School Lets Everyone Become a Cheerleader After Parent Complains
According to news sources, at a high school in New Jersey there was a parent upset that her child didn't make the cheer squad. So the school turned and said that everyone makes the cheer squad or no does.
I think that is crazy. As someone who went through a tryout process every step of the way through my time as a dancer, I can say that being told no helped me grow. There were several times that I didn't make a tryout process.
I had my first tryout when I was about 8 or 9 for my dance studio's Elite team. To make the Junior team you had to get an invite from the director. After that you have to tryout for the more advanced teams. You had Elite and then Extreme that followed after Junior. I tried out for each one and some multiple times before making the Extreme team.
By the time I got to High School I was prepared to work hard to make the drill team. My sophomore year I attempted to become Captain of the team. I didn't make it. I was devastated. I was told by one of the judges that I was heavy and my leaps could have been higher if I had lost about 15 pounds. This isn't out of the ordinary in the dance world. That didn't stop me for working my butt off, literally. The next year I tried out again 35 pounds lighter. I made Captain.
I then went on to tryout for the Tyler Junior College Apache Belles and made the team. I tried to follow that by trying out for the SFA hip hop squad. I made it to the last round of auditions, but didn't make the team.
Not everything in life is a sure thing. There are going to be times that you fail, but it is how you use that failure to move ahead. I feel that that there should be tryouts for cheer teams and dance teams. Obstacles are put into our life for a reason- so that you may rise above them. As my mother would say "Alright, shake it off. Let's try again."