FHSAA Competitive Cheer Advisory Panel Meeting Minutes Florida High School Athletic Association 1801 NW 80 th Blvd., Gainesville, FL. 32606 Tuesday, March 3, 2014 10:00 am I. Introduction and Purpose Kellie Doucette welcomed all members to the meeting and called the meeting to order. Members introduced themselves. Attendees included: Christina Bohler (Indian Rocks Christian), Cathy Brannon (Orange Park), Tanya Jones (Miramar), Gina Davis (Bay), Carolyn Shoemaker (Sebring), TiAnn Stark (Newberry), Kat Frisk (UCA), Kellie Doucette (FHSAA), Jamie Rohrer (FHSAA), and Meghan Accorsi (FHSAA Intern). II. Review Procedures, Agenda, and Expense Vouchers Ms. Doucette reminded everyone that they are here to help improve the state of the Competitive Cheer program for everyone in Florida and discussed that the meeting would be run using Robert s Rules of Order. The agenda was reviewed and everyone was told to fill out their travel expense vouchers. III. Selection of Chairperson Ms. Shoemaker made a motion to nominate Ms. Stark as the Chairperson and Ms. Brannon second the motion. The motion was approved 6-0.
IV. Review 2014 Minutes/Agenda for Adoption A motion to approve the minutes was made by Ms. Brannon and was second by Ms. Jones. The motion was approved 6-0. V. Review 2015 Competitive Cheerleading State Finals Ms. Doucette began by saying how she thought the finals were run well operationally and knows of minor changes that need to be made to improve for next year. The coaches were in agreement that it went very well and had no real complaints at this time. Both Ms. Davis and Ms. Shoemaker stated that their regions were run well. VI. Old Business a. New Advancement Rules i. The rule of being able to advance to states if you qualified at regionals was implemented. VII. New Business a. Action Items i. Scoring range sheet/scoring rubric: Bohler/Jones/Stark The recommendation is to create a scoring sheet rubric or range for the judges so that there would be less subjectivity in how the judges score routines. The motion to approve this recommendation was made by Ms. Brannon and was second by Ms. Jones. Discussion: Ms. Shoemaker expressed her concern that this would cause safety issues because coaches who are coaching to the rubric could be pushing kids to do what they are not ready to do. Ms. Stark advocated that this would help the judges and would provide more consistency, especially
because she feels that clean/sharp routines are not winning anymore. Ms. Frisk pointed out that there are guidelines for coaches on the website and Ms. Bohler suggested they go a step further and add a range that is not as specific as a rubric to the current guidelines for coaches. When called to a vote to approve, the motion failed 5-1. It was determined that this issue will be left up to the staff and the score sheets/guidelines will be reviewed. ii. Advancement at Regionals: Davis The recommendation is to have one team from 1A and one team from 2A advance straight to the state finals; however, a minimum score must be obtained to qualify. Motion Shoemaker, second Brannon. Discussion: Ms. Davis spoke about how she wants to be able to have her classifications set by regionals because coaches get upset when they do not know their class. This item was them tabled with a 6-0 vote to discuss later (Motion to table Shoemaker, 2 nd Davis). iii. Advancement from Regionals to State Finals: Jones The recommendation was to increase the score to move straight to finals. Motion to approve Jones, second Davis. Discussion: Ms. Jones wants to have the first place only advance and there needs to be an increase in the minimum raw score because the current score of 60 is too low. Ms. Davis stated that she feels that if there is no one competing in the division, you need to obtain a certain score to move right to states. Ms. Bohler felt that if you come in first you should always be able to advance straight to the finals. Ms. Frisk suggested that they keep it how it is now with the first 2 teams advancing but the raw score to advance needs to be increased. Ms. Doucette said she can average the
raw scores from this year to find an average raw score, which can then be the new minimum to move on. This was voted on and was approved 6-0. (Raw score average was determined to be 76.54, the panel felt this may be too significant a change and agreed that the minimum score to advance directly to finals would be 70 and will revisit next year to see about raising it to 75). iv. Advancement from Semis to Finals at States: Davis This recommendation was to have 1 team for every 3 teams advance at state instead of 1 team for every 4 teams. Motion to approve motion Davis, second Brannon. Discussion: This will increase the number of teams and give more people a chance to advance. Ms. Doucette pointed out that this will have the biggest impact on non-tumbling. The motion to table this recommendation was made by Ms. Jones and was second by Ms. Shoemaker. The vote was 6-0. v. Set Classification: Davis This recommendation is to have set classifications like the other high school sports in Florida. Motion Davis, second Brannon. Discussion: Ms. Doucette pointed out that this would lock them into a classification for 4 years like the other sports. Ms. Davis wants to see the classifications posted online before she has to choose which division she is competing in. The vote to approve a set classification was 0-6 so the motion failed. Ms. Doucette says she has a plan to continue to work on this and the staff will look at how to make this issue better without being locked into a class for 4 years. vi. Non-Tumbling divisions to mirror Tumbling: Jones This recommendation is to create additional divisions for non-tumbling to make the competition fairer because of the large number of teams that compete in
