<p>Yeah, the vals and the sals, if they play a sport, always drop it at some point along the way. This year, there were at least two kids in the Top 20 who had played a varsity sport the whole time…I guess they were the students who impressed me most.</p>
<p>^^ That is impressive.</p>
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D played travel soccer for several years and we always thought she would try out for the H.S. team, but she switched to dance. Her best friend played one season of soccer and found the girls to be much like muppetmom described.</p>
<p>Old gymnasts also make good pole vaulter, like diving and gymnastics, you need an intrinsic sense of where your body is in the air</p>
<p>At the beginning of 7th grade track season, the coaches tried to recruit the gymnasts, rock climbers and swimmers to be pole vaulters because they have upper body strength that most girls don’t possess. D took a pass, but we have a rock climber who is doing a great job. (7th grade girls’ pole vault is hysterical to watch, by the way.)</p>
<p>D did break the school record in high jump - she has freaky long legs.</p>
<p>Missypie, Cheerleading sounds a lot more intense in Texas than it is here in Maryland! I can’t imagine it being a class. It’s good that she made the choice to stick with her dance class instead of joining the competetive cheer team. Keep encouraging that interest.</p>
<p>Our high school is weird. Cheering gets no respect and the girls on the squad get no respect from the other students. When my oldest S was in high school, they could only get 3 girls to go out for cheerleading (and they weren’t the prototypical cheerleader type). Such a change from my time in hs.</p>
<p>It seems that it’s much more popular for the girls at our hs to play sports. Our hs has about 750 students, but fields 3 full squads for girls’ soccer, field hockey and basketball, and two full squads for volleyball, softball, lacrosee, tennis and golf. Track and cross country are also extremely popular.</p>
<p>There is a lot of school spirit, though–Cheering seems to be done by other teams–for example, for boys soccer the girls team AND THE FOOTBALL TEAM paint themselves blue, bring drums,etc and cheer themselves silly–almost a european atmosphere, and the boys do the same for the girls teams. At football games, the drumline and other teams seem to do a lot more than the cheerleaders who are basically ignored.</p>
<p>Visiting schools always seem to comment on the unusual atomsphere at our high school. Our kids take great pride in it!</p>
<p>Boysx3, it’s odd at our HS. You have to be a terrific tumbler to make our cheer squads. A girl used to have to do 7 or 8 out of 10 skills; a few years ago they changed it to 10 out of 10, so if the girl can’t do her standing back tuck, she needn’t try out. With that said, they do little at ballgames. They spend a whole lot of time watchig andnot a lot of time cheering.</p>
<p>Some high schools have split cheer into two squads - the competitive squad with the tumblers, and the spirit squad, that cheers at the games. I think that is probably a good idea.</p>
<p>Missy,
I think that’s a good idea too. There would be more respect if actual skills weere involved. I think the cheer adviser lowers the standards every year just to get a few girls to try out, so the squad is in a sort of death-spiral.</p>
<p>It’s almost sad at games. All of the parents of the cheer girls go to all of the games, and they are the only ones who respond to the cheers at all.In the meantime, the drum line is leading a conga through the stands.</p>
<p>My D was recruited to cheer on the highest level of an all star team when in Jr high, Beware, they may want your D to fly if she is small - prestigious, but also dangerous. My D got several concussions. Fortunately for me she got taller and eventually could not fly any longer right about when I was going to say enough is enough. One thing to note, due to all the stunting, her HS counseling office called her in ALL THE TIME for bruises on her legs and arms (from catching her or from being on the second tier where the girl on the bottom holds on to her legs) and they thought she was being abused by someone and she had the hardest time convincing them she got the bruises from cheering! She went on to cheer for 3 years for a prestigious NFL team though! Competitive All Star cheerleaders work out harder than most HS boy’s athletic team members.</p>
<p>My D is a gymnast and petite, and I would (and will) strongly, strongly discourage her from high school cheer (it isn’t at all respected in our school, so I doubt she would be interested anyway, but you never know, since we have no gymnastics team). She would be pegged for the flyer, and no way would I let a couple of other 14 or 15 or 16 year olds be responsible for her life like that! Not to mention that gymnastics is done with coaching on regulation floors and mats, not wooden gymnasium floors. A fall on your head on that? Curtains. People really need to be aware that high school cheerleading is not coached professionally, the way gymnastics is, nor are there any regulation safety requirements.</p>
<p>Here in the Southeast cheering is taken very seriously. When our daughter in middle school told us she wanted to try out my husband nearly had a heart attack, and I wasn’t particularly pleased, either. I know “its just like gymnastics” but then why not DO gymnastics? I guess I sound like a grump but for our family its just too much T and A. I went to the parents’ meeting and later my daughter said, “Mom, you looked so different from the other moms! They had on sundresses and kitten heels and you were wearing cords and Bean boots!”. Well, I’m not the one we’re talking about, its her choice so we let her do it for 7th grade. She actually found it incredibly time consuming and repetitive, and now is going for lyrical dance and the school play. I can’t say I’m disappointed!</p>
<p>I agree that it is very school specific. I cheered for a year in high sch. and loved it. We practiced before/after school. None of us were gymnastic except for the lone guy on the squad.</p>
<p>At my kids’ h.s. cheerleaders are not necessarily the “it” girls as far as the popularity factor. My S’s both played football so we got plenty of cheerleader exposure.
