Get Sideline Ready

By Coach Shari Robinson

Football season is here.  The following are ways you can be ready now.

Cheer Ready

1.    Create a Facebook Group:  Right after tryouts, we load each of the cheers/band dances we plan on using that year on our Facebook group.  Each newcomer is responsible for learning the general chants and cheers as well as any chants specific to football and/or volleyball prior to our check offs in August.

2.    Practice Time:  JV spends 20-30 minutes learning the cheers.  Varsity does not spend time at practice working cheers except game day practices.  Anyone who comes onto Varsity without being on JV first is responsible for learning the cheers on their own or by a video. 

3.    Limit the number of chants:  Keeping a short list of cheers that are more short and concise is better for leading the crowd. 

Performance Ready

1.    Create Game Day Practices:  Be sure to plan 2-3 practices on the football field prior to the season.  This is where we put all of our gameday material together, complete with signs, stunts, and the line-up.  The rest of our practices are geared more toward working on our competition routine.

2.    Competition Stunts incorporated into sideline material:  Each of our competition stunts is performed in our crowd cheers.  For example: If we have full ups in our competition routine. We may do Here We Go, Eagles, using a roll off where each group does a full up.  This can be done with any stunts you have in your routine.

3.    Practice Tumbling at Games:  We have 3 chants that we perform tumbling to during timeouts.  This always gets the crowd’s attention! If you have some non-tumblers, you can put a basket toss in this segment.  Our basket tosses must be performed on a grass surface so this only works for football/soccer/lacrosse/ etc.

About Shari

I am a full-fledged, life-long cheer junkie.  Currently, I am the Head coach of the Thompson Valley High School Cheer Team.  This is my 5th year back coaching at TV.  I also coached there from 1992-1993, and 1996-2002.  We are the only 4A team to reach the finals of the state competition the past 4 years.   In addition, I owned Rocky Mountain Cheer Company from 2004-present. Both of my daughters are heavily involved in cheer.  Both have spent their lives competing in All-Star Cheer including Worlds Teams. This year, Kate will be on the University of Colorado All Girl Cheer Team.  Kennedy will be a sophomore on the Thompson Valley team. My husband has produced the Balance Pro which trains cheerleaders to become better flyers as well as increase core strength.  Please visit our etsy shop to order one.