Cheerocracy
"This is not a DEMocracy. This is a CHEERocracy, and I'm the cheertator." ~Bring It On
So this is how I'm feeling a little bit. :-P Yesterday was ALL cheer/football: I had my cheer coach recertification & coaches' meeting from 8:30 - 1. I spent all afternoon doing cheer recon, getting prices on accessories & making plans. Last night, we met with three other football families for dinner & a team mom meeting. I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!!! ...But it *IS* a lot of work. If you thought that first cheer email was long, the one I wrote yesterday would blow you away!
Part of that is b/c I had so much more info to share after my coaches' meeting. The other part is b/c my squad size just doubled! Yes, I SAID DOUBLED!!! This squad that I feared would have no more than 5 girls was already at 8...and now we are potentially at 16!!! SIXTEEN!!! Two new girls signed up this weekend (yay!), but the biggie is that another cheer squad of 6 girls didn't have enough football players to field their team, so the board of the league gave them to me.
I am thrilled to have a squad this huge!!! But right now, I am feeling a wee bit defensive. This other squad already had a coach, assistant coach, & team parent. Well, so do we. I'm taking their old head coach as my assistant (she & I seem very much on the same page :-) plus she's 15 weeks pg! she doesn't need to be running cheer at 8 months pg in Nov! :-P) and my team parent agreed to step down to let this other lady do it. I also told her other assistant coach that I would love whatever help she wants to give (with a big smiley face.) :-D So, see - I *am* being very accommodating!
...But this is still my show. And with a squad this big, there's no way to please everyone. No one on the new squad that folded into ours has a brother playing, so they all have tons of money & effort to pour into every cheer accessory available; I felt the need to let it be known up front that all of those things are optional for this squad. (Personalized this & that, etc.) Super cute stuff - I love it, too!!! But 5 cheer families have multiple kids in our league, and these extra costs mount up quickly. Example: before their squad folded, they all decided to get these $35 (on sale!) yoga-weight NFL jackets from Justice for their girls. They are cute, but not worth $35 (too plain) to me; more importantly, according to our league rules, they cannot cheer in them. They must wear only plain white leggings & a long-sleeved shirt under their uniforms when it gets cold. Yes, I know they all 6 bought these jackets, and they can wear them off the field together; but I'm not telling my other 10 girls they need to buy one, b/c I don't think it's worth it. [This is the defensiveness I'm feeling.] I don't want anyone to feel pressured to spend beyond their comfort zone, esp. b/c we *DO* have a number of required extraneous costs: cheer shoes, hair bows, pink poms in Oct for breast cancer awareness, several halftime dance props (no more than $5 each, but still.) I want these new people to feel welcomed, esp. b/c I know they're probably bummed their squad folded, and they don't get to do it all "their way" now (I know I'd feel like that), but I'm a little worried that finding perfect harmony may be a bit more difficult than I anticipated.
I don't want it to feel like a squad divided, you know? But I already got my first new complaint this afternoon about the practice time not being ideal. *Sigh* I'm sorry, but we have more girls that have brothers on the team, so we're going to practice the same time & place the football players practice. I did tell her I hoped to shorten practices in the future, if the girls have everything down solidly, and at that point we can start 30 min later, but not yet. She also had a concern about hair bows... :-P
Having a bigger squad is GREAT, b/c you don't HAVE to make as many concessions to individual people (there's too many to set that precedent) ...but you do get more individual opinions. :-P :-D It's no different than getting things rolling in any new leadership role; but I am a people-pleaser when it comes to those under my charge, so finding the balance is always a challenge.
Time to straighten my cheertator crown... ;-)
Edited tonight to add:
I've now heard from almost all of the new moms, and the rest actually sound more open and OK with the changes, so YAY!!! Y'all must've read this post & started praying for peace right away. :-) THANK YOU!!!
So this is how I'm feeling a little bit. :-P Yesterday was ALL cheer/football: I had my cheer coach recertification & coaches' meeting from 8:30 - 1. I spent all afternoon doing cheer recon, getting prices on accessories & making plans. Last night, we met with three other football families for dinner & a team mom meeting. I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!!! ...But it *IS* a lot of work. If you thought that first cheer email was long, the one I wrote yesterday would blow you away!
