High School Program Falling Apart- No Help From Ad?

cheysmomager said:

Up until that line, I thought you went to school with my CP!!
I sure hope things get better. I know my CP and her cherBFF are seriously considering not trying out....and this is only thier freshman year!!

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Myself and my best friend are considering not trying out next year and it will be our senior year. Depressing because we'll be seniors, but we are miserable.

SmileyRyleigh said:

Myself and my best friend are considering not trying out next year and it will be our senior year. Depressing because we'll be seniors, but we are miserable.

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What I have told my "two" CP's.....don't let 'them' win!! Don't let 'them' run you off from doing what you love!!

You and your BFF will just need to show everyone that ya'll are not like the other girls. Gain your own respect! It won't be as hard as it seams!!

cheysmomager said:

What I have told my "two" CP's.....don't let 'them' win!! Don't let 'them' run you off from doing what you love!!

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I meant to add ESPECIALLY since it's your senior year!!

I think you should tough it out until your senior year. You will hopefully have a new coach, and since you said that you can't take charge this year because of the seniors on your team, you can be a leader next year as a senior. Try and get the other girls as in love with cheer as you are, and also try and maybe see if you can take tumbling/stunting classes nearby if your coach isn't experienced. I know that a lot of the girls at my school take extra cheer tumbling classes at our gymnastics center. There's probably a gym nearby with tumbling/stunting classes. You seem so passionate about this, and I think you could be a really great captain

It makes me so sad when cheerleaders are passionate about something that is beyond their control. To be honest, there is little you can do about the coach, so don't let it get the best of you.

The biggest thing you can do is help to change the dynamic of the team. This happens OUTSIDE of practice. Have a sleepover, pool party, movie night, etc. Cliques are hard to avoid, so if you plan it, have games prepared where teams are kind of "assigned" at random. (i.e. hair color, favorite sports team, etc). This will help girls to break out of their shells and put all teammates on an even playing field.

Teams who are close enjoy practicing together!!!!! I promise, it will make a huge difference!

This sounds EXACTLY like my high school team too, I'm a freshman and it's so hard when our upperclassmen don't care at all. We had a total squad of 33, but only 16 were even interested in doing comp (no seniors, and 3 juniors) my class is the only ones who even slightly care and I'm so worried that we will turn into our upperclassmen just like every year!

1) Go through the various chains of command, beginning with the AD, then the Vice Principal, then the Principal. I assume you've probably done one or more of these things.

2) My guess is that if the AD and school admins aren't responsive, it's because they have way too many things they need to deal with and the quality of the cheer program ranks at the very bottom of their "to do list". Therefore, it will be incumbant upon you and the other girls on the team to find a solution. Rather than just going to the AD/Principal and saying "help us" you'll probably need to have a specific plan of action. Propose that you will find a coach who will fit your needs. They probably aren't interested in going through some coaching search. It'll be tough because you need to find a coach without having the authority to actually hire someone, but I think that this is probably the only way the administrators will budge. What might be helpful is if you can find a sympathetic coach, administrator, or teacher who will "lead" the coaching search and provide "adult supervision" in finding a new cheerleading coach. They key is that you need to make things as easy as possible for the administrators to just say "yes".

Previous poster is right, it is on the bottom of their to-do list. It's up to you to make it the top. The number one way to do that is to get parents involved. A lot of parents. Administrators have a tendency not to listen to kids because they think you juat have a personal problem with the coach. Once parents get involved, the pressure to find a solution heightens because they are dealing with adults who aren't their lessers. Encourage the administators to randomly audit some practices and see what goes on behind closed doors

This sounds similar to how my junior year was going except my coach was going though a divorce and was an alcoholic. The JV coach sorta stepped in to help but was pregnant and ended up going on maternity leave and didn't finish the season.
We still competed that year but everyone hated it and we bombed at every competition because nobody cared.

Many of us didn't plan on returning for our senior year if she stayed the coach, but i guess enough people complained or the athletic director saw how bad things were going because we found out we would be getting a new coach who had cheered in college, was certified, loved cheer etc. so we figured we would give her a chance and it ended up being the best year of cheerleading I ever had!

If enough people complain to the AD or principal they will look into it and make a change.

A last resort (and yes I mean last): if all else fails and you're determined enough - things don't change, it's summer, no one up top listens, and someone can identify a qualified skills advisor (aka: coach, but don't call them that in front of people), and also a friendly faculty advisor if they are not the skill advisor. If they aren't, they should be ok with being just a liason/supervisor/supporter. "Club compeition acro & tumbling". Run it as a student club/activity like chess club, but cheer. Don't call yourselves "cheer" in front of administration, ever. Claim that you're different from "cheerleading" in that you want to provide an opportunity for girls to become familiar with the NCATA format (college prep, ya know?). There are no high school equivalents for NCATA, but claim that competitions come a close second if you need to justify them. Maybe enter a stunt group or two also, and have some people participate in the individual tumbling competitions. This route, you'll need all your ducks lined up and a minimum number of committed students when you approach the administration.

Drawbacks: you may have to take all comers. In that case you may still be able to form 2 squads for the "team" performance aspect. Finances may be hard, our state somewhat supported cheer as a sport, but I remember the pom squad (not a sport) was insanely expensive. Choosing a faculty advisor that you work well with that knows the ins and outs of funding a club activity would be an ideal situation here. Also, expect to butt heads with whatever remains of the existant cheer squad.

SOOOOO.... We had a meeting today where we turned in our uniforms and got information about tryouts annnndd... our coach told us her last day as our coach is the first day of tryouts. We still don't have a new coach... BUT the old one is gone! I'm not sure if she quit or was asked to leave but I'm so happy right now.

Hoping for the best for you. I know parents in our district have been trying to get comp cheer going for years. They have gone up the chain so far as appealing to the school board with no results.

Try outs are next week, and CP and her 3 besties, all level 3/4/5 are not trying out for HS cheer. Parents are bummed that they will miss out on the HS cheer experience, but as athletes, we respect that they want to remain in an Allstar comp program. It's a shame, as I have watched great rec comp cheerleaders age out with nowhere to go in cheer if their families can't afford Allstar programs.

SmileyRyleigh said:

SOOOOO.... We had a meeting today where we turned in our uniforms and got information about tryouts annnndd... our coach told us her last day as our coach is the first day of tryouts. We still don't have a new coach... BUT the old one is gone! I'm not sure if she quit or was asked to leave but I'm so happy right now.

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Our coach did the same thing.. New year new opportunities!