50 Ways to Improve Your Program

50 Ways to Improve Your School’s Cheerleading Program as presented by: Kathy Tadlock Assistant Executive Director Arkansas Activities Association and Susan Grenda Loomis Director, Division of Student Activities Indiana Association of School Principals at the National Conference for High School Directors of Athletics, December 1998   The Cheerleading Coach If you’ve got a good one, do what ever it takes to keep that person. If you’ve got a not-quite-as-good-one, try to determine whether it would be more efficient to start over or work on the one you’ve got. Hire a qualified person. Make sure that her/his salary is commensurate with the weeks of work and number of athletic activities that they must attend. Talk to your cheer coach and make sure she/he feels like a part of your program. Don’t offer the moon to the new person in order to recruit him/her. This could leave you no place to go. Determine with your spirit coaches how this program and these individuals can be positive ambassadors for your school so that their behavior and actions reflect well on your school and community. Determine with your spirit coaches whether the program will be sideline (or sideline and performing) only or whether the program will be a competitive squad. Have a preseason meeting with your spirit coaches, letting them know that you expect to see an overall outline for the year. The cheer coach carries the same concerns about liability and safety as your other coaches. Be sure he/she understands where the school stands on these critically important issues. BEFORE the season begins, have the cheer coach present you with a budget for the program and a calendar of events where cheerleaders will be involved. Require cheer coaches to attend pre-season orientation for coaches, just as your other coaches must do. Cheer coaches must have the same professional expectations as all other coaches and they must carry the same responsibility, i.e. attendance at rules meetings, professional behavior with parents, community, etc.   The Cheerleading Program Insist that each spirit program have an approved handbook, similar to an athletic handbook, that is provided to each person involved and signed by the parent/guardian of each participant. Have an early season meeting with the coach, participants, and parents for PR reasons and for setting the tone of the AD’s relationship to the program and the parameters of the school’s authority in relation to the spirit programs. Always refer to your spirit coaches as "coach" to establish the needed respect for this position and the expectation of how the coach will relate to the squad. Have a thorough understanding of fundraising policies with the spirit coach, if fundraising is permitted. Have a thorough understanding of how any funds are to be handled, usually as an account within the school’s activity fund. If the cheerleading program is budgeted as a part of your department, make clear to the coach how much money is allotted on a yearly basis and be sure that the cheer coach understands that ALL coaches must have these same privileges/responsibilities. Make sure that the cheer coach understands the importance of a strong conditioning program for the cheerleaders. Monitor to see that conditioning occurs every day as a part of the regular practice schedule. The cheerleading program must conduct organized, serious practices and these practice procedures must be consistent. Communicate, communicate, communicate.   The Cheerleading Tryouts Insist that tryout procedures are written and cleared by you and any other appropriate administrators and distributed well in advance of the designated tryout period. Schedule a meeting with the cheer coach well before tryouts, to discuss the tryout system and to make sure that you understand the process. Have a thorough understanding, communicated well in advance of tryouts, concerning expenses that will be the responsibility of the participants. If your school is not already doing so, begin the process of having the cheer coach select his/her cheer squad. Encourage the coach to use as few people as possible in that selection process. Encourage your cheer coach to begin to eliminate score sheets. Parents and students understand being CUT from a squad; however, they do NOT understand the difference between 91 and 92 on a cheerleading score sheet. Eliminate the pressure on your cheer coach to justify those scores. Support, support, support the final decision of your cheer coach. Since you understand the process, you now are the advocate for the coach’s ability to choose the best candidates. Remember: Most of your sports coaches have chosen their sons or daughters for their respective teams at some point in their careers. It is only natural that a cheer coach would have a son or daughter that could be an accomplished athlete in cheerleading. Support the coach’s decision to select his or her child.   The Athletic Director’s Participation and Supervision Make informal contact with the coach and individual participants often. If you don’t already have it, develop an attitude of positive support for the spirit program and stay in touch with what’s happening. Be accessible to meet with the coach and/or parents as needed or when appropriate. Every few years, attend a spirit rules meeting and/or sit in on part of a safety clinic. Drop in on practice about once a week. Sit down and set goals for the cheer program with the coach. At the end of the season, discuss what has been accomplished and how to improve the next year. Emphasize SAFETY every time you can. Make sure that the cheer coach has a National Federation Spirit Rules Book every year. Be somewhat familiar with it yourself, at least to know the kind of information it contains. Talk to the cheer coach about the rules of the games they support. If new rules are implemented, make sure the coach knows about those rules, i.e. new 20 second time out rules, etc. Make a point to introduce the cheer coach at coaches meetings because he/she wants to be a part of the team. Provide a safe practice area for cheerleaders. Remember that their liability is YOUR liability. No cheer squad should be practicing in the school hallways or on hard, non-matted floors. Provide transportation for cheerleaders just as you would any other athletic team. Whenever possible, include the cheer coach in activities and communications as you do for other sports, i.e. a mail box or bin in your office or wherever coaches have access to their mail. If you make changes that affect the cheerleading program, make sure that the cheer coach is included in your discussions BEFORE new rules or procedures are implemented. For programs to be successful, coaches must have ownership in the development and implementation of those programs. Cheerleading is no different. Cheerleaders are athletes. They exist as a squad solely to support the athletic teams in your school. Therefore, they should be treated as all other athletes in your school are treated. Provide for the cheer coach as many resources as possible - magazines, articles, clinics, workshops, conferences and the AACCA certification seminar and exam, if available in your state. Treat the cheer coach as any other coach concerning school codes, athletic policies, scholastic eligibility, etc. The coach must be responsible for these critically important parts of coaching. Require the same professionalism of cheer coaches that you do of any other coach. Expect the same mature, adult decision making abilities that you expect from your athletic department team. If your school’s spirit program is operating efficiently and well, take time to make notes about the policies, procedures and components of the program that make it operate well. Then add to your notes from time to time and keep these notes for future use.