The Tryout Process

There are many different options for selecting the cheerleading squad for your school. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. As a coach, you and your administration must decide which of the options (or combinations of the options) works best for your individual school. Regardless of the method that is chosen, the administration’s prior approval of the process will be very important.

Selection by Student Body Vote
This process, where the student body alone selects the cheerleaders, was the method of choice until the mid to late nineteen eighties. While this system was criticized for making the tryout a “popularity contest”, it did give the students a feeling of involvement in selecting the group that would lead them at the games. With the increasing athleticism of cheerleading, the need for safety moved cheerleading program toward using a selection process that involved professional judges and athletic criteria.

Selection by Qualified Judges
The level of acrobatics and athleticism of cheerleading forced schools nationwide to adopt a more safety conscious approach to selecting cheerleaders. By using qualified judges, a student is selected to a squad based on less subjective qualifications. Qualified judges can be professional instructors or local cheerleading coaches.
This is by far the most widely used method of cheerleader selection used today.

Selection by the Cheerleading Coach
In rare cases, cheerleading squads are selected by the cheerleading coach. If conditions exist in your community and with your school administration, this can be a satisfactory selection process. However, many coaches feel that more problems would be created than solved by using this method. There is something to be said for being able to “defer” to a panel of non-biased judges.

Combination
Another option is to use a combination of methods to fit your school’s needs. Example: Judges could select a pool of 20 qualified cheerleaders at a tryout. From this pool, students would select the 12 or 16 cheerleaders to represent and lead them.

Open Squad
A recent trend by school administrations, especially at the middle and junior high school level, is to allow anyone who wants to participate be on the squad. While at first glance this seems like a reasonable thing to do, there are some very serious safety concerns, as well as other considerations that a school must weigh before making this decision. It must be understood that not everyone will be qualified to participate in the stunting and gymnastic aspects of cheerleading. In addition, when the student to teacher ratio increases, so does the chance for injury due to lack of proper supervision. If the school is able to adequately support the cheerleading supervisor and their decisions on safe practice, this method for selecting cheerleaders can increase student involvement in the school’s spirit program.