Part of that is b/c I had so much more info to share after my coaches' meeting. The other part is b/c my squad size just doubled! Yes, I SAID DOUBLED!!! This squad that I feared would have no more than 5 girls was already at 8...and now we are potentially at 16!!! SIXTEEN!!! Two new girls signed up this weekend (yay!), but the biggie is that another cheer squad of 6 girls didn't have enough football players to field their team, so the board of the league gave them to me.
I am thrilled to have a squad this huge!!! But right now, I am feeling a wee bit defensive. This other squad already had a coach, assistant coach, & team parent. Well, so do we. I'm taking their old head coach as my assistant (she & I seem very much on the same page :-) plus she's 15 weeks pg! she doesn't need to be running cheer at 8 months pg in Nov! :-P) and my team parent agreed to step down to let this other lady do it. I also told her other assistant coach that I would love whatever help she wants to give (with a big smiley face.) :-D So, see - I *am* being very accommodating!
...But this is still my show. And with a squad this big, there's no way to please everyone. No one on the new squad that folded into ours has a brother playing, so they all have tons of money & effort to pour into every cheer accessory available; I felt the need to let it be known up front that all of those things are optional for this squad. (Personalized this & that, etc.) Super cute stuff - I love it, too!!! But 5 cheer families have multiple kids in our league, and these extra costs mount up quickly. Example: before their squad folded, they all decided to get these $35 (on sale!) yoga-weight NFL jackets from Justice for their girls. They are cute, but not worth $35 (too plain) to me; more importantly, according to our league rules, they cannot cheer in them. They must wear only plain white leggings & a long-sleeved shirt under their uniforms when it gets cold. Yes, I know they all 6 bought these jackets, and they can wear them off the field together; but I'm not telling my other 10 girls they need to buy one, b/c I don't think it's worth it. [This is the defensiveness I'm feeling.] I don't want anyone to feel pressured to spend beyond their comfort zone, esp. b/c we *DO* have a number of required extraneous costs: cheer shoes, hair bows, pink poms in Oct for breast cancer awareness, several halftime dance props (no more than $5 each, but still.) I want these new people to feel welcomed, esp. b/c I know they're probably bummed their squad folded, and they don't get to do it all "their way" now (I know I'd feel like that), but I'm a little worried that finding perfect harmony may be a bit more difficult than I anticipated.
I don't want it to feel like a squad divided, you know? But I already got my first new complaint this afternoon about the practice time not being ideal. *Sigh* I'm sorry, but we have more girls that have brothers on the team, so we're going to practice the same time & place the football players practice. I did tell her I hoped to shorten practices in the future, if the girls have everything down solidly, and at that point we can start 30 min later, but not yet. She also had a concern about hair bows... :-P
Having a bigger squad is GREAT, b/c you don't HAVE to make as many concessions to individual people (there's too many to set that precedent) ...but you do get more individual opinions. :-P :-D It's no different than getting things rolling in any new leadership role; but I am a people-pleaser when it comes to those under my charge, so finding the balance is always a challenge.
Time to straighten my cheertator crown... ;-)
Edited tonight to add:
I've now heard from almost all of the new moms, and the rest actually sound more open and OK with the changes, so YAY!!! Y'all must've read this post & started praying for peace right away. :-) THANK YOU!!!
Sounds like you've done a great job accomodating everyone so far! I, too, am a people pleaser, but I think your passion for this will enable you to do a great job at meeting all the demands!
ReplyDeleteGreat job accomodating the newbies! Like you said, it's a challenge to want to meet the needs of everyone, and now that you have more kids/adults with different needs, that will become even more of a challenge. Definitely stick to your guns about keeping costs in line, and a schedule that works best for you. :)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're doing a great job! And it sounds like you're having fun which means that your girls will have fun, too. Isn't that what it's all about?!
ReplyDelete