My school started a cheerleading squad in November. Well, rather, my friends and I did. I live in a place where cheerleading is pretty much like unheard of. We of course know what it is, and there are movies like Bring It On, and the same stereotypes are attatched to it here, but there is absolutely NO squad in this entire town but us. Not even for the university.

But we worked really hard. We are the 4 captains, and there have been problems between us, but we've worked them out. We performed for our school at a few half times, and showed up at games. We can only do a liberty, but we're getting close to heel stretches.

We don't have a coach, so it's hard to crack down on those who are slacking, and constantly missing practices. And everyone who misses practices seem to have excuses. One girl's moving, so she had to go pack (only to another street). Another girl has to get allergy shots every week at the time of practice. Other girls have basketball. Other girls have work.

One girl suggested we only allow one excused absence per two weeks, unless it's an absolute EMERGENCY. The problem is, everyone seems to have emergencies. In November, my Grampa died, so I was gone for a week. The week after, I'd just gotten back and another cheerleader's Grampa has passed away, so she was gone. Then a girl had to have an abortion, and she was out for a while.

And now a girl went to LA, and got back and has to catch up on weeks of homework, and can't come. Now I wouldn't call that an emergency, but it still happened, and it's still a problem. I can't very well start telling girls to quit doing homework and quit their jobs to come to practice. I said to the other captains that Homework should not be an excuse to miss cheer. One of them actually suggested practices going to 7, with a break for homework. I hardly think I'm going to waste my time babysitting teenagers doing their homework when I could be going to dance.

But if homework wasn't an excuse, "that's putting cheerleading before school." But I don't think so. If you can't balance cheer and school, you shouldn't be a cheerleader, it's as simple as that.

But the others disagreed with me, so out went that one. Especially since one of the Captains used homework as an excuse.

Our sponsor has suggested setting something for a goal. We're doing a pep rally and a year end show, but it's still not enough, we get maybe 5 cheerleaders per practice.

I feel like quitting. We are constantly cancelling practices because so few show up. And I'm wasting my time with it because we don't do anything at all.

Any suggestions?

You are right, going to cheerleading instead of doing homework isnt putting cheer before school. It is sticking to your committments and being organised. You need to get more committment from theym, you simply can't run reahearsals with half your squad away.

How ofetn does the group practise? For how many hours and so on?

Maybe setting less practises but expecting everyone to be there would work better. If they are absent too frequently they should not be able to particitpate in the performances, it isnt fair on the rest of the squad.

We used to practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 3:30 to 5:30, plus gymnastics (optional) Tuesday 8-9:30. We cut Mondays so it wouldn't be so much, and the Captains can get together then to plan our practices.

There was a much better turn out today, so I'm hoping it was just for a little bit and we're gonna get organized again very soon. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

It doesnt sound like you are asking for anything unreasonable. A 5:30 PM finish gives them heaps of time to get home and get to homework in the evenings. But it may work well without the mondays, you would be better having 2 full practises a week than 3 with hardly anyone there.

Good luck with it.

I agree that if you're apart of an activity, you need to be able to balance it with everything else. People should not be scheduling other activities during cheerleading practice if they really want to be on the team.

Maybe it's too late for this season, but next season, definitely emphasize this. When you work somewhere, you can mark practices as times when you are "unavailable", so I don't see why people are using work as an excuse to not come to practice. Having other clubs and activities are fine, but sometimes people really need to choose if they get in the way of each other. Allergy shots are important, but many clinics do them several days of the week, so perhaps she could pick a different day to go other than practice days.

Emergencies are one thing, definitely, but these excuses are very lame. Either they should commit or quit. Next year definitely make it clear that work and other activities need to be scheduled outside of practice time, because cheerleading is a sport that requires the entire team be present. This is especially true of stunting, because of one member is gone, it makes it difficult for that group and the entire team to learn.

When I was on a team, we had a pretty strict attendance policy. We were allowed about two unexcused absences a year, and 3 excused. If you missed any more than that, you could be kicked off of the squad. We all signed contracts at the beginning of the season stating that we knew this policy, and it was actually enforced. Actual emergencies would be given consideration if they happened, and members were always excused for funerals, deaths in family, medical emergencies, or extreme illnesses. So if a girl had the flu and couldn't make practice, she wouldn't be penalized, even if she had used up her 3 excused absences. However, if someone was injured and couldn't practice, they needed to see a doctor's note, and the cheerleader was still required to come to practice to watch. It was a flexible enough plan that if a true emergency came up, it was OK, but people couldn't just schedule stuff during cheer practice and expect to get away with it.

Even for this year you can try to make it clear that certain things will not be accepted as excuses, and that people need to come to a certain amount of practices a week if they want to cheer at games and events. Be firm and enforce it. One thing you could do is set a rule that if people don't come to the last practice before a game or event, they will be benched for that game and not allowed to participate. It's an easy way to get people motivated to go.

I'm just curious here, but if you don't have a coach, how on earth did you guys learn stunting? That seems pretty dangerous, IMO. Hopefully there's SOME adult supervision, and hopefully someone who knows what they're doing...

Aww, the age old problem!

I honestly don't know the answer. We have a contract just like Darkivy, however, it only works in theory. What usually ends up happening with us (we are a competitive squad) is we have great commitment at the beginning of the year. Towards the end is when it gets bad. kicking kids off the squad for it at this point would mean the end of our squad! We can't loose them and have time to re-choreograph for the competitions that are only 2 weeks away!

Hope it gets better for you. I know we have had LOTS of worthless practices lately due to sicknesses.

Thanks everyone, practices have shown better attendance.

DarkIvy, we had an exchange student from Quebec come to our town who was experienced in cheerleading and showed us the proper technique. My cousin also does cheerleading and when I go see her, she teaches me new stuff.

We definitely won't be doing basket tosses like ever, because they're just too dangerous to try with a coach. We always practice with mats for the first few times, and we have a teacher sponsor that watches over things.