High School How Long Should Tryouts Be Held?

[jessicastuart]

I have 2 days of clinic for the students to learn the curriculum (dance and cheer). These run for 2 hours. On the 3rd day, we quickly review material then hold tryouts in groups of 3!

 

[Fierce_Elite]

High schools are usually 4 days to a week long. On the final day, is the actual audition.

Most tryouts and auditions are usually no longer then two or three hours.

After tryouts, some schools, especially highly competitive schools, has a mandatory parent meeting directly after tryouts for those who made the team.

When deciding who makes the team, you could wait a day or two, or you could post the results a couple of minutes after the final candidate audition.

 

[cheerKT]

At our school it's usually about a 4 day process, and on that fourth day we have final evaluations.

Ditto here. Monday-Wednesday learning material, Thursday evaluations (in groups of 3 or 4), Friday (at the end of the school day) post the team. Gives people the weekend to celebrate or vent placements and get it out of their system before returning Monday.

 

[MDCheer09]

Monday- Learn cheer and dance
Tuesday- Review Day and Captain Evaluations
Wednesday- Tryouts
Thursday- Results are posted right before dismissal bell

 

[MHSCheercoach]

Remember that "making the team" will mean more to those who tryout & make it vs. a sign up sheet. Even if that is just 4 kids, that is 4 invested kids in your program. They went through the trouble to tryout & they clearly want to be there, compared to "mom signed me up & is making me do this" or "I signed up because I want to look cute in the uniform for the football boys"....... The middle school in our area does open signups for the cheer teams (which gives all kids an opportunity to try the sport out before it gets more serious in HS, which I agree is a good thing) BUT it turns into high # of cheerleaders, low level of dedication to the program every year. Many of the girls just simply dont care about "being on the team", because they did not have to invest any time or effort to be there.

Additionally, while the fear of rejection may keep some away, it is good in the long term for girls to get used to trying out. They will have to try out (a.k.a interview) for college organizations, internships, jobs, etc. etc . for the rest of their lives. Better to learn to cope with rejection now, rather than getting things handed to you. When the real world comes around, that dream job they want will not be a sign up list

Pros & Cons

I understand what you are saying, but no other sports in our school holds tryouts. No other team in the school that I went to had tryouts except for cheerleading. At the time when I was a student, I never considered that aspect, but now I wonder why have tryouts in schools where numbers are so low? In regards to other sports, they have a larger number of students participate and have a good retention rate at the same time so I don't feel that there would be less dedication due to not having to tryout. They will still have a lot invested in the team after signups just as they do with other sports when they simply sign up for them. Since we don't even have junior high cheer, which means no experience when they come to high school, I don't see how me holding tryouts is doing anything more than looking for a set number of girls. Each year I have a squad that consists of mostly brand new cheerleaders, so each year I am starting from square one and teaching the basics. It's not like in larger schools where girls have refined their cheer abilities and I get to choose the 10 best ones. I may have 1 or 2 each year at tryouts that are great cheerleaders, the rest are a hot mess at the time of tryouts. (not trying to be mean in anyway, that's just how it is since they haven't had training) In the three years I've held tryouts, I've had only 1 girl tryout out that I was not sad about cutting due to the fact that I didn't feel like she would ever "get" cheering, she simply had no rhythm, no timing, and looked lost the whole time. The rest of the girls that have tried out were maybe marginally inferior to those that made the team, but literally 1/2 point difference between making it and getting cut.