High School High School Coaches...

[crazycheermom]

Do any of you have any kind of policy related to personal conduct of cheerleaders? Specifically, how do you handle a situation where you have a talented girl(or several) that is completely out of control. Parents won't/can't help. I am talking about acting hateful to others, drinking, partying, etc. Now, this girl hasn't been caught doing anything illegal, so you can't fall back on that. Hasn't been suspended from school, either, so you can't use that. Do you require any kind of "character references" for tryouts, etc?

 

[MissBee]

Are you Facebook friends with her? I know that some coaches at the high school level are Facebook friends with their athletes, if there are drinking pics on there-you have proof.
You could speak to the athletic director or a guidance counselor at the school about her alleged behavior.

I do require that anyone trying out turn in grades and have 2 reference forms from teachers.

 

[EWalsh1029]

Do any of you have any kind of policy related to personal conduct of cheerleaders? Specifically, how do you handle a situation where you have a talented girl(or several) that is completely out of control. Parents won't/can't help. I am talking about acting hateful to others, drinking, partying, etc. Now, this girl hasn't been caught doing anything illegal, so you can't fall back on that. Hasn't been suspended from school, either, so you can't use that. Do you require any kind of "character references" for tryouts, etc?

This happened to my team last year -_-. My coach inforced the 3 strike rule (3 strikes & you're off the team, our athetic director approved this as well). Strikes would be for missing practice, coming late, not wearing practice uniform, inappropriate pictures on the internet ( drinking, smoking pictures on facebook). This rule weeded out the bad ones pretty quick and they were kicked off. Sure, we lost some talent, but atleast we had a team full of dedicated, hard working, role models for younger cheerleaders.

 

[crazycheermom]

With regard to the teacher recommendations, is there an actual score attached to those at tryouts? Like I said, the problem is talented girls who are nothing but trouble. They are keeping the talent girls with character from trying out because they don't want to be associated with a team of girls like that.

 

[cheerforeverever]

We always had a segment in our cheer constitution about athletes being leaders for our school and therefore there was a no excuses policy for for drinking, drugs, innapropriate pictures/posts, PDA, skipping classes, refusing to listen to coaches/being disordly, or pretty much anything that reflected badly on our school. Everyone had to sign it at the tryout meeting and girls were told that if they desired to go partying and do other activities that they should not both trying out. If there were any questionable issues the coach and principle looked into the matters and made the appropriate actions (usually getting removed from the program). Now there were always some girls that did things "behind closed doors" persay and didnt get caught/had no hard evidence against them to prove it, but at least it weeded out the dumb ones that were too messed up to not do things in public. It's pretty difficult to hide though truthfully...... if girls are doing those things it gets around the school and someone turns em in.

 

[crazycheermom]

Were the girls who were caught skipping class, etc given demerits, strikes, just dismissed from team?

 

[cheerforeverever]

If it was skipping class or being disorderly the girls were basically given an unofficial warning (many times freshmen came in thinking it was cool to skip class with friends and roam the halls). Our coach had a chat with them and said "get it together or you're out". If there continued to be problems they were removed from the team. The other things such as drinking/drugs/illegal activities/PDA/"questionable" photos & internet posts were not given warnings....... it was covered at the tryout meeting (and mentioned again at the first practice after we made the team) that these behaviors would remove you from the team, no excuses.

 

[nhgurlnh]

I find it interesting that PDA is included in some of these posts. Would a kiss or making out be considered PDA, or would it have to be much more serious than that? Sorry to be a little explicit.

 

[cheerforeverever]

Pretty much anything was deemed "PDA" in uniform or at school whether it be a kiss or something much more. Basically if you were in something representing the program or were at a school function we were told "stick to side hugs" lol. Now on your own time obviously people had boyfriends and such but as long as it stayed private (as in not posting makeout photos or other crazy things on the internet/phones, etc.) it was obviously fine.