High School School Tryouts

[Reallycoolcheermommy]

Is it normal for school coaches to judge and select their teams without bringing in outside judges for tryouts??


Reallycoolcheermommy Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cupieqt]

Depends on the school. Does the football or basketball coach hire outside judges?

 

[COsnowgirls]

Yes it's normal. I wouldn't want other people picking my team when I'm the one who will be coaching them. Make sense? I know what I'm looking for as far as potential, technique, etc. an outside judge never makes sense to me.


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?si515x

 

[Seeker30]

well im a coach and im not going to be judging the girls and boys trying out for my team. first time so well see how it goes!

 

[Corsicab]

well im a coach and im not going to be judging the girls and boys trying out for my team. first time so well see how it goes!

I've held tryouts both ways. Now I usually judge with my fellow coach and have one of the coaches I used to coach with come in as well. But either way at the end of the day I know that the other coach and I have the final say.

 

[coach.elle]

We bring in outside judges... the more eyes the better! But that only applies for our first cut. After that its just me looking at stunting to make the final decision on how the 3 teams are split. It has worked well for us.

 

[Seeker30]

I've held tryouts both ways. Now I usually judge with my fellow coach and have one of the coaches I used to coach with come in as well. But either way at the end of the day I know that the other coach and I have the final say.

agreed!

 

[cheergirl4444]

the freshmen, JV, and varsity coaches are the only judges at out tryouts. they know best what they want and don't need others opinions.

 

[bestbackspot]

Our coach brings in some of her good friends are also involved in the cheer industry to help judge tryouts. But ultimatlly the decision is up to our coach.

 

[AScheer]

I have judged my own tryouts for 5 years now, however I'm the ONLY coach that I know of in our area that does! I have judged tryouts for many other programs and while a few have gone of judges scores given, most the time the coach doesn't even look at them or they just do whatever they want anyways. I'm all for the coach picking the team, but stand behind your decisions, don't be shady and pretend the judges did it.

 

[0riginal]

The way my coach did it, which I really liked, was you were judged on two parts:
1. Clinic (coaches observe work ethic, attitude, ability to learn quickly, etc.)
2. Tryouts (outside judges come in and judge typically)

Our judges were usually UCA Staff or college cheerleaders. I think the clinic part counted like 60% and the actual tryouts 40%. I thought it was a good balance, so the coaches could also get an outside opinion.

 

[SmileCat]

We had outside judges but then our coach just ended up picking who she wanted...

 

[SparkleSpankies]

The way I plan on handing tryouts is as follows:

Material, all girls will learn 2 sidelines, a cheer, and a dance. They will be required to do 2 jumps and their best tumbling pass and standing tumbling. You must attempt something... forward rolls, cartwheels , and round offs count (not for a lot but it beats getting a ZERO!) This will be judged by outside judges.... College cheerleaders, former coaches, etc. I will have 3.

The way I am structuring this is that is 50% of the score. The rest of the score is based off of teacher recommendations, teamwork w/ basic stunting... most I want to see is liberty's That will give me an idea of skill level and teamwork. I will also give the girls a questionaire.

Once this is complete, the final list of those who make the team will be based off of the above plus grade (varsity/JV) and position on the team. For example if I already have 6 potential decen varsity flyers, even if a freshmen is good, I may leave her on JV so she can maximize her skills.

Honestly, the judges portion of the scoring is really important on who has potential and who will make the team, and at least give us a starting point in dividing varsity/JV.

How many am I taking.. well, that is a great question. We will see who shows up Since I am a new coach to this team, and last year wasn't so great I hear.. not sure if there are going to be a lot of a little!

 

[gymcatmomx2]

My daughter's school cheer squad has a fantastic reputation. They have brought in outside judges the last 5 years. There are 3 judges on the panel (selected from NCA, UCA, ACA, etc) and they judge 6 categories with the point scale being 1-5 (except for tumbing which can be a zero if they don't tumble). At the clinics the girls learn 5 chants, one dance, and one cheer.
They are randomly divided into groups of 3 by grade and the tryout procedures are as follows:
1. Group Dance
2. Group Chant (they learned 5 chants during clinics and the varsity coach will randomly call out one of those chants)
3. The group exits the gym and then they individually spirit onto the mat (no other cheerleader is in the gym from this point forward).
4. They have to perform a toe touch (mandatory) and 2 other jumps of their choice.
5. Individual Cheer that they learned at the clinics
6. Tumbling (both standing and running) and then they exit the gym.

The judges score sheet categories are:
1. Memory and Ability to Perform with a Group
2. Dance
3. Voice and Enthusiasm
4. Jumps
5. Tumbling
6. Motion Technique
The judges scores are worth 80% and the remaining 20% is the Assistant Principals recommendation (there is a maximum score of 20 points. For each tardy, grades less than 75, unverified absence, suspension, etc there is one point taken away).
The top scores are used to determine squad selection using the natural break. The coaches do not see the scores until they are posted by one of the school administrators that is present at the tryouts. Freshman can only be on the freshman squad, sophomores can only be on JV, juniors can be on JV or Varsity (depending on their scores) and seniors can only be on Varsity. This year there were 17 freshman, 13 JV and 20 Varsity. It's the largest squad they've ever had.

I think that hiring outside judges eliminates the "political" complaints to the coaches, principal and school board. We all know how passionate cheerleaders and their parents can be.

 

[Corsicab]

I've coached for ten plus years and every year there is a "natural break". I just think that it's weird because even the years when we think it's going to be really tough to decide or we have "only 3 spots" (most of the time the returning cheerleaders make it, under extreme circumstances they don't, but we don't tell them that of course!) and four great girls there is still a natural break. Sometimes we've had to take girls below the natural break but usually it works out perfectly. The above post mentioned the natural break and it made me think of it, sorry if it's a little off topic.