Start a Cheerleading Team

Cheerleading is exciting, glamorous, and a great way to keep fit. It allows the opportunity for travel and meeting tons of new people. But what do you do if there are no cheerleading squads near to you, or there are existing squads, but none of which meet your expectations or experience level? Start your own cheerleading squad!

Steps

  1. Determine whether you will be a competitive or regular cheerleading squad. Competitive, or “all-star”, teams work with the goal of competing in and winning local, regional, and national cheerleading competitions. Regular, or plain squads perform for show.cheering for a semi-pro or little league sports team; traditional squads bring entertainment to sporting events. If you want to start a traditional squad, contact your local semi-pro or little league team head coaches, and simply ask if they’d like to have a cheerleading squad – 9 times out of 10, you will get an enthusiastic “yes!”.
  2. Decide on your squad’s name, colors, and regulations. These will likely be decided for you if you’re a traditional squad. For all-star squads, your regulations will be especially important, and will govern practice times and locations, uniform and travel costs, tryout guidelines and eligibility, insurance policies, team fees, community involvement and philanthropy, and discipline.
  3. Establish a bank account to keep track of your squad’s funds. It is extremely important that you not mix the squad’s funds with your personal funds.
  4. Find a place to practice, typically a gym. For all-star squads, this must be a space with adequate padding for stunting and tumbling practice, as well as a regulation-size floor mat to practice competition routines. For traditional squads, you can likely use your sports team’s gym or practice space- check with your team’s head coach to coordinate times the space will be available for your squad’s practices.
  5. Conduct tryouts. At a minimum, come up with a quick dance routine that is at least eight 8-counts, and require the performance of one cheer, and couple of jumps. For all-star squads, the performance of stunts, standing tumbling, and a tumbling pass may be necessary. Make sure you have at least three judges, a space to hold tryouts, plenty of copies of scores sheets, and badges for participants to write their try-out number on. It is optional, but some squads offer try-out clinics and/or require a tryout registration fee, usually $10-$25.
  6. Order your uniforms and gear from a reputable company. Your squad will need duffel bags, shell tops, skirts, bloomers, poms, cheer shoes, socks, and at least one set of practice shorts and a team shirt. Optional items include hair bows and team sweat suits.
  7. Find a few competitions to compete in. Your competition schedule will determine the time line you have to perfect your routine and raise money for uniforms, competition fees, and travel expenses.
  8. Coordinate a few quick fundraisers to assist with covering your expenses- car washes are easy to do and generally make a good amount of money. Split all fundraising profits among those who choose to participate in the fundraiser.
  9. Search for and contact local companies that may provide sponsorship for your squad in the form of money and/or services, such as beauty salons, spas, restaurants, and car rental companies.
  10. Traditional squads: choreograph and teach your cheers, chants, and sideline routines. You’ll also want to keep a few half-time routines on reserve that you can easily perform to popular songs and dance mixes. All-Star squads: choreograph and teach your competition routine. The time limit, music, and technical requirements will be set by the competitions you choose to attend.
  11. Cut your routine music. You can either find software for this, or get a professional’s help- many all-star squads enlist the help of a pro.
  12. Go out and cheer for your team, and have fun! And if you’re an all-star squad, get to work climbing your way towards being a national competitor!

Tips

  • During the “off season”, when games are not being played, and cheer competition champs have been announced, it is a good idea to send your returning squad-members to cheer camp. This will not only keep your squad in shape, but give you the opportunity to learn new material for next season.
  • Having fun comes above all else. If you forget this, your practices will become long and laborious. Try to ensure that your team not only works hard, but bonds as well.
  • Though it is definitely not necessary, some all-star squads hire a choreographer to create and teach their competition routine. Going this route will greatly increase your expenses, and it is important to keep in mind that sometimes a choreographer will use the same routine for multiple squads.
  • Traditional squads often not only cheer for their sports team, but compete as well.
  • When entering competitions, it is crucial to ensure that you follow your competition’s guidelines to the letter. Cut your music too short, make the cheer segment of your routine too long, or not have enough spotters, and you could be docked points, or even be disqualified.
  • Include conditioning such as sit-ups, running, jumps, and light weightlifting as part of your practices to build endurance. Traditional squads need to be able to cheer through entire games, and all-star squads must keep a high level of energy through competition routines, which are exhausting.

Warnings

  • Safety is of the utmost importance- always use spotters for tumbling and stunting practice.
  • If you do not provide team insurance, either require that each squad member carry their own insurance, or require each squad member to sign a waiver releasing you from any liability should injury occur.
  • Make sure that your members do not become snobby for this will upset everyone else in the group.

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Sources and Citations

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