The girls on our squad work hard. They cheer almost non-stop the whole game.
Front/back handsprings must be a req. They all do them.<br>
They don’t get a ton of response fr. the kids in the stands. The kids are usually doing their own creative chants. Our sch. does not have a drill team/pom squad so the cheerleaders are it.</p>
<p>A girl in S1’s class did gymnastics (tried cheering but didn’t like it)but outgrew it,literally. She grew to be about 5’8".
She switched to diving,won all kinds of competitions,was in top ten in the class and ended up diving for an Ivy sch.</p>
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<p>Isn’t that the truth?! And it still freaks my D out, too. At the cheer gym where she tumbles, of course there is a regulation floor and great spotting by large men. When the school cheerleaders compete, they use mats. But when they cheer in the gym, it’s just the wooden floor. Yikes! D is probably the best tumbler on the squad, but she doesn’t do any flips at basketball games…too scary, plus it makes her knees and wrists hurt.</p>
<p>At HS pep rallies, the whole varsity squad will line up and do standing back tucks, on the gym floor. Scares me to death.</p>
<p>No, D won’t be a flyer. She’s thin (I’m positive she weighs less than the flyers) but at 5’4" she’s the tallest girl on the squad (back base.)</p>
<p>LOL, dke. I’m not the least “cheerleader looking” mom, however, because one of the moms is a uniformed cop. I was so glad to see her!</p>
<p>Just a story of a friends cheering daughter, not a flyer but one of the “taller” girls,( 5’3"-or there abouts, lower base girls,Not into cheering terminology so forgive the descriptors) the flyer came down with her elbow out, nailed friends daughter in the mouth, she lost four front teeth, straight across. She ended up with a mouth of implants.</p>
<p>After seeing that, I would not let my girls even try out.</p>
<p>Yeah, a friend’s D was back base all through HS. By the end of junior year she was totally sick of bruises and busted lips and wanted to quit, but it was her big EC, so she stayed with it (but did not even consider cheering in college.) Interestingly, her mother has chronic back pain from being dropped as a college cheerleader.</p>
<p>Missypie, do we have the same D? Would quit school at the drop of a hat and spend 16 hours a day on EC’s? ha ha!</p>
<p>My big concern about cheering is the injury rate. Competitive cheering these days involves tons of dangerous stunts - lifts and tumbling passes - and there are few if any regulations for the coaches. Our hs AD has complained that “if cheering wants to be treated like a sport, they need to act like one.” And by that he means that the coaches need to be TRAINED, and the sport needs to have safety regulations that are uniform and enforced. There have been several deaths of cheerleaders here recently, from accidents at practice or in competitions.</p>
<p>I’ve also noticed that you have to be a fantastic gymnast to make the cheerleading squad, but then they hide all their talent and save it for the competitions! Our cheerleaders have a half-dozen cheers they use at football and basketball. Sometimes they do standing tucks at basketball games, and sometimes tumbling passes at football games, but for the most part they do the same boring cheers over and over, and sit in the bleachers at basketball games. No wonder no one realizes what good athletes they are, they spend all their efforts on their competition routines but no one ever sees them. </p>
<p>Plus, how can you be taken seriously as an athlete with a big polka-dot bow in on the top of your head?</p>
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<p>I totally agree. They ARE fabulous athletes but they get little respect and they don’t really have mine. And even all the injuries…for what? It’s terrible for me to feel this way, but if you get bruised up playing football, at least it was in a sport where the audience was big and you have a high profile. If you get bruised up at a cheer competition, it’s at an activity that no one else in the school cares about and the only ones in the stands are your parents. Just doesn’t seem “worth it.”</p>
<p>I don’t have a daughter, but have a soft spot for cheerleaders; my mom was a cheer captain and one of my better friends is the cheer coach at my son’s high school (ahem, his alma mater! :D). At that school, there is just one cheer squad. They tumble and cheer during football season; they dance and cheer during basketball season.</p>
