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Why I Hate Tryout and Team Placement Season

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Cheer Biz Podcast. I’m your host, Dan Cotton, and today we are talking about why I hate this time of year — tryout and team placement season.

We just wrapped up our team placement process, and I’m not going to lie to you guys — I’m tired. I’m exhausted. The fact of the matter is, I just absolutely hate this time of year.

Before we get into the episode, head on over to the Cheer Gym Owners and All-Star Cheer Coaches and Owners Facebook groups, where we have discussions about exactly these things — how things are going in your gyms, tryouts, team placements, all of it. Make sure you’re in those groups, whether you’re a coach, a gym owner, or both.

Also, head on over to nextgenowners.com, where you can learn more about the Academy and our Cheer Biz Accelerator events. These are starting to fill up for the end of the year — Reno is almost half sold out at the time I’m recording this, and given that this episode is releasing close to or after our Nashville conference, it might be completely sold out by the time you hear it. If you’ve ever wanted to attend one of these events, get online, book a call with our team, and see if you qualify to come to one of our Cheer Biz Accelerator events.

A Tough Season, Even at a D1 Gym

Now, let’s get into the episode. It is team placement time of year, and y’all, I hate this time. I hate it because I’m talking to other gym owners I know who are going through very similar things, and we’re kind of vicariously traumatizing one another, voicing our frustrations to each other. You start out so optimistic — I love and hate it, because it’s a new season, new teams, there’s excitement, there’s happiness. But there’s also the flip side: the frustration of people not being happy, people quitting, people leaving gyms.

I’m going to dive into everything I’ve been feeling and experiencing this season. And when I say “I,” I mean me, Tori, and my staff. I’m not going to name names, and I’m not here to give you guys a pity party, but I want you to know that even though we’re a D1 gym with more athletes, we still experience a lot of these same things. It’s been on my mind a lot lately, and it’s been a tough one.

For transparency: we started the tryout season and I was so excited. I had a goal of breaking 200 registrations, and we did — we broke 200 registrations, and I was super excited about it. After that, we still had about 20 athletes who had paid but chose not to do their tryout. We ended up with 206 athletes who tried out within our initial tryout phase and participated in our level placements. By the time we placed teams, we placed almost exactly 200 athletes.

This year, we really wanted to avoid the issue we had last year, where we placed a team with 26 kids on it, and after placements came out, nine of them quit — all nine were bases and back spots. We were left with a team that wasn’t even medium-sized, made up mostly of kids who weren’t bases or back spots. It was a rough season for them. We crossed some athletes to fill holes, and they ended up competing small instead of medium. It really put us behind. We expected maybe one or two athletes not to continue, but we got nine, and it was crushing.

Trying a New Approach: The Acceptance Form

So this year, I decided: we always ask if athletes will accept any placement when they initially register, but right before we finalize team placements, we now send out a form asking, “Will you accept a position on these levels?” It asked which level groups they’d been practicing with, and whether they’d accept a position on Level 1, Level 2, Level 2 Senior, Level 3, Level 4, or Level 6 — the levels we anticipated offering.

That way, if an athlete made Level 2 but had said they wouldn’t accept a Level 2 position, we’d know going in. We could call them, explain why we placed them there, and ask if they still wanted to turn down the position — but we wouldn’t be relying on them for the team. Not everyone filled out the form, which I may make mandatory next year. But even with the form, we had athletes who said they’d only accept a specific level, received that level, and still quit. It was mind-boggling. People act like we’re not trying to build successful teams here, and it matters — believe it or not, parents, every athlete who quits after placement has an impact.

It matters for a couple of reasons. There might have been another athlete we would have placed on that team if we’d known you weren’t going to accept the position. We might have crossed someone up, had someone do two teams, or moved someone up entirely if a team was full. There are real impacts to denying a position — it’s not just about your athlete in that moment. It’s about every athlete affected on that team, and the athletes who potentially didn’t make the team at all. Now we’re scrambling, and it’s brutal.

If you’re a gym owner, you know that feeling. You might think, “Dan, you had 26 kids — even losing nine, you still had more than I had on my team.” And sure, from a numbers perspective, that’s true. But if you’ve done this long enough, you know we build teams by position — back spots first, then bases, then flyers, with a few extra-ish athletes. If we need four stunt groups and place four back spots, and two of them quit, we’re in a really bad spot. It’s exhausting.

Athletes Trying Out at Multiple Gyms

On top of that, we had athletes who quit because they’d tried out at multiple gyms to see where they’d get a higher-level placement or where they felt they’d fit better. I can respect the ones who were upfront — a couple of families came to us and said, “We’ve tried out at both locations, and we need to make our decision before placements come out.” They asked questions and made their choice, and whether they stayed or left, I respected the open communication. I think that’s the right way to handle it if you’re going to leave a gym — it meant we weren’t shocked, we didn’t place them on a team, and it didn’t feel spiteful when they left.

