Possible Cheerleading Cuts Announced

For freshman cheerleader Leah Pack, cheerleading is feeling like a part of something at school, and knowing that she is helping to pump up the crowd when games get intense. Ever since she heard talk of the sophomore squad being cut next year, she has been more nervous than ever for tryouts.  Now, the possibility of being cut from cheer is something that all freshman cheerleaders have in the back of their minds.

According to Principal Karl Krawitz,  because East is the only school in the district with a remaining sophomore squad, the possibility of eliminating it is quite likely.

“If I were probably thinking about where it would be, we’d be hard-pressed to continue it,” Krawitz said. “But we still have a lot of empty doors that are still wide open, and we don’t have any good information at this point to make that decision.”

Sophomore cheerleader Grace DeGoler enjoyed being on sophomore squad this year mainly because of her close friends on the squad. She also said the squad had great stunt groups, and they excelled specifically in that area. Despite her favorite parts, she agrees with the decision to cut the squad from the cheerleading program.

“I don’t [think it’s beneficial to have a sophomore squad] anymore just because all the other schools don’t have them,” DeGoler said. “We were the only ones so we got, like, jipped. I mean I still had fun, but I definitely think it’s smart [to cut it].”

Krawitz also said that the elimination of the sophomore squad is reasonable because of the limited amount of cheer time for the squad.

“[The sophomore squad cheers] at what would only be sophomore football games and sophomore basketball games, which generally are during days or evenings, which nobody usually attends.”

Cheerleading sponsor Kelly Chapman is a supporter of cutting the squad for several reasons:

“I think the discontinuance of the sophomore squad is a benefit to our program,” Chapman said. “It allows sophomore girls to cheer at more games. It allows our program to improve skills because we are able to perform more stunts with a larger squad. Our performances look better with more girls cheering.”

According to Chapman, though the sophomore squad will most likely be eliminated, the number of girls in the program will not be decreased.

In reality, the number of girls participating in cheer will not be cut, according to Chapman, only a squad title. For example, this year JV had 11 girls and Sophomore had 12 for a total of 23. Varsity had 22 girls and Freshman had 17. The new JV squad will have possibly between 18 and 22.

Within the next one to two weeks, there will be several meetings with district personnel for discussing other budget cuts for next year, and, according to Krawitz, the discussion of the remaining sophomore squad may come up.

“I think we’ll be between a rock and a hard place to be able to justify as to why we are retaining it, to which I really don’t have a solid answer to give them.” Krawitz said. “I guess it’s easy to say that it’s an opportunity for more people to be involved in more activities.”

Though the meetings are scheduled, there is still a good chance that there will be no discussion about the squad at all. Krawitz thinks that there will be an official decision no earlier than the end of this month.

“Percentage wise I would say it would be about 75% sure we aren’t going to have this next year.” Krawitz said. “I always hate something to go away that involves students. Unfortunately, every school in the state of Kansas is at crossroads.”

Though ending the sophomore cheer program at East is huge to some people, according to Dr. Krawitz, this is only a sneak peek as to what will come in the future.

“The day of when we face truly the music of public ed in the state of Kansas will be a year from now…We will see a crashing hull to a lot of elective programs, and this one little entity is small compared to the profound effect that could come,” Dr Krawitz said.