Whitman-Hanson Cheerleading

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Among school counseling another passion of mine is coaching cheerleading. I have coached at Whitman-Hanson for three years, and have been head coach for two of them. During my time I have coached the varsity team to 1 New England Champion title, 2 State Champion titles, 2 Silver medal State titles, 4 Regional titles, and 4 League titles. I also took the team to Dallas, Tx. where they placed 10th in the nation. I became a cheerleader at the age of two, and continued to cheer through graduate school. I have found a way to learn many life lessons and was able to grow into the person I am today. I want to be able to show other people how being a part of a cheerleading team can help them grow into responsible young adults, and help them find themselves.  

Not only did I foster hard work in my athletes, I also incorporated many other important areas. All of my student athletes had to maintain a –C or higher in order to stay off of academic probation throughout the season. Each week the cheerleaders would receive their updated grades and students missing more than three assignments in a class received a print out of all their assignments. School comes first, and I had many conversations with the team and individuals about the importance of getting good grades from freshmen year. One thing I found very successful was having the seniors talk to the team about school, grades, and what they are proud of and what they wish they had known as a freshmen. When the other team members listened to their peers it was very effective. This year with four freshmen on varsity they received the highest average GPA in many years.  

Another aspect I incorporated into my cheerleading team is community service and anti-bullying. Each week the members would get another teammate they had to watch during the week and help them with their goals. At the end of the week each team member would give positive feedback to their partner. This helped build a positive atmosphere, give motivation, and promote team work. This created a "family" type of bond, and helped the team reach new levels of success. Every summer the cheerleading team volunteered to cheer at the Shriners Childrens Burn Hospital All-Star football game, as well as raising money and donating it. They also donated non perishable goods every August to the local fire department. It was important to me for the cheerleading team to give back to the community which supports them. Community service is a great way to focus on real life experiences and teach life lessons.  

 

Even though I have a passion for coaching cheerleading, I also wanted to create a team that reached success not just at competition. I wanted to help all my athletes emotionally, educationally, and socially. I found this was very successful because of the many different approaches I took towards the team. I hope to someday use my experiences with another team.