Inspiring Tears as Well as Cheers

One parent investigated the judges’ credentials, hoping to find some hint of incompetence or impropriety that might invalidate the competition. Another tried to beat back that challenge by citing the signed pledge their children made to abide by the judges’ decision.

The contest was not for a spot on the Olympic team, but on the Newport Harbor High cheerleading squad. And the dispute has pitted families against one another, ripped apart long-standing social circles and landed the Newport Beach campus in an unflattering national spotlight.

School officials are trying to appease parents with a compromise, one that would add a few more spots to the squad and let the girls who lost try out one more time. And while that might make some people feel better, it would do little to burnish the image of a cheerleading squad now cited as the latest example of how kids’ activities can be mucked up by overzealous parents.

Cheerleading and controversy seem to go together like pompoms. Part of it is the subjective nature of the endeavor. How do you measure perkiness and a pretty smile against a flawless cartwheel and cool dance moves? And part is the cachet that generations of cheerleaders have enjoyed. Even my 10-year-old knows, thanks to an endless stream of pep squad movie heroines, that cheerleaders are always the popular girls.

And Newport Harbor is no stranger to cheerleader-related legal squabbles. Seven years ago, a would-be cheerleader sued the school, claiming the judges had conspired to keep her off the squad. The school district settled out of court for an amount rumored to be around $50,000.

That led the school to adopt a judging process more suited to a Miss America pageant than the selection of a pep squad. A team of “professional” cheerleading judges--college cheerleaders, dance and gymnastics instructors, and pep squad coaches from other schools--is paid to score the girls on their splits, stunts and dance routines. Their scores are tabulated by a certified public accountant, with a representative from the League of Women Voters keeping watch.

This year, the school’s cheerleading coach complained about the judging process, and that led Newport Harbor Principal Mike Vossen to scrap the results and expand the squad from 30 to 48, to allow every girl who tried out to have a spot. That brought protests from parents whose daughters made the initial cut. And that brought in district administrators, who ruled last week that the judges’ choices would stand, but four spots would be added to the squad, with tryouts for those to be held soon.

That compromise seems to have pleased no one. Some from the current crop of cheerleaders complain that the squad was already too large. And many who didn’t make the team but were added by the principal, then removed last week, say they are too traumatized to try out again.

But emotional trauma is part of the terrain in high school, some parents argue. “It’s a horrendous life lesson, but kids have to learn that rules are rules,” said Mike Johnston, whose two daughters have spent years as cheerleaders. Before the girls tried out, they agreed to abide by the rules spelled out in a handbook. “And it says in five different places--explicitly, in bold print--that no one can question the judging of the judges,” he said. “The rules are absolute, cast in stone. It’s really a very simple matter.”

This year, Johnston’s younger daughter made the squad. Would it seem so simple to him if she hadn’t; if she’d been one of those left sobbing in the bleachers? He says it would. As a matter of fact, last year she tried out, but failed to make the varsity team. “She was disappointed, but she didn’t run off crying,” he said. He offered her flying lessons instead.

But not every would-be cheerleader wants her interests redirected. Newport Harbor cheerleading coach Lisa Callahan says even now--more than six weeks after the original tryouts--she’s still talking to distraught mothers who are wondering how to console their disappointed daughters.

And I understand how those daughters feel. I still remember, as a 12-year-old, trying to hold back tears as I scanned the list of new cheerleaders, and realized I hadn’t made the seventh-grade squad. And I know how those mothers feel. When the phone call came last year announcing that my sixth-grader was now a cheerleader, it was hard to tell which one of us was happier.

Callahan, a professional cheerleader and former Raiderette, says that since the controversy broke, she’s getting calls at home and is stopped by women on the street who have “this really strong emotional reaction. I had a woman who must have been 50 years old tell me she cried when she read [about the controversy], that it brought back memories” of when she was cut from the high school squad.

“It’s an experience--whether you make it or you don’t--that stays with you your whole life.”

Kim Stephens would consider herself an avid cheerleading mom. When her older daughter made the squad, she helped start its booster club. Last year, she watched her younger daughter put in 20 to 30 hours a week on the junior varsity squad. “And they’re not doing it to get a football [player] boyfriend or to be popular,” she said.

This year, her daughter did not make the varsity squad--and Stephens has been one of the parents leading the charge to have the judging reconsidered. “It’s cruel what they’ve done to them,” she said of the back-and-forth. “It’s hard to see your little girl go through this when this is all she’s ever wanted.”

“It takes over your life,” said Courtney Blahmer, a senior who has been a Newport Harbor cheerleader for four years and based her college choice, in part, on which school has the best cheerleading squad. “When it gets taken away from you, it’s really scary. That’s why not making the team is such a big deal.”

Callahan said the popularity of dancing and dancers has raised the profile of cheerleading and made it more about performance than rah-rah-rah. “All those hip-hop videos. ‘N Sync, Destiny’s Child ... they’re all dancing and moving around. They’ve got this whole look. A lot of these girls start taking hip-hop [dance] classes when they’re young, then they watch MTV and think, ‘That’s so cool. I want to be like that.’ So it’s become a big deal....”

But cheerleaders are also easy targets, the butt of jokes.

“People want to poke fun, to portray them as a bunch of spoiled brats,” said Callahan. “That’s not the way it is. They’re a great group of girls--smart, committed, full of energy. My No. 1 thing is for them to look good out there and feel good about themselves, like ‘You’re not some bimbo, you’re talented, well-respected, intelligent.’”

Now their parents have another lesson to teach--that hanging up your pompoms doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world.

“I thought about suing,” said Stephens, “but the money, the lawyers, the time it would take.... Then I thought ‘Why am I beating myself up over this?’”

And then she said something that makes sense no matter where you find yourself in this mess: “I have to consider the fact that it is just cheerleading.”