The Ugly Underside of Cheer - One School's Story

Following up on the theme of going against the "Status Quo" syndrome, I thought I would talk about high school athletics.  This is an area that has many issues where people are burying their heads in the sand.  I think it especially affects girls.  This is wrong, and we should take action. Today, I am going to talk about my daughter's cheerleading team.  

My daughter is on the Junior Varsity cheerleading team at a very large high school.  Her high school has over 2000 students.  Last year for football sideline cheer, they had 3 teams.... Varsity had 25 cheerleaders,  Freshman had 10 members, JV had 15.  There were serious try-outs, and people were cut.  This year, nobody was cut.  Nobody.  They couldn't afford to cut anyone.  There is NO Freshman team.  The JV has 10 members, and the Varsity only has 13.  So, where did the cheerleaders go?  The girls just opted out.  

Last year, after the football sideline season was over, they held try-outs for competitive season.  Almost all of the JV cheerleaders were moved up to Varsity for the Competitive season.  Because cheerleading is entirely self-funded, the parents all paid over $1000 for the competitive season.  And, none of these "JV" cheerleaders competed.  After being moved up, the coach elected to not have them compete.  The parents paid over $1000 for their athlete to NEVER compete.  At the end of the season, the cheerleaders and parents are asked to fill out a survey.  To be certain, the coaches ratings were very poor.  So, here is what I envision transpired... Athletic Director to Varsity Coach "I have never seen such poor scores for coaching before".  The Varsity Coach to Athletic Director "I will just fire them".  And, they were fired.  Note:  because they never played, the cheerleaders were still ranked as JV.  So, their surveys would have been attributed to the JV coaches, not the Varsity coach who deserved the blame.  There are two issues with this 1) the Athletic Director never investigated true root cause 2) the Varsity coach pushed the blame for her actions off onto the JV coaches.

You would think that after a season like that (and the low turnout this year) that the coach would change her ways.  But she hasn't (though we have heard that she is quitting at the end of the season to take a coaching job at a local college).  Her other big issue is what she considers time honored traditions.  When you look up what is entailed by hazing... shunning and servitude are included.  Servitude. The cheerleaders practice on gymnastic mats.  These mats are large.  Often, they need to be moved to other rooms or other buildings.  The JV is told to arrive early to move the mats.  At the end of practice, JV has to move them back.  The Varsity coach deems it so.  And, the JV doesn't have equal access to the mats.  Because the teams are so similar in size, half of the mat surface would be fair.  But, the JV aren't allowed on more than 1/3 of the surface.  Shunning. The Varsity does not talk to the JV.  And, if a girl should happen to slip and accidentally talk with a JV cheerleader, other members of the varsity have a "talk" with her.    

The question becomes, now what?  Clearly, the status quo syndrome is not effective.  Otherwise, the program numbers would not be less than half of last year. I have suggested bringing the issue up to the Athletic Director.  But, my daughter doesn't want me to do that.  She is fearful of retribution.  Unfortunately, other unsuspecting individuals will end up with the same "time honored" traditions if I don't.