MPA cheering committee explores time changes

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For years it’s been a given that if you’re going to attend a regional or state cheerleading competition, you’re going to sit. For a long time.

But the Maine Principals’ Association is exploring a number of options that would reduce the amount of time it takes to run the competition.

Brewer head coach Kristie Reed, who serves as the liaison from the Maine Cheerleading Coaches Association to the MPA’s cheering committee, said the two bodies are exploring a change that would have pre-competition warm-ups ongoing during the competition.

“So the only time you hit the main floor is when you actually perform,” Reed said. “That’s what makes it go faster. While you’re doing your warm-up time the competition is actually going on.”

That could lead to a reduction of about five minutes per team per classification. In the 19-team Eastern Maine Class A and statewide Class D groups for example, about 1 hour, 35 minutes would be saved.

Complaints from parents and coaches in part prompted the proposed changes.

Most of the complaints were about the regional competitions in which there are no callbacks and the top six teams advance based on one performance.

“You had people driving hours to sit through the whole thing, pay [the MPA-mandated admission of] $7 to watch their kids perform for three minutes, and there’s no callbacks,” Reed said. “We had parents in the building at 7 a.m. trying to get seats.”

Coaches viewed the long wait as a safety issue. Teams often sat for hours in between warming up hours before they performed.

“The coaches were saying, it’s so stupid for us to warm up and then two hours later be thrown on that mat,” Reed said. “It’s especially bad for tumbling. In practice you don’t make them just go out and tumble. You warm up first. You can practice it so they’re used that, but it’s still not the best situation.”

In previous years, teams arrive about two hours before the competition starts. Each team got about five minutes to practice and perform its three-minute routine on the main competition mat. The competition started when the warm-ups were finished.

The change would have teams warm up in a different area of the building from which the competition was being held.

In the case of the Bangor Auditorium, the teams would likely warm up in the so-called Elephant Room, a curtained-off area that is next to the concessions counters.

There could also be separate rooms for stretching and tumbling practice.

There might be time set aside for a music check for each team, Reed said, but teams wouldn’t get a chance to hear their whole mix. That’s because last year’s move to compact discs instead of cassette tapes eliminated most of the technological issues.

“It was a much better situation,” she said. “I think they were worried [CDs] would skip more but they haven’t.”

Good communications among officials would be key to getting teams to the main mat on time, Reed said.

Larry LaBrie, an MPA assistant executive director, said there has been no formal action taken yet on the changes because the cheerleading committee didn’t have a quorum for a vote at its most recent meeting this spring. The committee will take up the issue at its fall meeting.

If the cheerleading committee votes on the changes and if the MPA can make arrangements for all the necessary facilities, LaBrie added, the new schedule would go into effect for the 2006-07 season.

The coaches association will also discuss the proposed changes at its meeting in September.

The student-athletes seem willing to go along with whatever the rules are.

“They don’t complain,” she said with a smile. “They just do it.”

West field hockey all-stars win

The senior all-stars from Western Maine were the winners of Saturday’s Maine Field Hockey Coaches Association game at Colby College in Waterville, earning a 3-2 victory in overtime.

Leavitt of Turner’s Jessica Paladino scored the game-winner off a penalty corner during 7-on-7 sudden-death overtime play.

The West rallied twice in the second half to force overtime. John Bapst of Bangor’s Ashley Freeman gave the East a 1-0 halftime lead. St. Dominic of Auburn’s Elisha Dorso tied it up eight minutes into the second half.

Nicole Bombardi of Winslow put the East up again later in the period but Taryn Flagg of Livermore Falls scored the equalizer with four minutes left in regulation.

Lynsey Seymour of Gardiner and Chelsea Pettengill of South Portland were named the Players of the Game from the East and West, respectively.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.