Dynamic. Powerful. Athletic. Exciting. Phat. Nontraditional. These words all describe my mind's picture of coed cheerleading. Maybe it's the monstrous basket tosses. Maybe it's the pure exhilaration of toss overhead stunts. Maybe it's the beauty of synchronized tumbling seven feet off the ground. Whatever it is, it's what makes coed cheerleading one of the greatest games around. And, without doubt, starting (and maintaining) a high school coed team is one of the toughest "stunts" to pull off.
Our story starts 15 seasons ago, when a few brave young souls accepted the challenge -- actually, the dare -- to become "stuntmen." In a traditionally conservative and small Midwestern town, a group of six guys, predominantly class clowns, decided to give it a whirl, and thus coed cheerleading was born at Sun Prairie HS in Sun Prairie, WI, just five miles northeast of Madison (our state's capitol). Incidentally, I was one of those guys.
Had I ever thought of myself as a "cheerleader"? Absolutely not. And neither did any of the guys who joined the team with me. But we weren't easily intimidated by conventional thinking, and thought the girls were
pretty cool, too. I mean, how bad can practice be if you're hanging with the cheerleaders? Not bad. And competition was pretty sweet, too, because there were at least a couple hundred girls for every guy wherever we went.
So, are you catching on to Tip #1?
Sell the idea that girls love guy cheerleaders and that they'll be celebrities at every competition they go to.
Our school continued to have a coed team for four seasons after all six of us graduated that year, going on to win a state championship and placing well in nearly every competition they entered. However, in the mid-'90s, after a coaching staff change, the program was once again nonexistent. In '97, the former coach returned and got a few guys interested once again. She encouraged me to volunteer my time, and we were off and running.
But how do you get the guys? And, more importantly, how do you keep them coming back?
1. Recruit the natural cheerleaders first. Everyone knows a handful of guys who show up to the football and basketball games wearing weird clothes, painting the faces and go nuts in the stands. They are already cheerleaders - they just need to learn to stunt and tumble.
2. Find athletes. Many of the guys I've had on my team played football, but very few played basketball or were wrestlers. It's very difficult to get a guy to give up his sport for cheerleading. Build your season in a way so
that it doesn't conflict with the football season and then get guys who are strong enough to stunt, and brave enough to tumble, on your team in the winter. Every school also has a few guys who are athletic and would make
great cheerleaders, but aren't involved in other sports. Many of them are drawn to tumbling. Focus on finding those guys.
3. Don't ask your guys to do stupid stuff. Teach them the more macho aspects of cheerleading: stunting and tumbling. Avoid (like the plague), the stuff that makes them not want to join the team, such as cheering at games (or on any sideline), dancing, arm motions of any sort (if they MUST cheer, put a megaphone in the hands), jumps, etc. You want them to feel like what they do is cool, not feminine. The WORST possible thing you can do is treat them the SAME as a female member of your team. Coed cheerleading is a completely different animal than all-girl cheerleading,
and it should be handled accordingly.
4. If you're not proficient at teaching coed stunting, find somehow who is to come in and assist you. ALL guy recruits think cheerleading is stupid, so your challenge is to show them that even if it's "stupid," it's hard. Having a few guys around to throw a toss awesome usually gets the recruit's attitude changed in a hurry.
5. COMPETE. This is the single best way to get guys hooked and keep them coming back. Coed divisions tend to be less--generally speaking--competitive than the all-girl varsity divisions simply because there are fewer coed teams out there right now. It is possible to be fairly competitive relatively quickly with good coaching and a few decent guys.
When your team finishes well at an event, promote it at your school. Every kid wants to be associated with a successful organization, whether it's football or cheerleading. You can capitalize on this by promoting your success.
6. Try to recruit some older guys and some younger guys. There's nothing more frustrating than getting a nice team put together and then having all your guys graduate. Focus on getting some of the freshmen and sophomores involved so you can develop them for several years.
