Today’s post is by Ben Schreiber, the current Ohio State cheer coach, UCA college staffer, and Team USA ICU World champion. If you’re interested in cheering for Ben, see the Ohio State Spirit Squad web site.
When making the decision to tryout for a college cheerleading squad, there are some important actions that will give you the best chance to make a particular team. First, it’s important for females to know if the team is a coed or all-girl squad.
Coed stunt prep
If you are trying out for a coed team, it’s imperative that you have coed stunting experience! I highly recommend attending the team’s college prep clinics and sending in skill videos for the coaching staff to critique.
It’s also very important to stunt with a variety of males prior to the tryout, rather than just stunting with, for example, one older and very experienced guy who might have more elite skills than the guys on the team who you’ll stunt with at tryouts. While it can be beneficial to learn some advanced skills from older male cheerleaders, it’s important that you’re able to stunt with a variety of males to show your versatility. For example, if you can do an elite stunt with only one person trying out for the team, the coaching staff may select others trying out who may not have certain elite skills but have the versatility to stunt with a majority of the males on the team.
All-girl stunt prep
The same is true when trying out for all-girl teams. If you are primarily a main base, it would be beneficial to learn how to be a secondary base. If you are a backspot, it would be to your advantage to learn how to main and secondary base. You may be the best main base, secondary base, or backspot on your team, but remember you are trying out for a new college team that may have student-athletes more skilled than you. Coaches love to see versatility because it makes you more valuable to the entire TEAM and program. I also recommend attending various stunt clinics at colleges and universities as they will begin to teach skills that are legal at the college level but not at the high school or all-star level.
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