Our school is tiny. K-8, 55 kids. I couldn't get enough of them together for a competition team (too hard, season's too long, practices don't fit into the parents' schedules, other sports are more interesting this year etc.) I am not even sure if I can get anyone together for a b-ball sideline team either.

Given how small the population is there is no reason to expect 6 kids will change their minds next year and decide to cheer. And beyond that even if I had the kids, I have to share them with the other extra-curricular activities which means I am lucky to see all of them at the same practice on the same day. For that reason we were starting our season early in the year, because I knew we would come up short on practice hours any other way. Now the cheering association is getting stricter about not starting until mid-November. I don't see how I could decently train a team in stunts with one (maybe 2) practice a week let alone get them ready to compete by early February.

I can't even begin to tell you how sad I am about all this. I figured I might stop coaching when my own kids left for high school. I guess I just retired a littler earlier than expected.

Nuts.