High School Does Your Team Share The Gym With Another Sport?

[CoachJessNHS]

This has been a battle since I was a high school cheerleader (4 years ago). Our girls have to share the gym with the volleyball players! Absolutely awful. We have 2 gyms (one rubber, and one wood). The varsity volleyball girls get the wood floor because their nets are set up in there from the floor. And we get to split the rubber floor with the jv volleyball team.

Sometimes it seems like volleyball players intentionally throw their balls right towards our girls when they're tumbling/stunting, and sometimes I guess it's not really their fault? (Hard to believe when your girls say how much they hate us) It is just obnoxious. And it doesn't help that their coach is a total you know what. They even have the nerve to tell us to turn down our cheer music sometimes. Seriously? Does anyone else have a problem like this? :banghead:

 

[Sparkle&Shine]

I coach a high school team, and while luckily we don't have to share our practice time/space with another team, we do encounter a lot of the same direspect that you seem to be experiencing, especially when we first enter the gym and try to practice (school lets out at 3pm, but we warm up, stretch and begin practice in the cafeteria as the small gym is reserved for individuals (not a team) playing basketball until 4:30).

My suggestion would be to have a meeting with your athletic director and Principal/Vice Principal and explain that cheerleading is a sport that requires an incredible amount of focus in order to be safely progressed; even if the other team was being respectful, having flying balls and yelling voices doesn't seem like a good environment for your team to safely practice. In addition, it's important for your team to be able to hear yours (or a backspot's) direction, as mishearing (or not hearing at all!) a dismount or transition could be very dangerous. I think that if you approach it from a safety point of view the school will need to take your team seriously and hopefully they'll help you get the appropriate practice time/space; perhaps you could even get a few parents to express their concerns and their appreciation for an appropriate practice environment.

Good luck!

 

[EWalsh1029]

This has been a battle since I was a high school cheerleader (4 years ago). Our girls have to share the gym with the volleyball players! Absolutely awful. We have 2 gyms (one rubber, and one wood). The varsity volleyball girls get the wood floor because their nets are set up in there from the floor. And we get to split the rubber floor with the jv volleyball team.

Sometimes it seems like volleyball players intentionally throw their balls right towards our girls when they're tumbling/stunting, and sometimes I guess it's not really their fault? (Hard to believe when your girls say how much they hate us) It is just obnoxious. And it doesn't help that their coach is a total you know what. They even have the nerve to tell us to turn down our cheer music sometimes. Seriously? Does anyone else have a problem like this? :banghead:

When I was in Highschool, my first 3 years we had our own area tucked away. We could keep our mats out all the time, doors closed and could just focus. My last year we had construction and had to practice in the field house (big gym) pull out the mats everyday which wasnt that bad. The bad part was when football would practice inside because of rain...uhm you play in rain?! Practice outside . Then during the winter season we had more problems. We had to squeeze our mats between the basketball court and the track = no room and track people running over our mats, ugh it was a mess!

Now I assist with my highschool and this past season we had our own little area back and during the fall it was fine, but in the winter we had to share it with the wrestling team. Unfortunately for this upcoming season our practice area has turned into the "weightroom" so looks like we'll be back in the big gym squeezing between the basketball court and track teams . I swear the schools really dont understand that cheer teams need space for all their mats, and they cant have disctractions ( runners running over our mats, basketballs/volleyballs hitting the girls during stunts&tumbling like you said... its a really big safety issue!)

I wish we could just have a safe place for the girls to practice, thats all I ask for!

 

[clyles]

We had the same problem with volleyball players splitting the gym with us. When basketball started they completely forced us out and we had to practice in the auditorium on the stage.... and only get to use 3 mats...(we need all 7 to practice our competition routine!) Last year we solved the problem by taking our practices to the elementary school multipurpose room. The elementary school is just down the road so it all worked out. Finally!

 

[youbetterwork]

Yes! I'm not a high school cheerleader, but we didn't have our own gym with my previous allstar team... Anywho, we shared with rhytmic gymnastics. And you think that should be fine, but no... They hated us. When we did our routine to counts they played their extremely slow music very loud so we got off-count. They sometimes "accidentely" throw their balls to our side of the gym. Very dangeours! And the worst thing - sometimes their coach told the girls to go over to our side in the back to practice. Just to annoy us. Arghhhhh.

