High School New And Improved Sqaud

[cheermom2020]

Hello everyone,
I found this group looking for some advice on a unique situation we are having with our high school sqaud. Hopefully someone can give some insight!

We have a new coach this year for cheer who is awesome! I am helping her out with financial type stuff and I really enjoy being involved!
The biggest problem we have faced this year is the opinion our community has for cheerleading. It seems like everything we try to do someone has something negative to say. We try a dance routine for halftime, we get comments that the dance was stupid. We don’t do a dance, we aren’t a good squad because we don’t. Our signs arent good enough. Some of the comments have been made by adults on social media. We aren’t allowed to stunt and my daughter is the first tumbler they have had for awhile. So basically our cheering has consisted of sideline cheering. This coach is the first coach that has had any experience. She is trying to make the squad all it can be but we hit a road block every time! Has anyone else faced this?

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Hello everyone,
I found this group looking for some advice on a unique situation we are having with our high school sqaud. Hopefully someone can give some insight!

We have a new coach this year for cheer who is awesome! I am helping her out with financial type stuff and I really enjoy being involved!
The biggest problem we have faced this year is the opinion our community has for cheerleading. It seems like everything we try to do someone has something negative to say. We try a dance routine for halftime, we get comments that the dance was stupid. We don’t do a dance, we aren’t a good squad because we don’t. Our signs arent good enough. Some of the comments have been made by adults on social media. We aren’t allowed to stunt and my daughter is the first tumbler they have had for awhile. So basically our cheering has consisted of sideline cheering. This coach is the first coach that has had any experience. She is trying to make the squad all it can be but we hit a road block every time! Has anyone else faced this?

COMMUNITY EVENTS ARE YOUR FRIEND.

Find some needy people to feed.

Organize a community service project.

Plan a youth clinic.

Those are the things that gain positive PR for the program.

See also:

The students where I coach could not care less that we have full ups, that those were tic tocks, that we have 95% running tucks.

They care that things "are fun."

My kids do a sports team dance off at a pep rally and the students love it. Cheer team v. boys bball, dance, etc.

Also we sold and delivered Hot Cheetoes as a fundraiser. No kid can hate cheerleading when they are selling jumbo bags.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Give the girls a routine they can get into and perform with a lot of confidence (but DO NOT let them totally take over choreography). Teach a dance that is trendy and flirty and fun but still appropriate. If they can perform it with a lot of energy and aggressiveness, that feeling is infectious to the crowd. It’s hard to hate on a group of performers who are clearly loving what they do.

Also, accept that no matter what you do, there will be some people out there who are almost genetically predisposed to hating cheerleaders. You won’t change their minds because they don’t want their minds changed. Don’t worry about them. It’s not your problem if they want to remain ignorant and spend all their time hating something they don’t even know anything about. Let them have their sad little delusions. It’s all they have to distract themselves from the fact that they’re not cheerleaders and never will be.

 

[cheermom2020]

So far this year we have had 3 what we thought were successful community events. We have had a youth camp. The girls take turns working the game concession stands for the boosters. We have donated part of out fundraising to another school foundation that is in desperate need.
The girls have zero confidence now. Tryouts for next season will be soon. Several girls might not try out because of this. I should add that there is only about 200 kids in the high school.

 

[ScottyB]

Put your blinders on. Focus on a positive experience for the girls. The rest will come naturally

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Hello everyone,
I found this group looking for some advice on a unique situation we are having with our high school sqaud. Hopefully someone can give some insight!

We have a new coach this year for cheer who is awesome! I am helping her out with financial type stuff and I really enjoy being involved!
The biggest problem we have faced this year is the opinion our community has for cheerleading. It seems like everything we try to do someone has something negative to say. We try a dance routine for halftime, we get comments that the dance was stupid. We don’t do a dance, we aren’t a good squad because we don’t. Our signs arent good enough. Some of the comments have been made by adults on social media. We aren’t allowed to stunt and my daughter is the first tumbler they have had for awhile. So basically our cheering has consisted of sideline cheering. This coach is the first coach that has had any experience. She is trying to make the squad all it can be but we hit a road block every time! Has anyone else faced this?

Give the kids something to work towards and something they can be proud of, all rolled up in one. First, find a way to attend a UCA camp this summer. There are a lot of camps out there, but UCA is the school-cheer KING. Do I believe it's ever really worth the cost, no, but I do think that there are ways to make it easier to swallow. A 4-day overnight camp in our area will run each kid $360, which I think is ridiculous. When they made it mandatory to attend camp in order to compete, we started looking for affordable ways to do so. Home camps are always relatively cheap, and will cost you $140-150 per kid for a 2-day camp. The downside is that you're the only team there. In the case of a team that's relatively new there are advantages to being the only team there. Your kids get one on one assistance without the distractions of some elite team being right next to them. The BEST OF BOTH WORLDS option is the commuter camp. These are also relatively affordable, but can be very difficult to find. Contact your state UCA rep and find out if there is one anywhere near you. I do not work for UCA, but for school cheer camps, especially in the case of an "up and coming" group, I wholeheartedly recommend them.

Consider entering your team in a UCA or NCA gameday format competition. There is a non-building division at UCA, and the scores are based on the execution of any incorporated skills you perform, not the difficulty. They might do very well in it, and have something of which they can really be proud.

Are you unable to stunt because of a district rule or a state rule?

If it is a district rule, message me and maybe we can make a case for the district to give you a chance if you do it correctly.

 

[cheermom2020]

Give the kids something to work towards and something they can be proud of, all rolled up in one. First, find a way to attend a UCA camp this summer. There are a lot of camps out there, but UCA is the school-cheer KING. Do I believe it's ever really worth the cost, no, but I do think that there are ways to make it easier to swallow. A 4-day overnight camp in our area will run each kid $360, which I think is ridiculous. When they made it mandatory to attend camp in order to compete, we started looking for affordable ways to do so. Home camps are always relatively cheap, and will cost you $140-150 per kid for a 2-day camp. The downside is that you're the only team there. In the case of a team that's relatively new there are advantages to being the only team there. Your kids get one on one assistance without the distractions of some elite team being right next to them. The BEST OF BOTH WORLDS option is the commuter camp. These are also relatively affordable, but can be very difficult to find. Contact your state UCA rep and find out if there is one anywhere near you. I do not work for UCA, but for school cheer camps, especially in the case of an "up and coming" group, I wholeheartedly recommend them.

Consider entering your team in a UCA or NCA gameday format competition. There is a non-building division at UCA, and the scores are based on the execution of any incorporated skills you perform, not the difficulty. They might do very well in it, and have something of which they can really be proud.

Are you unable to stunt because of a district rule or a state rule?

If it is a district rule, message me and maybe we can make a case for the district to give you a chance if you do it correctly.

We did go to a game day competition. The girls had a fun. We lost badly but that was partly because we didn’t know what to expect. We plan on trying it again this coming year.
I am not sure if the stunting rule is state or district. If I understand things from our AD it is a division rule. I cant try to find out. Our coach wants to stunt.