Upset - to say the least!

I need to vent and since this blog is sort of like a journal of our lives I'm going to do it here. I can't believe that horrible people are able to get away with doing horrible things. The world feels very unfair right now and there is nothing we can do about it.

A little bit of background: after the Sugar Bowl the cheer coach at the U of U quit and the woman who coaches the dance team took over. She was only supposed to be a temporary fix but she ended up coaching the cheerleaders through the remainder of basketball season. This woman was always very rude and critical of the cheerleaders. She told them they were fat, they were not good enough and they had bad attitudes. All of that coming from a woman who has never been a cheerleader and doesn't know how hard it is to tumble and be thrown in the air.

A few weeks ago tryouts were held for the new cheer team. Only three girls from this years team decided to tryout: Elise, her roommate and one more girl. I watched all three days of tryouts because I wanted to see how all the girls looked. The three returning girls of course stood out because they have been doing this all year long and they knew the routines. To make a long story short this woman cut Elise and her roommate from the team. She also put girls on the team who didn't fulfill all the requirements and who fell multiple times during their tryout.

Needless to say we are livid. This woman did not base the tryout on talent; for whatever reason she has never liked these girls so she removed them from the team. The only returning girl who made the team is married to the assistant coach; doesn't that seem strange? We have gone through every avenue to fight this but no one in the athletics department will listen, or seems to care. It doesn't look there is anything we can do to get these girls back on the team and I can't believe this woman is going to get away with what she has done.

I can't believe this has happened. These girls have dedicated their lives to the university for the past year and now they have been treated like garbage. They are beautiful and talented and they have every right to be on that team. I never thought I would be ashamed and embarassed by the university I love, but that's exactly how I feel. The thought of cheering for the University of Utah right now is very hard and I never thought I would say that.