Topic: Sixth Grade Cheer Squad?

[stefwrites]

Wondering if sixth grade is too young for a school cheerleading squad?
Opinions?

Thx!

[J.Ro]

My high school students say "No - only rec league - you don't get to start cheering till 7th grade."

[TracyH]

Our elementary school had a cheer squad for a few years. They performed at a couple of Flag ceremonies (an every Friday event at our school). But it fizzled out. I think it fizzled because without a sport to cheer for, or competitions to work toward, they really didn't have a purpose and I think the kids lost interest. Other than competition squads which are independent from school, the high school is the only place for a cheer squad around here now.

But for the purposes of fiction - totally doable.

[stefwrites]

Thanks.  I also thought it was doable for fiction, but a few of my beta readers called me out on it.

[amberturner]

My elementary school had a cheer squad for soccer and basketball.

[christine]

Not in our area --  a lot of schools have eliminated things like cheer in grades lower than 9 to save money.

[MysteryRobin]

If 6th grade is middle school it makes even more sense to me.
It's totally believable, anyway, even if every school doesn't have one...

[TaliaVance]

There are definitely rec league cheer squads for football and soccer for sixth graders if the school doesn't have one.

[Kris K]

I think the existence of middle school cheer squads may be somewhat regional. I don't believe they're common in the Chicago-area where I live (I have a niece who's a high school cheerleader, but before then she did her cheering through a private program rather than her middle school), but I was doing research on schools in Oklahoma and recall coming across middle school cheer squads there.

[Tatumhart]

We had a cheer squad in 6th grade. Our football/cheerleaders were combined with a neighboring school. I guess that's one way to save money. That was in the 80's but I think they still do it now.

A local church has a program called Upward Cheer, and they can start in younger elementary there. But they cheer for the church flag football league, not a school.