High School Size Of Team(s)

[FierceIsTheName]

Hi! I was wondering a few things about the schools you go to/coach at!
I go to a school with roughly 1500-1600 kids in our high school. (not sure if that number is 100% accurate!).
At my highschool, we only have 1 cheer team, and only 12 girls make it. To some of you, this may seem ridiculously small! Which it kind of is, except for the fact that cheerleading up here in Northern Washington isn't very popular. I was wondering what size your cheer team is, and how many you have/how large your school is!

(sorry if this has already been discussed, i only did a quick look through the list and the search bar is a little tricky)

 

[cheernerd5678]

2000 kids
24 on Varsity (20 compete, 4 alternates)
JV varies a lot depending on the year. My sophomore year it was 14, this year it's 26. JV definitely depends on how many try out, whereas varsity is about the same each year. Lowest being 21 when we competed small(14), biggest being 27 when we were superlarge (25).

ETA: we have around 50 girls try out each year, if that helps!
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[BuegeSmalls]

According to Wikipedia, my old high school has 1,571 kids but that was from 2008-2009. I'm going to guess it's a bit more than that now. They have a Varsity, which is usually 12 girls and 3-4 alternates (so 15 or 16 girls) and JV is usually larger with 18-25 girls.

ETA: No idea how many girls usually tryout. And you must have at least a standing back handspring to even be considered for Varsity.

 

[omgitssydthekid]

My high school was about 1,200 kids for 10th-12th grade. We had about 60-70 tryout and 25 (roughly) made varsity and 12-16 made JV.


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[Twinklestars]

School we recently left has about 200 students in grades 9-12. They have 12 cheerleaders. One team.

New school has about 500 students (9-12). We were supposed to have 16 cheerleaders, but ended up with 17. Again, one team.


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[AScheer]

Our numbers vary by years, talent, and how many we want to deal with that year!

School is around 1300 right now. We usually take 20 - 28 on varsity (including alternates) and up to 16 on JV though it's typically 12 unless there is a lot of talent & potential that year. We always try to take in 4's, so sometimes a girl will be cut because we don't want to take 3 more to form another group. We don't have front spots and our program is so stunt heavy its not fair or fun for a girl to be left over.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

School has about 950.

Numbers vary by year really. This year I've been off, but these are about right:

Varsity has about 45-50 tryout. Team is usually 25-27 with 4 alternates. This is the competitive team so it is more selective but we are in ab area with a bit of talent.

JV is about 20. Their tryout is typically about 30 girls. We don't have a "must be on JV if you're in x or y grade" but these girls are the ones who are not interested im competing or are still developing skills (you can be a freshman and tryout for a higher team, but most spend a year on JV. )

 

[vannahlexis]

My school had about 400 students.
16 girls are allowed on the mat according to state rules
We usually had 10-20 girls trying out, but within the four years I've cheered we've had anywhere from 8-12 girls that competed.
No JV or Freshman teams.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

Okay, super small school coach here...Grades 9-12 less than 100 students. This will be my fourth year coaching. First year, team of 8, with only 10 trying out. Second year, team of 8 with only 13 trying out. Third year, team of 10 with only 12 trying out. This year...???? We had a rough year last year so I expect I'll be luck to find a team of 8 good cheerleaders. Our tryouts don't start til the end of this month, estimated guess...maybe 10-12 tryout.

I envy larger schools. Not only is it difficult to have such a small team, but it's also difficult to not have many to choose from. The girls I've had are involved in at least one other sport, if not two or three other sports. I have to work around softball schedule for tryouts, summer volleyball and skill camps for summer, volleyball for fall, and sometimes girls basketball for winter. Not to mention that they are all on student council, FFA (Future Farmers of America, yes I'm a Midwest gal), school play, or FCA which all has events. I would love to not have to compete with every other group/organization/sport just to schedule a practice.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

^^^I have friends in similar situations to yours.

