Fitch Cheerleaders Protest Losing Their Coach

Chanting, “Save Coach Brooke,” more than a dozen cheerleaders and parents held picket signs outside Fitch High School Friday to protest the decision not to reappoint the school’s cheerleading coach.

Brooke Myers, 25, a former cheerleader for Ledyard High School, served as Fitch’s assistant cheerleading coach for two years, then as head coach for the last two seasons. She led the team to the ECC Large Division championship in February.

On May 25, Myers said she was handed a letter stating that if she reapplied for her job, she would not be rehired.  

Fitch Principal Joseph Arcarese said Friday he could not discuss the decision because it is a personnel matter, but he said it had nothing to do with finances. Arcarese said Myers was one of a few coaches the school notified it would not reappoint.

The cheerleading position pays a stipend of about $2,000 for the season, which runs from September until about the end of March. Myers received $1,888 this past season and would have been eligible for an increase to $1,926 the coming school year. The stipend bumps up after the coach serves five years as head coach.

“I’ve been telling myself this has to be the reason,” said Myers, who works as a dental assistant in a orthodontics office. “Because what other reason could there be?. . . It’s depressing.”

Myers said her certification to coach cheerleading had lapsed and she was signed up to take a class in August to have it renewed before the season started. She said she heard from Interim Superintendent Randall Collins’ office this week and was told he would meet with her next week.

Collins said he would meet with her on Friday and offered to meet with her sooner in the week. He said students were outside the school on July 6 because administrators were inside interviewing coaches to replace her.

"Kids are always distraught when you change coaches, but kids are not always in a position to see the big picture," he said.

The cheerleaders and parents outside Fitch High School Friday said they don’t want to lose their coach.

“We look up to her,” said Olivia Pentell, 17. ”It just seems unfair to us, because she should be the last person this should happen to.”

“She knows all of us. She knows our talents and she cares about her team,” said Breanna Danley, 17, a cheerleader with Myers for three years. “Not just as her athletes. But as her family.”

Abbie Cravens, Breanna’s mother, said Myers is encouraging the girls to keep cheerleading.

“She wants them to continue cheering even if it’s not the (same) coach,” she said. “But it’s their decision.”