this division. Motion Jones, second Davis. Discussion: Ms. Doucette said financially we would like to keep it at 8 divisions (for the purpose of buying trophies). Ms. Davis and Ms. Shoemaker suggested eliminating the XL all-girl division and create a medium non-tumbling division. The idea of eliminating XL and adding a medium to non-tumbling was voted on and passed 5-1. vii. Tabled Items The tabled item of allowing 1 out of every 3 teams to advance instead of 1 out of every 4 teams to advance was now voted on and passed 6-0. The tabled item (action item #2) was revisited. It was decided that changing the divisions and the raw score was enough change for now. The vote to approve this motion failed 0-6. b. Discussion Items i. Regional plaques: Bohler It is the host s responsibility to purchase plaques and it is up to the regions to ii. State Logistics: Bohler do so. The trophy has to be specific as outlined by the FHSAA. Also Ms. Shoemaker commented on how she liked the old medals better. Ms. Frisk suggested having warmups be a full 8 minutes on the floor to do whatever you want. The panel was in favor of this idea. iii. FHSAA Judging Panel: Brannon Ms. Brannon suggested that the judges leave the table during certain routines to decrease bias. Mrs. Rohrer pointed out that it would be impossible to eliminate all the judges that people feel should be eliminated but that they do try to assign judges in a way where there will not be any bias. Ms. Stark spoke
about how she does not like having the same judges at state each year and that there should be different judges from semis to finals. Ms. Doucette and Ms. Frisk said to give those names of judges who are being biased or that are questionable so they can handle it. iv. State Entry List/Selected Division: Davis Ms. Doucette shared her idea for a new procedure regarding posting the schedule with the panel about having the ADs have their state entry lists in on time so that the regional schedules can be built by the first week after Thanksgiving. An email notification that the schedules are posted can be sent directly to the coaches and ADs and they can be given 24 hours to make sure schools were listed in the correct division. Ms. Davis says she would rather know her classification first so then she could pick a division in which she feels her team can be competitive. Ms. Doucette said that she can split the population to make 2 classes but it will be lopsided and can still change every year. v. Co-Ed Score Sheets: Davis There should be a section on the cheer score sheet for co-ed stunts. Everyone was in agreement. vi. Third Classification: Davis This item was already discussed. vii. Professional Photographers: Davis Seeking Smiles has the contract with the FHSAA and they have the first right to go and take pictures at regional competitions but if they refuse, a school can
choose who to use. Ms. Stark stated that she was not satisfied with the quality of the Seeking Smiles photos this year. viii. Changing time of States: Davis The states are at the same time as the girls districts for basketball. Ms. Doucette mentioned that the FHSAA will look at this at the end of the year when they review the calendar. ix. Allow video submission: Jones There is already the opportunity to submit videos for review, however; it is felt that people do not really know this. x. Spring Practice/Try-Out Clarification Ms. Stark thought that there was no real need for spring practice and that competitive cheer should be different from sideline cheer. It was pointed out that this is a Title IX issue and mirrors football so it will be left alone. VIII. Advisory Panel Structure a. Mr. Alex Ozuna came into the meeting to speak about restructuring this panel to mirror a committee structure. To do this, there will be a nomination and election process. We will start by first having a nomination and election for the seat being vacated by Kathy Brannon s retirement. Then, after the 2016 advisory panel meeting, all of those members who have been on the panel since 2010, their seats will be up for election. There will be 1 month for the nomination process and peers will select who they want to represent their section. Elections will be on a three year cycle. There will also be a FACA rep on this committee. IX. NFHS Spirit Rules a. These were sent out to everyone. The panel suggested more pictures and Ms. Doucette reminded everyone that the rule books are going to be online next year.
X. Sportsmanship Update a. Be mindful of what is posted on social media by coaches and athletes. Remind new coaches as well as athletes that they are representing themselves and their schools when they incorporate school logos and mascots in their social media postings. XI. Compliance and Eligibility Update a. There was nothing new to update the panel on. XII. Round Table Discussion a. Ms. Davis pointed out how she would like to have the deductions fixed so you are not getting points off under multiple categories. Ms. Doucette gave a recap of what the panel wanted to see happen: i. Split classifications before regionals based on the total number of teams committed to compete ii. Advancing the 1 st and 2 nd to semis if they have a raw score of 60 but they need to receive the new raw score (set by the averaging of raw scores form this year) to advance straight to finals. iii. The XL All-Girls division is eliminated and a medium non-tumbling division will be added. This caps the number of girls competing at 20 because that is as many as the large division allows. b. Ms. Frisk asked for opinions on having non-tumbling stunts be worth more on the scoring sheet and this was well received by the panel. XIII. Adjournment a. Motion to adjourn by Ms. Stark, second by Shoemaker, motion passed 6-0.