Ex: Coach friend of mine coaches at a rural middle school. 12 girls at tryouts. Like, 2 have cheered before. Picture what you looked like when you first walked onto a cheer team at age 6. That is what they look like. If you started making cuts, you'd have 2 girls. So you really can't. She pretty much has to take the proverbial lemons and make lemonade.

Like, forget competing or "Can we win state?" It becomes, "Can we have NON-BENT WRISTS and DECENT HIGH Vs before January?"

 

[BuegeSmalls]

^^^I have friends in similar situations to yours.

Ex: Coach friend of mine coaches at a rural middle school. 12 girls at tryouts. Like, 2 have cheered before. Picture what you looked like when you first walked onto a cheer team at age 6. That is what they look like. If you started making cuts, you'd have 2 girls. So you really can't. She pretty much has to take the proverbial lemons and make lemonade.

Like, forget competing or "Can we win state?" It becomes, "Can we have NON-BENT WRISTS and DECENT HIGH Vs before January?"

An old teammate of mine coached our middle school this year and I helped judge tryouts. We ran into similar problems. A lot of the girls had gone through or were still in our middle school rec feeder program so that helped, but there were some brand new to cheer girls. I think 17 or 18 tried out and we were debating cutting two girls for a team of an even 16 or taking all of them. In the end it was decided to just take them all because at that age there is always someone who quits!

 

[cheergirl09]

The high school I use to coach at had roughly 1600 students. Each year we would have about 70-90 tryout. Going into tryouts we would have a number in mind of what size team we would want for the season but would look at the natural break in numbers to decide where we wanted to be. JV would usually be around 20.

In florida if your school lists you as a sport you can be the following sizes:
Small 12 girls and under, medium 16 girls and under, large 20 girls and under, and extra large 26 girls and under.




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[smontie]

Less than 400 students in school.
Very few experienced cheerleaders. Like, 2 to 4 a year have cheered before. Have about 15-20 tryout and there's no JV. Hate to "cut" kids, as I'm always afraid kids won't try out in the future if they don't think they'll make the team and I'll be left with nothing!
So, everyone makes the team, but only 10-12 make the comp team. They rest cheer on the sidelines for games and get to do halftime.

 

[MHSCheercoach]

^^^I have friends in similar situations to yours.

Ex: Coach friend of mine coaches at a rural middle school. 12 girls at tryouts. Like, 2 have cheered before. Picture what you looked like when you first walked onto a cheer team at age 6. That is what they look like. If you started making cuts, you'd have 2 girls. So you really can't. She pretty much has to take the proverbial lemons and make lemonade.

Like, forget competing or "Can we win state?" It becomes, "Can we have NON-BENT WRISTS and DECENT HIGH Vs before January?"

Our school just welcomed back junior high cheer so last year out of a team of 10 I only had 3 who had ever cheered before. It's difficult and lots of hard work on the coaches part as you are trying to cram 3-5 years of cheer experience into girls in a matter of 3-4 months. But in the end, I look at where they started and where they ended up and am super proud of how they did.
If it was up to me I probably wouldn't cut any girls either, but those that are cut are usually the ones who demonstrate grade problems and attitude issues in school so it's probably best I do cut them as it would be detrimental to the team.

 

[Big_Sis]

those that are cut are usually the ones who demonstrate grade problems and attitude issues in school so it's probably best I do cut them as it would be detrimental to the team.

About 1200 I think and Varsity only takes 16. JV runs between 8-12.

There was a girl trying out this year who has amazing tumbling skills AND has cheer experience, but her 'tude & grades are kinda meh. Well, actually they kinda suck. Still, I totally expected her to make the squad and she got cut. I just know she & her mom are sitting at home raising hell over it, coz she's so talented, but Little Sis's school is strict about cheerleaders being good role models & representatives of the school. You have to get recommendations from every teacher you have saying you have a great attitude and I'm pretty sure she didn't get those. :-/