I Tried Out For Cheer! Journal Entry #3 High School Tryouts

Try out season can be one of the most stressful times of the cheer season – for coaches, cheerleaders and parents! This season, we recruited 2 cheerleader hopefuls and their parents to record their try out experience and share their tips with our readers! We followed a high school cheerleader hopeful and an All Star cheerleader hopeful (and their parents) through the process and here’s what the High School hopefuls had to say about try outs: Cheerleader’s Point of View Q. How many people were at tryouts, and how many spots were open? A. There were over 60 girls at the tryouts, and the coaches didn’t tell us how many spots were open. They just told us that in the past, they’ve had as little as 40 girls and as many as 60, so we really didn’t know. Q. What was the schedule for tryouts? A. You and your group of three signed up for a time the day before, and so when you got to the tryout area, you had to wait for the other group to leave because it was a closed tryout. Q. What did you wear? A. I wore a white tank top and dark green shorts (the school colors) and a white bow. Q. Were the other girls and the coach nice? A. Yes. They all seemed like they wanted us to do well and they all seemed like they wanted to help us as much as they could. Q. What was expected of you at tryouts? (How much choreography did you have to learn, and how much time did they give you? How many cheers did you have to learn?) A. We learned counts to two jumps – the toe touch and the pike – half of the fight song dance, and one sideline cheer. They gave us just two days to learn it. Q. Did the competition seem prepared? Were you intimidated by any of them? A. The two girls I tried out with were really nice and had a couple of years’ experience. Yes, there were girls there that were really good, and I didn’t think I would make it. Q. Did past team members have to tryout too? Did you notice any favoritism? A. Yes, past members tried out as well, but they tried out in groups of 4 or 5, instead of our 3. When they posted the list of who made it, they used our tryout numbers and not our names, so I don’t know about favoritism. Q. What was something that took you by surprise? Was it what you expected it to be? A. The tryouts went really quickly. We did our cheer jumps one by one and then performed the cheer and fight song dance, and then left. I expected the coaches to maybe ask us a few questions before, but they didn’t. Q. What experience with dance/tumbling/cheer did you have before tryouts, and how did the experience, or lack of, effect your tryout? A. I didn’t have any tumbling experience or cheer experience, but I did have dance experience – synchro is a lot like dance in the water – so the dance and cheer was easy for me to catch on to, but my jumps were not great. They were the things I was most worried about. Q. What was the best and worst part of tryouts? A. The best part was meeting new people and learning something new. I did like cheering, so I kind of hoped I would make it, even though I didn’t think I would. Q. How did you feel after tryouts? A. I felt pretty good afterwards, because the two girls I tried out with messed up a couple of times, but I didn’t… but I was still worried about my lack of jumping and tumbling experience. Parent’s Point of View Q. What kind of materials/information did the school give you before/during try outs? A. Not a lot. Just location information. Q. Were you allowed to attend? A. It was closed try-outs, so no we were unable to attend. Q. Were there other parents around? What were they like? A. The parents that attended the initial meeting were a mix. Some seemed like the stereotypical dance or pageant moms that you might see on a reality television show, but then there were some “regular” moms like me. Overall most were nice, but there were some that were snooty. Q. Did you get an estimate up front of the cost for the season? A. Yes, $1800.