Determining JV and Varsity

Several schools of thought exist on how to determine Varsity and Junior Varsity teams for cheerleading. The following is my opinion, but you need to do what is best for your program.

I determine Varsity and JV based on their score not their grade level. If you have grades, recommendations and a coaches score as part of it you can weed out Freshmen who are not ready.

You should also consider how the other school teams determine this. If a Freshman can dunk the ball and is a great basketball player, will the coach really stick him on JV? I would think not.

I go back to my days cheering and freshmen had to be on JV. Well we had several really good athletes in my Freshmen class. So our JV was better than the Varsity so much so that the Varsity teams wanted the JV to cheer at their games. I am not saying I am “all that”, but skill wise I would have made Varsity and it was unfortunate that I was denied lettering for 4 years because of my age.

Had I been an outstanding volleyball or Basketball player age would not have kept me from Varsity. Just consider all of that. Cheer is a sport so make sure you are consistent with the other sports teams at your school.

Find out more in the following video.

Determining JV and Varsity Video