A controversy over the inclusion of current sixth and seventh graders in cheerleading tryouts for next school year will likely be brought to the next meeting of the International Falls School Board.
Cheerleading coaches Sherri Owen and Jessica Crosby said they opened tryouts this year to upcoming seventh and eighth grade students for the first time to fill squads due to declining interest seen over the past several years.
Owen said her idea to increase participation was taken to school athletic director Don Rolando — and was approved. Rolando did not return messages from The Journal prior to press time.
Owen and Crosby then posted signs at area schools detailing the tryouts, held three days of practices and completed the tryout process.
“We thought we had taken the appropriate steps,” Owen said.
It was not until after the tryouts were held that concern was voiced to the coaches about the inclusion of the younger participants. At a school board meeting held the next Monday after tryouts March 18, student representative Joe Toninato expressed concern about the process.
“It’s become a very large deal for a lot of the sophomores, juniors and seniors this year,” Toninato said at the March 21 school board meeting. “What they don’t like about it is a lot of the sixth graders, who will be seventh graders, who made the team won’t know hardly anyone on the team they’ll be cheering for and it will be hard for them to cheer effectively because they’ll only know numbers starting out. And they may take the chances of upperclassmen who should rightly get those spots.”
Coaches say cheerleading is the only activity or sport in which seventh and eighth graders cannot participate. Many students select other activities during their first two years and are reluctant to change after they are experienced in these other groups.
“We miss out on a lot of girls because they’ve chosen other activities,” Crosby said.
“If they can be in band, if they can be in cross country, why not cheerleading?” Owen said, noting that other sports and activities are open to the entire FHS student body.
Furthermore, Crosby said, Toninato’s statement about the cheerleaders not knowing the athletes is inaccurate.
“They’re cheering for the Broncos,” Crosby said. “They’re not there to cheer on an individual, they’re team sports.”
A group of five judges, the two coaches and three members of the community who have no affiliation with the school or students, graded the tryout participants. After tallying the scores at the end, students who met the minimum qualifying scores were selected for squads.
Crosby and Owen note that students from each grade made cheerleading squads and very few upperclassmen did not make the team.
“We’re in a tough position because if these students have the skills, talents and ability to be on the varsity team, are we denying them an opportunity?” ISD 361 Superintendant Jeff Peura said at the March school board meeting. “And as a school district we provide opportunity.”
Peura told The Journal he would be in favor of reevaluating the policy if the support of the school board was behind the decision.
“I support our board and if they want to do that, I support them,” he said.
He further explained that he would like to institute an annual, June review of the handbooks which lay out policies for students, administrators, staff and teachers. Peura said there are multiple handbooks, including one which specifically discusses activities and includes the rules governing the grade levels of cheerleaders.
An examination of two student handbooks published in digital format on the FHS website, under the sports section (under the headline activities) and the FHS student section, do not indicate a specific age or grade range for cheerleaders. The handbooks list as prerequisites that students meet the Falls High School eligibility and Minnesota State High School League rules to participate in that activity. Inconsistencies such as these may have added to confusion.
Crosby said she had never seen the 2006-2007 activities handbook which has been cited as the basis for the rule until she approached Falls High School officials.
In addition, these handbooks include other inaccuracies, including having a girls basketball cheerleading squad, only six members on each squad and selecting a mascot. Owen and Crosby pointed to these facts to reinforce the need to update the policy manuals.
The coaches say they need to have the issue quickly resolved because plans and payments are made well in advance of summer camps and practices.
