An open letter to the community

To the members of the community:

As Newport Harbor cheerleaders, it has been very hard to get our

voices heard during the whole controversy that has been taking place at

our school. Most of us didn’t say a word and waited patiently for this

whole dilemma to end, even while our practices and games were postponed

for a month until the final decision was made regarding the squad sizes.

However, this situation has taken a turn for the worse, and

unfortunately we are affected by it greatly.

As many know, our coach, Lisa Kolby Callahan, was removed from her

position last month. Our vice principal and administrator informed us

that Lisa was never properly hired 13 years ago and that she didn’t have

the correct qualifications as a cheerleading coach (her tuberculosis

testing/Megan’s Law/ fingerprinting, etc. were not up to date). These

details can easily be fixed, but our administration is still not allowing

Ms. Callahan to resume her position as coach, for reasons that our

principal, Mike Vossen, states as “personal.” In our eyes, this is

incredibly unfair to everyone.

Lisa is not only a wonderful coach, but she is an amazing person all

around. She believes in every one of us and helps every cheerleader

perform to her full potential. Lisa spends countless hours practicing

with us and helping us perfect our dance technique.

But most importantly, Lisa spends time being our friend. Practice has

not been the same without her. It seems as if most of the energy is gone.

It was incredibly heartbreaking after dancing at a rally a couple of

weeks ago and not seeing our coach’s overjoyed face smiling back at us

after we nailed our routine. A couple of the girls were crying after we

danced, but those were not tears of joy, they were tears of sadness that

could not be held back any longer. It was almost as if something was

missing when we all looked forward and didn’t see Lisa’s “thumbs up” sign

showing us that we did OK.

We didn’t have anyone performing back with us at this rally. Lisa used

to cheer us on and each time she yelled, “Yeah!! That’s it!!” we got a

rush of energy that let us know we looked good. But not at this rally.

Lisa’s heart and soul were put into this job, and she loved each girl

with everything she had. How can a school take away a coach who had so

much passion for what she did? How can an administration take away an

adult figure who teenagers had so much trust and love for? Lisa was more

than just a coach to us, she was our friend, our mentor, our supporter.

She taught us so much, and we just don’t see how someone can take that

away from us.

All 34 of us may go to practice every day, but our hearts definitely

don’t follow.

As members of the community, we are asking for any help that we can

get to keep Lisa Callahan as coach of our squad. She made us the

first-place team that we are, and her job is irreplaceable. We’ve been

through enough as it is. Please don’t let someone take our coach away

from us.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Erin Blake, Kaylin Dierksmeyer, Nicole Foster, Ashlee Krol, Melissa

Liebengood, Bree Phillips, Brittany Richards, Savannah Romero and Tina

Yajhin -- Varsity Song 2002

Danielle Bossett, Madi Christchisen, Madelyn Lilo, Hillary Richonne,

Ashley Scholey, Nina Taylor and Kiki Watson -- JV Cheer 2002