We still feel the loss every time a kid leaves for another gym, but I also want people to be happy. If they think they’ll be happier somewhere else, I encourage them to go check it out — I’d rather that than have them stay here and feel miserable. It’s never our goal for anyone to be unhappy in our gym. We do a lot to communicate and to try to mitigate those situations, and sometimes people just don’t take advantage of that. For the most part, when people have left, they’ve left on a positive note, just saying they wanted to try something else. Those ones sting a little less.

The High School Cheer Conflict

On top of that, we’ve had a rash of situations involving high school cheer. A lot of our program is senior age — we actually have one elite junior team this year, and the rest are senior teams, which is kind of crazy. That means a lot of our athletes also want to do high school cheer.

In Oregon, it’s not against any state rule to do both high school and all-star cheer. In fact, it’s against the rules for high school coaches to prevent athletes from doing all-star cheer. But every year, we get coaches who say otherwise, and once they find out they’re not allowed to say that, they just make their practice schedule so restrictive that it becomes nearly impossible to do both. They’ll schedule practices at random hours, going out of their way to force athletes to choose. Sometimes athletes choose their high school team over ours, which is hard because we don’t get to keep working with them — but it’s also not fair to the athlete.

That’s what frustrates me. I cheered in high school myself, and I think it’s a great experience and a great way to be part of your community. But what you get from high school cheer is not what you get from all-star cheerleading — they’re two separate things. For committed athletes, it’s absolutely possible to do both. I know because I’ve done it with some of my most elite athletes, who went on to win NCA College Nationals and USASF Worlds, competing on their high school team and their all-star team simultaneously at the highest level. So when coaches say it’s impossible, what they really mean is they’re not willing to make it work — not willing to have an adult conversation, look at the schedule, and figure it out.

What ends up happening is those coaches set rigid rules, and it’s left to us to deal with the fallout. It’s an icky feeling. I know some of you listening are thinking, “I wouldn’t put up with that — I’d make them pick.” That’s totally up to you. I don’t love that approach. There are times I’ll put my foot down on something that really matters, but if an athlete needs to be late to practice for a couple of weeks because of schedule conflicts, or misses some practices for daily doubles, I can work with that. But it has to be reciprocal. When it’s not, that’s when it gets really frustrating.

As long as there’s open communication, I’m willing to make it work. But we’ve lost athletes because coaches came in and said, flat out, “If you miss one practice for any reason related to your all-star team, you’re off the team.” I don’t like it. It feels icky — honestly, it feels like dealing with divorced parents using a kid as a negotiating piece, where one parent won’t let them cheer and the other really wants them to. These kids aren’t negotiating pieces. We both want them on our teams because they’re talented.

And here’s another layer of frustration: these high school coaches want athletes who’ve been training in our programs, who’ve gotten all their skills with us, who are throwing tucks and layouts and fulls because of the work we put in — and they want them to leave the place that taught them everything since they were seven or eight years old. It’s frustrating, and I know a lot of you are experiencing the same thing.

The Pressure to Level Up Every Year

On top of all that, there’s the unreasonable expectation — and I’ve seen a lot of people talk about this — that athletes need to level up every single year, or else they’ve somehow failed. That makes no sense. There are so many ways an athlete can improve in competitive all-star cheerleading without moving up a level.

One thing I’m trying to do this year, if I have time, is get early video of every athlete on a team — even the ones who made the team with solid skills — so I can literally show parents how their standing tumbling improved, how their running tumbling improved, how their jumps improved, their stunting, their performance. All those aspects parents might not notice because they’re thinking, “Well, they’re still just throwing a round-off back handspring tuck.” Sure, but last year they could barely land one, and now they’re throwing three in the routine. Or yes, they’re still just basing, but last year they were the weak link in a group with a strong back spot, a strong secondary base, and an elite flyer — and now they’re leading a stunt group. There’s so much to consider beyond level number.

Junior Teams vs. Senior Teams

And then there’s the conversation I keep having with parents — particularly around junior teams. It’s the kids between 12, 13, and 14 who say, “I don’t want to be on a junior team, I don’t want to be with the little kids, I want to be with kids my age.” My counter is always: if I move you to my senior team with 17, 18, and 19-year-olds, and you’re 13, that’s a much bigger age gap than you’d have as a 14-year-old with an 11 or 10-year-old. They don’t always see the forest for the trees.

