New Scoring Standard for Cheer Tryouts in Place
Drumming up interest as the 8th graders from Hildebrandt, Hofius, and Krimmel visit the campus, juniors Madi Gorton, Jazmine Ceniceros and Clara Ramos gather around a cheer tri-fold which features highlights from the season of all three squads.
The 2019-20 cheer squads will be different from the past due to some new rules. This year during tryouts, the students’ character is worth 30 percent of the tryout points.
The character points come from teacher recommendations and past cheer accountability. The judges’ points are worth 70 percent of the tryout points and they primarily come from cheer and dance technique, spirit and tumbling during their performance. But now, past infractions known as strikes (demerits) that the previous cheerleaders received will impacts the score at tryouts.
Once on the team, some new district-wide changes are coming for the next cheer season as well. The candidates said they are looking forward to having two game/event passes where they are able to miss with no consequences. Also the squad sizes have increased where Varsity can have the maximum 20 people, Jr. Varsity can have the maximum of 16 people and Freshman can have the maximum of 14 people. There are also some safety changes such as the cheerleaders finger nails can’t go past their finger tips.
All incoming freshmen and grades 9-11 will attend a tryout clinic on Monday 3/4 and Tuesday 3/5. Then they will participate in mock tryouts on Thursday 3/7. This all leads up to the final day of tryouts on Friday 3/8. Results will be posted that evening on the KO Cheer website, www.kleinoakcheer.weebly.com.
