The school board has approved new policies and opportunities for the cheer team.
“One of our newest opportunities is for seniors,” cheer sponsor Ashley Ridenour said.
Senior cheerleaders get automatic admission onto the cheer team as long as they have been on the varsity cheer team their freshmen through junior years and meet the requirements.
“I thought about adding this policy throughout this year and with help from Superintendent C.D. Knobloch, we decided that the girls work hard enough to earn this right,” Ridenour said.
Other polices include the cheer team accepting up to 10 cheerleaders.
“We have decided that if a student gets a score of 80 or above on their tryout, they get to join the cheer team,” Ridenour said.
Ridenour said that this score is lower than the average amount of points each student recieved on their tryout last year.
Ridenour said, “which will help us in the UIL State Spirit Competition.”
The school board voted and agreed to allow the cheerleaders to enter into the annual cheer competition.
“It took a lot of work to figure out how I could make this possible,” Ridenour said, “but I had help from multiple staff members and we got it approved.”
New policies also include drug usage, deposits, demerits, probation and more.
“In the cheer constitution the most important part is our demerits,” Ridenour said.
The cheer team has a maximum number of 10 demerits.
“These demerits basically keep our girls in line. In the past we had way too many absences and too many girls showing up late,” Ridenour said.
Other changes have been made to improve spirit.
“Just as last year each cheerleader is required to wear at least three spirit items on football game days to match the theme,” Ridenour said. “This year I made a binder full of cheers, chants and dances, so that the girls can be constantly cheering at the game. I’ve also decided that we will plan each third quarter ahead of time to give the girls a better idea of what they should be doing.”
Ridenour said she can’t wait for next year.
“I think that this next year we will improve and I’m very excited to see everything come together,” she said.
