- Dec 14, 2010
- 523
- 1,283
I had this exact issue several months ago with my year-round Pop Warner team. It wasn't until I sent out an email to the parents, explaining (in great detail) how it hurts the entire team (with examples - stunts [and pyramid] not able to go up [therefore not giving the girls adequate time to get comfortable and make sure they know their counts for something that has the potential to be so dangerous when the girls aren't sure of it], formations off [because one athlete gets used to seeing an empty space in front of her where absent Susie should be, therefore come time of competition, that athlete's formation will be off because she moved over an extra panel due to the idea now in her mind that no one's supposed to be in front of her], etc.) when just one athlete is absent, that I saw attendance increase dramatically. I've found that a lot of parents who have children this young involved in cheerleading have yet to learn just how important attendance and whatnot is, so it needs to be explained to them. Many still think it's a whole lot of jumping up and down while shaking pompons and yelling for the home team.Our problem right now is, that our parents don't see the importance of their kids attending practice. They are between 5 and 11 years old, and they still depend on their parents to drive them to practice. Everyone thinks, that their "excuse" is the most important one and that their kid is an exception to our "you have to be at practice at all circumstances" rule. Some even don't give us any notice that their kid doesn't show up at practice. For the past year we applied to their common sense over and over again, but it didn't change anything. I think its sad, but it obviously doesn't work without written rules with stated consequences.
This upcoming year, I plan on enforcing a very strict "three strikes" rule. Athletes will only be able to miss practice if they are on their death beds (doctor's note required), have a highly contagious illness (doctor's note required), have some kind of school function that will affect their grade, have a funeral to attend, or have an important religious function to attend that they absolutely cannot get out of. For every unexcused absence, they have to sit out a game. On the third unexcused absence, they're off the team.
Good luck!