With spring sports wrapping up, it is officially tryout season for fall sports. While most sports require summer practices then try outs, RD cheer does the opposite. Try outs for the squad are coming up, so let’s take a deeper look into what that entails.
The tryouts will be held after school in the upper gym from May 20th to the 21st. On the first day the girls will be split up into groups by grade and taught all of the material needed for day two. On the second day groups generally chosen by one girl per grade have to show what they have learned from day one to their best ability.
For the try outs this year the girls will be taught a new cheer, band dance, and regular dance, all requiring sharp movements, personality, and energy. All pieces of choreography will be issued from the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA), where most girls will be attending a camp for in August. The girls must also show a toe-touch jump and one more jump of choice (pike, herkie, or double toe-touch), ideally in a sequence.
This may sound like the typical tryout but it is actually quite different from what RD cheer has been used to for the past few years. Prior to this year, tumbling was required, but Coach Shiff felt it was just not necessary for tryouts since, “it’s not something that is a primary focus during the fall season.”
Another difference is that the seniors leaving used to formulate the tryout dance and cheer, but this year the coaches opted to leave it to UCA.
The day after learning all of the choreography the girls trying out will be scored by three judges (nonconnected with River Dell) based off of their dances, cheer, jumps, and overall performance.
Point system (out of 80):
Band Dance- 10 looking only at emotion, another 10 looking at timing/rhythm.
Dance- 10 looking only at emotion, another 10 looking at timing/rhythm.
Cheer- 10 on inflection, timing, speed, another 10 on sharpness/hitting ripples.
Jumps- 5 for toe-touch, 5 for personal choice
Performance- 10 for presence
Since tryouts are being held earlier than we’ve seen in the past, this is the first time the girls will find out whether or not which team they’re on quickly. According to Schiff, “I’m not certain what time the email will be sent yet, but it will be sent at some point on Thursday.”
Uniform fittings are the day we come back from Memorial Day weekend, May 29th. They will take place most likely in the cafeteria, where the girls will try on the uniform for next season, along with cheer shoes, t-shirts, and other camp outfits.
One week in June, undecided yet the girls will have a mandatory boot camp, to learn the cheers, and get the basics of stunting. After bootcamp summer practices will start a few weeks later in July. Practices will be from 6:30 a.m. to either 8:00 or 9:00 a.m., and varsity and JV will be practicing together. The girls should be ready because it will be a “very stunt heavy summer,” as stated by Schiff.
The Hawks should be looking forward to an extravagant half-time routine this year, as coaches plan to go all out this year!
