Pep Team Tryouts Get Jeered

Pompoms have been exchanged for petitions. Pep practices have given way to protests. There are tears, not cheers as Newport Harbor High School’s cheerleaders battle it out in a Texas-sized fracas over yelling rights on the coastal campus.

At issue: Who among the 48 girls trying out for 30 slots actually deserves to be on the team? Or, as one school official suggested, should they all get a spot?

“This has gotten pretty nasty,” said Mike Johnston, a father of two cheerleaders who scored well in the tryouts and made the original team. “It’s tough to say, but when you have athletic contests or beauty contests, there are winners and losers. You don’t just give everybody a crown. This isn’t junior soccer.”

Ever since 1996, when the school district settled a lawsuit and paid a former cheerleader tens of thousands of dollars in damages after she didn’t make the team, Newport Harbor High has gone to unheard of lengths to ensure the fairness of the selection process. Auditions, conducted by a panel of five professional judges, are overseen by a certified public accountant and a representative from the League of Women Voters.

This time, even those safeguards didn’t work.

It started with tryouts on Nov. 29. Many girls had spent months preparing for the competition, even paying thousands of dollars for specialized dance and cheerleader coaching.

Some parents and the team’s faculty advisor say the selection process was executed beautifully. But other parents and the cheerleading coach say tryout judges didn’t use the right selection criteria.

As a result, the critics say, girls who flubbed the mandatory routine but improvised with smiles and panache were chosen over girls who made it through dizzying chains of pirouettes and twirls as required.

“I’ve never seen such inconsistencies,” said Lisa Callahan, a former professional cheerleader who has coached Newport Harbor High’s squad for the last 13 years. She said this is the first time she has questioned a tryout.

“My advisor thinks I’m doing this because I wanted certain girls on the team,” said Callahan, who is paid by the high school booster club and supervised by a faculty advisor. “But I just didn’t think it was fair what happened.”

Callahan--who attended the tryouts but does not have a vote--said she went to school officials to protest when she learned who was chosen.

When they heard about the alleged inconsistencies, a group of mothers of girls who had not made the team also rallied to the cause.

School officials tried to mediate the dispute, but to no avail. That their attempts to resolve matters haven’t helped seems to be the only thing parents on both sides can agree on. The principal has promised to make a final decision on the matter this week.

Faculty advisor Jennifer Cilderman insists that the tryout process was fair and believes the team should go forward with the judges’ choices.

“I want the integrity of the cheer program to be upheld,” said Cilderman, adding that improvising when you can’t do a certain step or movement is “just part of performing.”

Meanwhile, the ongoing furor is the talk of this upscale beach town, even during winter break. Girls who have studied dance together for years have stopped speaking. And as basketball season dawns, skirts and sweaters have yet to be ordered. The practice floor is empty. And no one can agree who rightfully can call herself a cheerleader.

When the controversy first erupted, Principal Michael Vossen responded by deciding that all who tried out could be on the squad. On Dec. 12, Vossen sent a letter to all cheerleaders and their parents in which he promised to address any inconsistencies in the tryout process in future years. He concluded: “I implore all of you to work cooperatively with us to ensure that these fine young ladies have a successful season.”

At first, that decision seemed OK with everyone. The girls who had not made the first cut were ecstatic.

“When I got the phone call, I started crying because I was so happy,” said junior Katie Stephens. Being a cheerleader, the 16-year-old added, “is something I have always wanted to do.”

All the girls practiced together for a week, flipping each other into the air as needed, and belting cheers, according to coach Callahan.

Then a group of parents whose daughters made the original cut lodged their own complaint with district officials. They noted that all parents and prospective pep squad members had vowed in writing to abide by the panel judges’ decisions.

“The rules are the rules,” said Johnston, who said his daughters support his actions but because the issue has become so explosive, he doesn’t want them to discuss it publicly. “I think it’s a horrible message to give to kids that if you don’t make the cut and if you scream loud enough, they’ll give you what you want.”

At the request of those parents, the district convened a special committee of top district brass. School officials suspended pep practices pending an investigation.

The committee decided that judging during the tryouts had been fair. It recommended that the original squad be restored, but that two more positions would be added to both the varsity and junior varsity teams. Additional tryouts would be held to determine who got the new spots.

Now, some of the girls who won the nod of the original judges disagree with that solution.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Ashlee Krol, a sophomore who made the varsity squad. She and some of the other cheerleaders who made the team are circulating a petition asking the principal to keep all the girls on the team.

“All of a sudden, they made this decision to put the girls on and they were all excited. And then a week later, they tell them they’re off,” said Krol, 15. “It’s like they’re playing with their heads.”

Krol said she and her friends have been stunned to watch parents and coaches fighting with administrators. Equally surprising, however, is that some cheerleaders, who are traditionally stalwart supporters of the status quo and guardians of school spirit, are openly defying the adults.

“It’s just weird how this is happening,” she said. “We’re fighting with the administration, and we just don’t do that.”

Just before the two-week holiday break, Vossen, the principal, held a meeting with the affected girls and their parents to tell them of the committee’s findings.

“The parents just went ballistic,” said Katie’s mother, Kim Stephens, herself a former baton twirler at Newport Harbor High School and past president of the cheer boosters. “They were not willing to accept the . . . answer. And they were not going to leave that place until there was a solution.”

The meeting went on for nearly three hours, participants said. Girls were crying. Accusations against administrators were flying. Finally, some of the girls implored the principal to consider their views, and perhaps put the matter to a vote of all the cheerleaders, some who attended said.

On Dec. 28, Vossen, who could not be reached for comment, responded in a written letter to all the girls who had tried out.

He told them to stop circulating their petitions. Instead, he told them, he would hold individual, confidential meetings with cheerleaders before making a final decision on Tuesday. Practice, he told them, will begin on Wednesday.

Jamie Castellanos, the district’s assistant superintendent of secondary education, said he hopes the matter can be resolved soon.

“This has gotten way out of hand,” he said. “I think the kids are working through it better than the parents. . . . It’s just grown out of control.”