Age Eligibility on Varsity?

[cheer4theRED]

My sister has been cheering for 2 years now, she's in 8th grade this year, 14 years old. The cheer program at our school is going down the drain faster than you can say "cheer". The jr high squad had 6 girls on it this football season and they never all showed up. My sister was the only one that was there all the time, and she cheers circles around the rest of the girls. The varisty coaches moved her up to JV for winter and i'm pretty positive she'll make the competition squad for varsity. She's getting a lot of crap for being moved up a year early but what i'm wondering is that one of the girls said it's illegal for her to be moved up so early. I've been trying to find the PIAA cheer rules on the internet and can't. Anyone have any idea if this is or not?

[bleedblue]

I honestly don't know but I don't think so. I mean.. Do you guys have ninth graders on your Varsity? I know we do... That means that she's around the age for girls that can be on Varsity so I don't see why not. You might want to try to check it out better, though.

[cheer4theRED]

yeah, we have freshmen through seniors. someone told me that the rule is that you can only do 4 years of a varsity sport, regardless of when those 4 years fall in your high school career (in this case making her ineligible her senior year). but they said there's no rule on age. i don't think the coaches wouldve moved her if it was illegal to.

[bleedblue]

I don't think so either. I mean, coaches usually know that kind of stuff... As for the four year rule, I don't think so. You can only be on varsity up until you are 18. I've never heard of a four year rule.

[once a runner]

I don't have an answer for your question, but don't assume the coach always knows the rules. A coach in another sport lost his coaching position because the coach allowed a jr. high kid to compete in a varsity competition. Even though Cheerleading is not listed as a sport on the PIAA website, I would check with your school A.D. and even call the PIAA directly to see if the rules of other PIAA sports apply to Cheerleading. It's better to make sure than to cost this girl a year of eligibility.

[Sports Fanatic]

freshman through seniors is wat we have

[Central Coach]

freshman is the lowest age u can go

[bleedblue]

Yeah that's what our school started doing. I still haven't a clue but... I'm sure that you aren't allowed to have anyone from 8th grade. That's just not rational anyways. How could an 8th grader be expected to do that?

[VAD1]

The 8th grade girl is permitted to participate on the Varsity squad and she will not lose any eligibility because that only applies to PIAA sports. Cheerleading is NOT a PIAA sport. Regardless of whether or not one belives it's a "sport" does not matter in this case. It only matters if it's a PIAA sanctioned-sport, which it's not. The PIAA does recognize Spirit squads, which follow the same guidelines of all other PIAA sports in regard to eligibility.

Unless your school lists your Cheer program as a Spirit squad, the girl is fine. The number of semesters of participation (you have 12 once you hit grade 7) only applies to PIAA sports. Same goes with the age question - you can be 20 years old and still compete on the cheer squad as long as you're enrolled in the school. This changes for PIAA sports, as you cannot have reached your 19th birthday until July 1st. If you turn 19 on June 30th, you are ineligible to participate the following year. However, if you are turn 19 on July 1st, you're good to go.

The girl's coaches did a good thing by rewarding her with some JV games. Shame on the other squad members for making her feel out of place... maybe they should be working harder.