 

[Haley042197]

That sounds very dangerous! What if they can't hear directions? Or a ball hits a backspot, base, flyer, etc and somebody gets hurt. Or the bases get off count because they can't hear and somebody gets hurt! Or while tumbling a ball hits a girl and she falls on her head! (I've been tripped while tumbling, I was just doing a round off, but my foot hurt for weeks) Take it to the athletic director and let him not all the dangers! That is ridiculous!

 

[CoachJessNHS]

Taking it to the athletic director again hopefully will solve the problem! I want to say we have done that before and nothing was done. It was one of those Oh we will see what we can do..then nothing happens kind of thing. Practicing at a different school down the street sounds like a good idea! But I don't know how the elementary school would feel about having our 7 cheer mats at their school the whole year.. We'll see!! I am glad I wasn't alone in this type of situation..But not really because it is so frustrating!

 

[CoachC2]

I had the same issue and I talked to the Athletic Director and The Board of School and threatened that they were permitting someone to get hurt especially if a girl gets hit in the air by a ball or even while tumbling. I told them flat out that if one of these kids fell from that high up or landed wrong they would be really hurt and that it would be a law suit on their end. I told them that if they didn't let us switch gyms that I would also take it above both of their heads and get parents involved. Let's say the next day we had our own gym space reserved at anytime I wanted and we don't even have to share now. I wasn't mean about it to them but I walked into their offices requested a meeting and told them firmly and gave them examples of what injuries could happen. Your like me a young coach with prob a lot older athletic director and they don't normally like to listen to younger coaches that often especially for cheerleading. Just stay strong and firmly tell them what needs to be done.

 

[level5diva]

My HS team has to practice in the Fine Arts Center.... aka the dance room....aka carpet with low ceilings. We ONLYY get the gym the night before pep rally.
We used to have to practice in hte F.A.C Lobby...with 4 chandliers. Baskets were always very interesting in there...

 

[cheer coach k]

I used to coach at a private high school and we had the hallway to practice...it was brutal...not to mention all the hallways had low ceilings, so we were never able to stunt...it was not fun at all! I am now at a public school, and I love it! We have our own practice gym, complete with an entire wall of mirrors, a storage room for our mats and any other equipment we have. It is great!

 

[mariahnicole1216]

We have to share our gym with the wrestlers but not at the same time. Like Mon and Wed we practice 3-5 and they practice 5-7 and vice versa on Tues and Thurs. But the football players always walk through our gym to get the the locker room. The thing that bothers me is that they dont have to! They do it just because they know it annoys us. Plus they keep it like 90 degrees in there. Also the fact that our dance team get their own dance room with full wall mirrors and dance floor. No one is allowed in there except dancers and occasionally us. but its not fair. Why dont we get our own cheer gym?

 

[MissBee]

I would go immediately to your AD and explain that flying balls is a MAJOR safety and liability concern. It opens the door for a parent of a cheerleader injured by a flying ball to sue to school for negligence (failure to provide a safe practice facility). If the AD resists, contact Jim Lord at the AACCA, he'll get your back.

 

[kisscheer18]

ughhh its awful. especially when our athletic director has cheerleading on the last for getting funding. we actually practiced in a big closet above our gym a few times.

 

[cheergal900]

its very rare if my school team gets to practice in the gym (we have 2). we are usually stuck practicing in the lobby. it can be raining outside and kids will come in and step on our mats with their wet shoes on soemtimes we dont even get mats because other sports teams took them..we could only work on cheers those days.

 

[Emily Stalions]

1. Both JV and Varsity cheer has to practice in the cafeteria
2. We have to wait for track to finish their "warm ups" before we can even roll out our 7 mats
3. We can't run anymore before practice because it's a distraction to other teams and track has to use the hallways for practice...last time I checked track teams usually run on, oh I don't know, a track. So I don't see why they can't walk (or run) outside and go use it.
4. The track coaches gets mad at us and even yells at us when we are trying to get out mats out of the locker room which happens to be in an area in which they run. Yet we can't roll them out while they are doing their warm ups either.

I think it's so absurd that we have to work around the track team and cross country team. We do just as well as they do so we deserve the same amount of respect. Needless to say, most of the track team and cheerleaders don't get along.