Letter to the Editor

I just read Byron de Arakal’s column (“Newport pep squad soap opera

deserves loud Bronx cheer,� Jan. 2). I am often disgusted, incensed or

uplifted by articles that are in the Pilot, but this is the first one

that I have felt compelled to refute.

De Arakal is obviously trying to make a point with his sarcasm about

the cheer squad tryouts this year, but he has only pointed out his own

jaded outlook of how teenagers should behave. He does not have to like

the girls that work very hard to achieve the level of expertise to “make�

the squad, but to belittle their efforts, as if their aspirations should

be shameful, and to name these girls by name is in itself shameful. They

are children.

The point that he failed to make and see is that the tryouts were not

conducted in a reasonably fair and impartial manner. The girls that did

not score high enough to make the team were in fact doing the required

routine, with required turns, leaps, jumps and toe touches.

Some of the girls that did score the highest did a dance that did not

include the more complicated steps of the routine that all the girls were

required to perform (so they could all be judged by the same criteria).

This is the same as saying that a person trying out for the football team

should be chosen because he was able to score more points in a scrimmage

but was only playing against three other players on defense while all the

other players trying out had to play against 11 players.

De Arakal has done the one thing that can demoralize our community

more than anything. He has trivialized our children’s lives by comparing

their problems to the tragedy of Sept. 11. By trying to make them look

silly for caring about being on a sports team, he has taken what most of

our community holds in high regard -- our children’s involvement in

sports -- and held it up to ridicule. This problem is not on the scale of

Sept. 11, but to these girls, it is important and to have their dreams

and aspirations mocked in the community newspaper is unforgivable.

I am ashamed of the parents that have objected to the cheer coach’s

decision to include all the girls that tried out for the squad. This is

the most logical resolution of the problem, and it is hard to believe

that a person -- a parent -- could be this uncaring about someone else’s

child. What difference could it possibly make to these parents or to

these girls that were chosen on an uneven playing field that their fellow

classmates might join them on the sidelines to root for their school?

I hope that if de Arakal ever has a child in the position that these

cheerleaders have been put in, his children will be granted a little

sympathy and a lot of empathy rather than being held up to ridicule.

Shame on you.

NANCY STERN

Newport Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Nancy Stern is the mother of two former Newport

Harbor cheerleaders, an honorary cheerleader for Newport Harbor and past

president of the cheer booster club.