This year, Izzy Coon is showing concern with the lower numbers of the competitive cheer team currently here at Chelsea. With only having 8 girls–plus 3 seniors leaving this year– the team is seeing some challenges with both the present and for the future of both sideline and competitive cheer.

“It seems like a lot of teams that have a lot of girls out there, they maybe had 15 or 20, maybe more,” Coon said. “But there are definitely a lot of teams that have a lot of girls out there, and we’re just a small team.”

Ever since 2021, the Competitive Cheer team has had fewer than 12 girls, with this year being the lowest in five years. This decline has created challenges for the team, particularly when it comes to the scores and stunts done in their competitions.

“With a small group, there isn’t as much stunting. But with [formations], if you do not have 10 people on the mat, then the team will get a 10-point penalty,” said Coon.

During competitions, teams get two different scores for their performances. A difficulty score and an execution score, adding those together are called the Raw score. Smaller teams tend to score less than other teams, due to the inability to hide errors and the struggle with creating complex choreography.

“You know, the 10-point penalty is a big penalty. Then other things, like if you move your feet too much when you’re not supposed to. You can get a point deduction every single time. Another one is if you walk with your arms, that’s like another 2.2 deduction,” said Coon.

The combination of a small team and the lack of complicated skills makes it difficult to compete against larger teams, like Dexter with 17 girls and Saline with 23. Other schools in the area are still able to compete with an even smaller team. Coon explains that teams, even in single digits, can still compete competitively with some of the bigger teams.

So when I was at Stockbridge, we actually only had four people on the mat. So being at Chelsea this is kind of a big change, but we could still compete at Stockbridge though,” said Coon.

Here at Chelsea, the number of girls who are on the sideline and competition team always remains relatively lower. As this participation continues, the stability of the cheer program could be in question. With this, Coon shares concern over the future of cheer at CHS.

“Not a lot of people already don’t like cheer, and it’s not very popular. We were thinking about what our sideline team is going to look like, and it is going to be very small if the people choose to continue cheering, both sideline and competitive.”