While patiently waiting to see who will join them on the cheer team for their senior year, seven girls received word that their new coach cut them and denied them the chance to experience their senior year full of lasts with their friends while they play the sport they love; days after with little to no explanation, many are still wondering what happened. Here are a few of the girls’ takes on the situation. 

“Seven were cut which has never happened before, not even one senior has been cut before so we were obviously shocked,” junior Ava Coker said. 

Once the news got out that many of the seniors would not be returning, rumors started flying. One of the most popular theories is that the new coach, who taught middle school and coached many of the younger cheerleaders when they were students at Frontier Trail Middle School, favored the incoming sophomores and incoming freshman during tryouts and cut some of the seniors to make room for them on the teams. While many of the girls try to ignore it, Coker, one of the incoming seniors who quit the team, admits “something about the scores seems off.”

“It’s hard not to believe it when there’s so much pointing towards that, I don’t want to try and blame her or anything but it is very suspicious,” Coker said. 

Even before the cheer lists were finalized, the idea that the new cheerleaders from F.T. would take their spots was already on the girls’ minds. 

“This is a new coach who has come from the middle school and we’ve always been joking around that we have to be careful or the eighth graders are going to take our spots, those are her girls,” Coker said. 

A few girls, such as junior Emma Augustine, are trying to keep an open mind, though.

“There’s a lot that could’ve gone on but we don’t know what actually happened because none of us were in there,” Augustine said. 

Augustine does admit she is skeptical however. Staying positive is difficult for most with all of the uncertainty. 

“Personally I do [believe the rumors are true.] I definitely think there is something,” Augustine said. 

To try and quell the rumors, many of the girls have been instructed not to say anything and when asked about how she thinks the coach could’ve handled the situation better, Augustine said she “[didn’t] think she’s allowed to answer that.” This approach seems to make others, like Coker, more suspicious.

“I feel like they don’t want us to say anything because they know that something was wrong, but I don’t think anyone wants anyone to know about it,” Coker said. 

After going through the whole debacle, Augustine says she still feels a little disconnected from the new coach and believes she has good intentions. 

“She’s really never gotten to know us,” Augustine said. “I feel like she has good intentions with her team but not in the favor of everyone who has put in three years.”

For Coker, cheer isn’t about how friendly the coach is or any of the drama currently surrounding it, for her it has been about getting to hang out with her friends. 

“What I mainly liked about cheer was my friends and not having them would just not be the same,” Coker said.

It’s hard for many, like Augustine, at practices without those close relationships. Augustine admits that she doesn’t even want to participate anymore. 

“It’s not somewhere I want to be right now, if I have the choice to step out for the week then I will,” Augustine said. 

The loss of her friends is one of the main reasons Coker decided to end her highschool cheerleading career. 

“For senior year the whole point is to be with your seniors,” Coker said. “I can’t do that without them so I quit.” 

The ordeal following tryouts for next year’s cheer team has been difficult for many. An unfamiliar coach and a lack of friends for seniors to share their lasts with are a few of the reasons why girls like Augustine and Coker quit – or in Augutine’s case, considering quitting – in the first place. 

“It’s not fun to watch everyone get a senior year, especially in cheer because there’s so much stuff with seniority and senior activities,” Augustine said. “Like senior night for cheer and football, the lasts we are all going to do together and since everyone got cut it kind of ruined that.”