My Coaching Philosophy - Spirit Leaders

First and foremost, I want to say that education is key to successful athletes and contributing members of society. I remind my athletes and the coaches that I mentor that we do not attend high school to play sports, we attend high school to gain an education and learn about the world we live in. Those students who are able to juggle academics and athletics will be the best leaders in their community.

I feel strongly that students should take the opportunity to participate in athletics and clubs available to them while they have the chance. We only attend high school for 4 years and the lessons learned, friends made, and experiences we have during that time challenge us and define us as individuals for the rest of our lives. High School athletics put our kids in leadership roles, especially those in the Spirit Positions, i.e. cheer, dance, and mascot.

Cheerleaders and Dancers have always been expected to lead the crowd and keep them screaming and yelling for their team. As time has evolved the expectations of these students have also evolved. Presently they are expected to be ambassadors for their school. They set the example for the student body in athleticism, academics, service, and support. They must uphold themselves in a manner that other members of the student body are not expected to.

I feel that our Spirit Programs, both Cheer, and Dance, should be held to the highest of standards. Coaches should be knowledgeable in their activity and safety should be at the forefront of their minds. Whether a school hosts a program that is sideline based and spends its time supporting other sports or a school carries a highly athletic and competitive squad, their focus should be on their leadership role and safety. Each school has a unique opportunity to develop a program that best fits the needs of their school and community.

Making the Grade

One of the more important reasons for attending high school is to gain an education and become a contributing member or society.  Unfortunately, for many students, the biggest reason for attending high school is to participate in athletics and to socialize with friends. 

In the district I coach in, we have a rule that says all athletes must carry a 2.0 grade point average (GPA).  The grades get checked before tryouts and then every three weeks they are checked again.  Once they make a team, they are not allowed to have any grades that are F’s.   On my team, I run a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ rule.  If they show up on the grade list three times in a season, they are removed from the team.  This grade requirement is what keeps the majority of my cheerleaders in school.  They love their sport so much, they have learned what they need to do to keep participating.

In team sports when you lose a player to grades or injury, you usually have someone else on your bench to replace them.  In cheerleading, we utilize all participants in every routine.  When we lose a cheerleader, we have to rearrange all the routines, reconfigure formations, re-learn stunt sequences and transitions.  Sometimes we can pull JV cheerleaders up to Varsity to fill positions, but not very often.

When I first started to coach I was constantly losing 3-4 cheerleaders each season to low grades. Once they were removed from the team, they very rarely have the grades to come back.  I took a look at the kids that I was losing and what was causing them to not have the good grades.  Most of them were smart kids but they lacked time management.  So I decided to restructure my practices and add time during the week for study halls.  One to two times a week I added time after school where they all came in and worked on their homework.  They were allowed to listen to music and sit with friends, but they had to be working on something school related.  The first season that I did this I didn’t lost ANY cheerleaders from JV or Varsity.  The next couple of years I lost a few from JV but still none from Varsity.  The Varsity cheerleaders liked the mandatory study halls because it gave them time to finish homework, make up tests, and catch up.  I did still lose a few JV Cheerleaders, but this was mostly freshman and mostly because they were still adjusting to the social, education, newness of high school. 

Many of the Varsity cheerleaders started getting grades that were good enough to start thinking about cheering in college.  They realized that with some time management and understanding that they opened up opportunities that they did not realized they had before.  I went from having one cheerleader make it at the college level to three cheerleaders just one year after I started requiring study halls. 

In any sport, in any school you are going to have kids that struggle with grades.  Make it a team effort to stay eligible.  Show them the rewards of getting good grades and the doors that will open to them if they put as much effort in school as they do athletics.  Bring in athletes from colleges or even higher to talk to them and help motivate.  In our world, education must come first.

CHEERS!

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CW3