them that they can look the other way. While it's sometimes hard to live up to others expectations or change their minds, all you can control, somewhat, is what your team does and works towards. The others will come around. Good Luck.