Now, I understand there’s a shift in mindset once kids hit middle school — those mentalities aren’t always far off from high schoolers. I get it. But it’s still so frustrating to have the conversation that a junior Level 2 is the same as a senior Level 2 — the only difference is age. I was talking to a gym owner today dealing with this exact issue: a parent dead set on the senior team instead of the junior team at the same level, even though the junior team was set up for far more success. But the parent and athlete only see the age bracket, not the bigger picture.

The Exhaustion of Parent Education

Part of what’s exhausting me is that I’ve done everything I can to educate my parents — new and returning. If you go look at the Oregon Dream Teams YouTube channel, I’ve been putting out videos explaining how we do team placements, what technique means, all of it. I’m trying to build more public-facing content so parents can go watch and learn. But a lot of them don’t take the time to actually watch those videos. So it becomes frustrating to have a conversation I already covered in a 30-minute video. I’m sure you’ve felt the same thing — you ask, “Did you read the email?” and they say, “No, I didn’t.” You say, “Could you start there? It would save us both time.” And so often parents say, “I know I’m ignorant, but just tell me.” It’s exhausting. I will tell you, but my time is valuable too, and I have other things I need to be doing.

I hate this time of year because it feels like you’re constantly making kids sad, and that’s genuinely my least favorite thing to do. But it’s my job, and I coach competitive teams, so there are times I have to break kids’ hearts. It’s not fun, and I don’t look forward to it.

The Reframe: Focusing on Who’s Here

So here’s what I’m doing to move forward. Part of this episode is just me talking to you guys, letting you know what’s been going on in my life so you know it’s not all perfect. But here’s the reframe: since placements, we’ve had maybe six or seven kids actually say they wouldn’t accept a placement, plus a couple still considering. It’s important to remember there are still dozens, even hundreds, of kids excited to be in your program. That’s what I keep reminding myself.

It probably means nothing to most people, but on signing day, this mom — someone we only talk to two or three times a year, not super close — came in, saw me first, started pumping her fist, ran up and hugged me, and said, “We did it! She did it! I’m so excited to be on our elite Level 2 and move up from prep.” That was so cool. There are so many more moments like that than there are angry emails and frustrated parents. At least, I certainly hope so. And in our program, there definitely are. It’s important to remember that and to focus on it.

Then it’s about getting back to the things that make you happy — back to practice, back to working with the kids, focusing on the ones who are here, committed, and excited. And letting the ones who chose to go somewhere else go, without anger, without frustration, without holding a grudge. Just let them go and let them decide what’s better for them.

Are there times I know what they’re deciding isn’t actually what’s better for them? Sure. And if they come back later and say, “We shouldn’t have left,” do I enjoy that? I enjoy the validation, but honestly I hate it, because I don’t want kids to miss out on those moments. I don’t want them to have regrets — which is actually one of our core values: no excuses, no regrets. We don’t want kids looking back wishing they hadn’t quit, wishing they’d stuck with it, which is what I typically see from kids who opt out of the sport entirely.

Looking Ahead

So that’s where I’m at. It’s been a challenging time of year, but I’m excited and looking forward to the future. I’m about to head into my senior large coed Level 6 practice tonight — yes, we made the jump into large coed this year, which I know everyone thinks is crazy, but that’s okay. It’s going to be a lot of fun for us. We’re going to go to practice, have a great time, and continue developing skills and growing our program the way we have for the last 15 years.

I want to address something else, too. Even when you’re a big gym, I know it might seem like, “You don’t know what it’s like — you have all these kids.” I thought the same thing when I was a much smaller gym. But here’s what I’ll tell you: when you place a team, you still place a team. Whether you have 400 kids in your gym or not, when you place a team of 22 and four or five of them quit, it hurts. You may have more resources to fix it with crossovers and adjustments, but it still stings.

It’s not exactly the same — I’ll fully admit there isn’t the same pressure I felt when we were smaller, when every kid walking out the door felt like a risk to making rent. You don’t have quite that same fear at a bigger size, but there are a million other pressures that come with running a larger program. Every kid still feels like a gut punch. It hurts, and you’re not alone in that. We’re all going through it right now. If you’re a gym owner and you’re not feeling this, you probably have great directors absorbing it for you. If you’re a coach and you’re not feeling it, you probably have a great gym owner doing the same for you.

But wherever you’re at, get excited about this season, and remind yourself that we get to do something really amazing — we get to impact kids’ lives in a positive way through the sport of cheerleading, and we get to make a living doing it, which is pretty darn cool. I hope you guys are doing well. Keep your heads up. I hope to see you in Nashville, and if not there, I hope to see you at one of our Cheer Biz Accelerator events. With that, we’ll catch you on the next episode.