How to run cheer tryouts: a step-by-step guide for coaches

Most successful tryouts are won 3-4 weeks before the actual evaluation day. Lock the dates early, then work backwards:

• Week -4: Publish the tryout dates, age/grade requirements, and a signup form. Send to feeder schools, gyms, and your existing roster.
• Week -2: Close signups. Confirm judges. Send athletes the schedule, what to wear, and what to expect.
• Week -1: Run a clinic (1-2 sessions) where athletes learn the cheer, dance, and jump sequences they'll perform.
• Tryout day: Evaluate, score, deliberate. Notify athletes within 24-48 hours.

Tip: a public signup link with a per-tryout close date saves hours of texting back and forth - and gives parents one place to confirm their kid is registered.

The rubric is the single most important decision you'll make. It decides what kind of team you end up with. Pick 4-7 categories - more than that and judges can't keep up.

A solid starting rubric:

• Jumps - height, technique, and snap
• Motions - sharpness, placement, and timing
• Tumbling - skill level and execution (skip if non-tumbling)
• Cheer / voice - projection, confidence, words
• Dance - learning ability, performance quality
• Showmanship - facials, energy, "would I watch this kid on the floor"

Use a 1-10 or 1-5 scale per category. Write a one-sentence anchor for each score so every judge means the same thing by a "7." Decide ahead of time whether categories are weighted equally or whether (say) tumbling counts double.

Three judges is the sweet spot. It lets you drop the high and low score on each athlete (a standard fairness move), and gives you a tiebreaker. For tryouts over 40 athletes, consider 4-5 judges so you can rotate and keep eyes fresh.

Who makes a good judge:

• A coach or gym owner from outside your program (neutral and experienced)
• A former collegiate cheerleader or coach
• A teacher or admin who understands the school context (optional third)

Brief them the day before. Walk through the rubric, the anchors, and your sense of what "team material" looks like this year. Make sure they all score on the same device or sheet so you can compare apples to apples.

The day-of rhythm that works:

• 30 min before: Athletes check in, get their number, stretch.
• Warm-up: A short, full-group warm-up keeps nerves down.
• Evaluation: Athletes go in groups of 3-5, performing the material they learned at clinic. Judges score live.
• Individual standouts: Optional - one-at-a-time jumps or tumbling for athletes you need a closer look at.
• Stunting (optional): If you stunt at tryouts, run this last with pre-formed groups.

Keep parents out of the gym. Always. The single biggest improvement to tryout vibe is making it athlete-only space.

The math is the easy part if you set up the rubric right. For each athlete, take each judge's total, drop the highest and lowest (if you have 3+ judges), and average the rest. Rank athletes by final average.

Now the human part: look at the borderline group (the 3-5 athletes around your cutoff line) and ask: who fills a need? Bases vs flyers, returning leadership, grade-level balance. The rubric tells you who's most skilled; you decide who builds the best team.

If you want to skip the spreadsheets, this is exactly what Tryout Tracker automates - judges score on their phones, the math is live, and you see rankings update in real time. See how it works.

How you announce matters as much as who made it. The respectful flow:

• Notify every athlete privately first - in person, by phone, or via a private link.
• Only publish the public roster after every athlete has been told.
• Give cut athletes a one-page feedback summary: what they did well, what to work on, and when the next opportunity is.
• Never publish individual scores or judge names. Share placements and feedback, not raw numbers.

This single change - private notification before public posting - prevents 90% of tryout-day drama.