By J1 Reporter Maria McLeay

Field Day Cheer is one of the eight scoring categories for Field Day. The exciting routine is 3-5 minutes long and is created by the girls who make the team. Field Day Cheer is made up of 10% of each grade. Each girl much try out in order to make the team, which is followed by at least 40 hours of practice and preparation. In the past, there have been conflicts with girls trying to participate in both spring sports and Field Day Cheer.

In recent years the rule book has been changed where girls cannot play a spring sport while also participating in Field Day Cheer. On page 14 of the 2022 Field Day Rule Book the following rule is highlighted, meaning it is different from rule books in the past, The rule book states that “Students may not try out for cheerleading if they are involved in a spring sport. If this rule is violated the result will be a score of 0 for the cheer routine on Field Day.” 

Some students found this rule frustrating when they were in spring sports but wanted to also do Field Day Cheer. Junior Audrey Ehlers had a conflict arise when she wanted to do Field Day Cheer and participate in track this spring. Ehlers was on the track team and was also on the cross country team in the fall of previous years, but she ended up quitting track in order to do Field Day Cheer. Ehlers then wanted to be a team manager for the track team, so she could be able to practice with her team but that would not be fair to other athletes. Ehlers was frustrated as she did Field Day Cheer and was on the track team as a sophomore, but this year it would affect the scoring if the rule was broken. 

Sophomore Madison Terranova was on the Field Day Cheer team for the freshman last year, but is also on the track team. This year she wanted to do Field Day Cheer, but said, “I didn’t feel that Field Day Cheer was worth giving up a whole season of track.”

This rule was put into place after girls had gotten hurt during Field Day Cheer, and it consequently affected their spring sports. This was when the cheer team could still do tricks in the routine, but for the safety of athletes there are a lot of tricks that are restricted for the safety of the athletes. 

The athletic director, Ms. Rholfs said “Over the years, we have tried to leave it up to individual coaches to decide whether to allow FDC for their team and their sport. The results have included: sometimes it works, but it has more often included injuries that impact the whole team”. It was a lot of pressure on the coaches to have to say no to girls, Rholfs said “For coaches to have to continually decide if it works or not is a heavy burden – especially younger coaches that don’t understand Marian’s Field Day and work and effort involved.”

The rule was in place last year, but there was a miscommunication in the rule book and the scoring. Although this rule may be frustrating to many students it was set in place to ensure the safety of athletes.