All-Star Lack Of Dedication

[CheerMomNTx]

It's hard to balance. Lots of good advice.
Short term, you may need to modify practices to allow them to do track and cheer practice. Our track season in our area runs practices until 4:45 and track meets are on Thursdays afternoon/evenings and can go late. So practices that start after 5:30 don't conflict and no practices on Thursdays during meets would help kids to be able to do both. This would allow you to be flexible to get through the end of this season and grow and then slowly begin to establish your expectations.

So you change your entire practice schedule around a couple of kids who may be doing track??? Wow, congrats to you for making that work.

 

[Goosepatrick]

But would you freak out if the coach decided to change practice schedule in the middle of a season for one or two children bc they are in another sport?

It's just an option if you are trying to get your kids there to get to the end of the year. And no I would be the kind that welcomes any change that makes sure all the kids are there every night for practice especially when you are two week away from nationals and spring break cuts your time.
I'm not saying its long term, but desparate times need creative options when you are small and can't just kick 10% of your team off.

 

[frontflipper]

A team is only as strong as its weakest link...

 

[bobbi]

We had this problem in our senior squad. In our area the High School Girls Basketball Team is pretty serious. During tryouts in May, 4 of the girls expressed a desire to play basketball. The J.V team would pose no conflicts, but if they made Varsity then there would be a few occasional conflicts. Sure enough all 4 made Varsity. It was an impossible situation. They were very priviledged to make the varsity team, but we knew there would be conflicts to deal with. Solution: we had a serious heart to heart. We discussed the conflicts and how we would work with them. Additionally as said above better late then never was strictly enforced. If the game ended at 7:30 and practice ended at 9:00 they were REQUIRED to get to practice right after the game. Yeah they were tired but they understood this was the condition. Additionally we brought it to the rest of the team and got their take on it. Do we let them go because of the conflicts or work together as a team. They decided work as a team. In the end while it was frustrating at times we anticipated the conflicts and planned around them.