Southlake Carroll Cheerleading troubles

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Texas Cheerleading, `Animal All Its Own,' Divides Dallas Suburb

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- The Southlake, Texas, school board met for six hours in closed session to settle a dispute that lasted for three months: cheerleading tryouts.

Allegations of bias, score tampering and onerous judging arose after Southlake's Carroll Senior High held auditions for next school year's squad in December. The 19 girls left off the team said the process was unfair. The 14 who passed fought to exclude those who didn't. Girls and parents on both sides peppered the school district with hundreds of pages of e-mails.

The battle in Southlake, located 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Dallas, reflects the high-stakes nature of cheerleading in Texas, a state that leads the U.S. with more than 740,000 students in high-school athletics. The Texas Association of School Boards last year received 25 cheerleading-related requests for legal advice from members.

``Cheerleading is an animal all its own,'' said Gene Hanson, whose 16-year-old daughter, Kelly, was a member of Carroll's squad this school year.

More than cheerleading glory may be at stake. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, one of Texas's two U.S. senators, once led cheers. So did Governor Rick Perry and President George W. Bush.

Texas is the home of the oldest U.S. cheerleading camp, begun in 1949 by Lawrence Herkimer, the founder of the National Cheerleaders Association and the inventor of a jump known as the ``herkie.'' The camp is held at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and thousands of girls make the pilgrimage there each summer to polish their skills.

`Real Serious'

Houston-based American Cheerpower, which holds tournaments for school and private cheer teams, rents the Alamodome in San Antonio for a February contest that draws 10,000 cheerleaders. Most are from Texas.

``It's gotten real serious,'' said Regina Symons, founder of American Cheerpower. ``A lot of coaches' salaries depend on who wins and who doesn't.''

Competition can go too far. A woman from Channelview, Texas, near Houston, was convicted in 1991 of hiring a man to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival. The case inspired a television movie, ``The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.''

The fierceness of the cheerleading rivalry reflects the passion for Texas high school sports, said Jim Lord, executive director of the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators in Memphis, Tennessee.

Ties to Teams

``If you drive through these small towns you'll see a sign that says `Regional Champs 1972,' and that's a freshly painted sign,'' Lord said. ``It's such an important thing in a community and for the girls that cheer for them. They're tied to that team pretty closely.''

Carroll has won three state football championships since 2002, and its students have excelled academically. The 1,150- student school was picked as a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Education Department and was listed as an ``exemplary'' campus, the highest rating, by the state of Texas.

Parents have money to spend on their children as well. Southlake's median household income in 2000 was $86,087, more than double the statewide average.

Hanson said his daughter, like most of the girls who auditioned at Carroll, had been taking gymnastics and dance classes since she was 7. She also participated in competitive cheerleading outside of school for four years.

``It probably does take on too much of a life of its own,'' Hanson said. ``But the other side is with a high-value football program, it's a high-value position.''

Everyone's In

Many Texas schools, including Carroll, hire outside judges for cheerleading tryouts so coaches aren't left to select squads on their own -- and take the heat for it.

``It is highly charged,'' said Karen Halterman, senior vice president of the National Cheerleaders Association. ``Because of that, most administrations like to set up a very fair system and have everyone back away so it can't be misinterpreted as to their intent.''

Members of the Universal Cheerleading Association judged the Dec. 15 audition, according to a statement from the Carroll Independent School District on March 21. The statement was made a day after the district's board met in the closed session last week.

The board ruled that all 33 students who auditioned for the team would be allowed to join. Some of the girls who made the cut and fought to keep out the others wept after the decision, according to an article in the next day's Dallas Morning News.

At least one girl who was made eligible won't participate: Kelly Hanson. She quit this year's cheerleading squad and gave up the opportunity to return next year rather than stay in the fray, her father said.

``It's virtually impossible for a school board to make everyone happy in this situation,'' Julie Thannum, a district spokeswoman, said before the meeting. ``We'd be the first to admit it's a mess right now.''

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[NedDog]

The board ruled that all 33 students who auditioned for the team would be allowed to join. Some of the girls who made the cut and fought to keep out the others wept after the decision' date=' according to an article in the next day's Dallas Morning News.

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If that is the case, why even bother with try-outs? Just have them put their name on a sign-up list, and Bang, you're in!