[Republican]

1st of all--the cheerleaders were being judged. They are required to do an opening cheer. In fact, the teams were given an extra 5 minutes of warm-up time to ensure that these opening cheers would not interfere with the boys' floor time. The cheerleaders were also held up out of respect to the Sheldon Clark girls who were still on the floor. Why would they be nice to one team and then be rude to another? I am sure they wanted to get out there and off the floor as soon as possible. It probably wouldn't have killed the LC boys to step aside for 60 seconds so the girls could perform all their stunts (which did not happen...one whole side of the cheer did not go up.)

2nd of all--the cheerleaders are not allowed to be on the floor AT ALL during introductions of the ball players. This was decided at a 57th district meeting. Lawrence County tumbled all the way down the floor during this time. This was a blatant disregard for the rules.

3rd--as far as hogging the floor, LC never attempted to do a floor cheer. Were they not being judged? MC sat down twice that I know of to give them an opportunity to take the floor. Then, they only did sidelines or chants. Since Magoffin WAS being judged, they wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to do all their floor cheers.

4th--I am not aware of any rude gestures that were made. That would certainly not be something a squad would do in a JUDGING situation! I know that their sponsor would never condone such behavior.

5th--of course, this is the district tournament...emotions run high. I think both teams did an excellent job. The game was so exciting and it was a shame that someone had to lose. Let's focus on the positive things and wish all the teams good luck, and not the little picky things that, in the long run, are secondary.