Question About What Is On Your Evaluation Sheet For Placement

Thanks for all the feedback- we were moving so I couldn't get back here for a few weeks. I have a hard time with the idea that appearance should be on a HS scoresheet for a sport. Would I expect to see appearance on the tryout evaluation for football or soccer? No...nor would I for cheer. The current scoresheet scores appearance at 30%. The current team is mostly concerned about how they look. They rarely actually cheer, and have cheered less and less each year. This is part of the reason the school has formed a committee to revamp the score sheet. Currently, the contention is that you cannot evaluate stunting or tumbling because cheer is dangerous. The AD has said that because you don't know a person's skill or experience to test these out is too risky. The scoresheet evaluates appearance, a sideline chant and 8 counts of a dance. Once the girls are scored the sheet is rearranged by grade level in school. All seniors, even if they have never cheered before are taken on the team, then the remaining spots are filled by score.

So far the committee has recommended investing in appropriate flooring to ensure safety and hiring professionals to come in and teach/assess existing skills. We are grappling with the idea of a two tiered tryout- one for those with experience that will have more categories on the score sheet and one for those new to the sport more in line with the current sheet.

For what it is worth there was only the varsity cheer team until this season when they excluded all freshman and were forced to offer a JV team after the Board of Education intervened. The claim has been that there is a desire to have a competition team and a basketball cheer team, but their current tryout structure does not lend itself to this happening.

Do all of you with many years of experience have any other suggestions? The committee meets again this coming week to consider our final report/suggestions to the BOE.

(and just for the record my child is about 4'11, maybe 87 pounds, solid muscle from advanced tumbling and looks the mold- so it is not any bitterness here on a personal level...I just don't think appearance is part of a sport and I see cheer as a sport first and foremost)

 

Like others have said, I would consider appearance as more of “can you follow directions.” Since appearance or attire sounds a bit judge-y, I would call it “coachability.” It could also include how well they can follow instructions and adapt, such as switching spots in a formation or how quickly they make corrections.
Because nothing will irritate me more than someone showing up in the wrong uniform and wrong hair on game day or having to tell someone five thousand times their high V looks like a T but they never fix it. A coachability category can weed those people out, or at least make you aware of them from the get go.
It could be as simple as everyone starting out with the max amount of points in that category and they lose a point if they show up in neon green Nike pros when you asked for school colors or have to tell them the same correction multiple times.

 

I dunno, “appearance” is more a part of any sport that you think...

6’9” with an athletic build? You’ll make a basketball team whether you’ve played or not.

6’2” and 300 pounds with a 325 bench/475 squat? Defensive Line here I come.

6’6” female? (We have one at my current school)...volleyball player who the basketball coaches talk to daily, but she doesn’t love the game.

There’s a teeny little girl I see roaming the halls every day that I just KNOW would make a good top. Never learned her name.

We all have stereotypical builds that fit our various sports, the difference in cheer (for those who actually use score sheets), is that it seems politically incorrect to put it on paper.

 

If anything, I think cheer is MORE open to different sizes. I need little ones to fly, but I also need tall girls and strong girls. One of the greatest things about cheer is that you can probably find at least one area to excel in, no matter what your age/weight/height/athletic ability/etc.