Fateful Day Arrives for Cheerleader Hopefuls : Auditions: Importance of the activity was illustrated by parents’ challenge to the ‘no F rule’ that kept their daughter from taking part.

Sixteen-year-old Tammy Fisher doesn’t know how she will get through this afternoon.

One way or another, the Woodbridge High School sophomore figures she will be traumatized when she confronts “the list”--the feared, revered, dreaded list that will reveal who has been chosen for the cheerleading squad next fall.

“If I don’t make it I’m going to cry, cry, cry,” Fisher said. “I’m an emotional person, and I cry a lot anyway, but I will cry this time.”

In the high school order of things, being selected as a cheerleader or song leader ranks with making the football team or winning a student body election. Its importance to students and sometimes parents was illustrated this month when a set of Woodbridge High parents challenged the school policy that prevented their daughter, a two-year co-captain of the cheerleading squad, from auditioning again this year. That policy prohibits students who receive an F in any class from being cheerleaders. The same standard does not apply to football players or other athletes.

The parents’ challenge has persuaded the school board to reconsider the “no F rule,” as it is called, at its next general meeting May 1.

Today, however, the important thing for the group of girls at Woodbridge is the posting of the list, the result of Monday’s tryouts before a team of hired judges from the National Cheerleading Assn.

“Some guys will show up with cameras just to catch your reaction,” said Vicky Biggs, 16, a junior. “They post it in three different places around school because the crowd gets to be so big you have to jump to be able to see anything.”

Greg Cops, the principal at Woodbridge High School, has tried to soften the blow by using numbers instead of names.

“We now post it by numbers and do it later in the afternoon so we don’t have everyone running out of class straight to the list,” Cops said.

Even the parents share in the ordeal, beyond the $700 to $1,000 it takes to sponsor a cheerleader for a year.

“You cannot understand what this means to the kids unless you’re a parent,” said Janna Hobbs, an Irvine mother of a current cheerleader. “During this time of year, every time they walk by a mirror, or a window, they’ll check themselves out on a routine. They practice in their bedrooms, in the living rooms. Our society has created this image of a cheerleader and for the kids, it takes over their lives.”

“At best, it’s traumatic,” said Peter Jacobs, another parent. “Nothing else matters right now.”

Most parents seem to agree that regardless of how the students react to the pressure, it’s a learning experience.

Cheerleading “certainly is a big thing for the kids, but it’s the same whether it’s cheerleading, whether it’s high school athletics, or whether it’s being chosen for the school play,” said Leonard Taub, another Irvine parent whose daughter is a cheerleader. “There’s going to be some of this in life no matter where you go. It’s OK to take some lumps in competition. That’s the way life is.”