<p>The risk of injury is a problem imho, especially if the squad’s standards are low and some members (whether bases or flyers) are inexperienced. Many high school (and college) bands show disrespect for cheerleaders, which imho just puts their immaturity on display (when at their best, the groups are partners who rally the fans in support of the athletes). I shook a knot in geek_son’s tail early on when he started echoing the older players’ (and the directors’ !!) snide comments about cheer; he got the message and eventually served as sort of a bridge between the groups at his school. At such a small school, there really wasn’t room for that nonsense.</p>
<p>missypie, if your daughter’s school is traditional, here’s what you might expect her to gain from participation in cheer:</p>
<p>** Confidence in public
Yes, they wear silly-looking, perhaps revealing, uniforms in front of their peers. They bound all over the place while smiling and projecting enthusiasm. And they learn when (and how) to take the stage. And yes, in some environments they also learn how to handle the disrespect of other students.</p>
<p>** Extemporaneous speaking skills
At pep rallies and other events, they make short, off-the-cuff speeches to honor athletes, coaches, and other members of the school community.</p>
<p>** Planning and leadership skills
About those pep rallies – the cheerleaders plan the activities, manage the crowd, and keep the events running on schedule.</p>
<p>** Fundraising and budgeting
Nobody raises funds like cheerleaders. Every week, they’re selling something on campus – bagels, candy, home-baked goods, whatever. Many weekends, they’re washing cars for donations. At some schools, they raise funds for uniforms, poms, hair bows, gear bags, poster-making supplies, and even audio equipment. At some other schools, they also raise funds for other athletic programs.</p>
<p>** Consistent performance and practice
Because of the risks involved, they practice stunts over and over and over. If they don’t practice, they can’t cheer. Cheer is physically demanding. They learn to persist through a multitude of aches and injuries, but also learn to be honest if an injury renders them unable to perform a stunt safely. Their teammates are depending on them in a very real way.</p>
<p>** Teamwork and trust
Two cheerleaders may be having the nastiest spat in campus history over something or other off the field. On the field, when one of them has to catch the other, that’s all behind them. More than in any other sport, they are keenly aware of the need to act as a team and do their part – because the potential consequences of failure are too great. They see and *feel<a href=“literally”>/i</a> how things can fall apart if one of them isn’t in it fully. </p>
<p>** High standards of conduct
Cheerleaders are taught that they represent their school at all times and are expected to represent it well and set a positive (but not arrogant) example for other students. This means following the rules, being pleasant and (yup) cheerful, refraining from illegal activity, keeping their grades up, et cetera. Not meeting these standards gets them benched at games or suspended/removed from the squad.</p>
<p>Are all these qualities universal? Of course not. And some squads are more safety-conscious than others. If I had a daughter thinking about cheer, I’d want to have a nice long chat with the coach and find out what her focus is and how (or whether!) she thinks of cheer as a growth experience for young women.</p>
<p>Missypie, our daughters were clearly separated at birth. Former gymnast, check. Freakishly long legs, check. Besides high jump, she should try long and triple jump. And of course pole vault. You get to run with sticks, fly in the air, and land on cushions. Everything you weren’t allowed to do to the furniture when you were little. My d still does track in college, and it’s a huge part of her social life. I heartily recommend it. It’s probably much better coached than cheer, and there’s a much greater number and diversity of students doing it. Including boys…</p>
<p>Geek_mom, at our school, I’d say what you said, but only say it about our dancers. The drill team grils learn so much more discipline than the ch eerleaders (due to the particular programs and coaches, not due toanything inherent in dance or cheer.)</p>
<p>Track is one of the few sports in HS that they can pick up after school (vs. taking the sport as a class). I think that the competition season for both dance and cheer is over before track seaso starts, so she could do both. I have got to get her to try the other jumps. Last year she really wanted to do hurdles.</p>