Manchester Cheerleading Shakeup Causes Uproar

Manchester youth cheerleaders apparently have had little to cheer about in recent days.

Facing accusations of "mismanagement," the president and coach of the Manchester Hawks Youth Football and Cheer Program has resigned, and the program has lost control of its practice site, the Cheer Barn on Route 571.

Craig Karahuta, president of the N.J. American Youth Football Jersey Shore Conference, declined to elaborate on his "mismanagement" charge, but said a meeting will be held on the subject on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Manchester Township Municipal Building.

Karahuta also said it was a "township decision" to take away the Cheer Barn and that the program's former president, Renee Hourigan, "gave the keys" to the barn to the township.

He also said Hourigan resigned after she was suspended, pending a hearing, because of "mismanagement."

"Our intention is to fix the problem," Karahuta said.

Lori Kafka, a parent who is involved in the program, said other factors led to the program's changes.

Kafka said the controversy goes back months, stemming from the girls every-October decision to compete in Trenton to place in national competitions, she said.

"The parents and cheerleaders decided that going into a [recreation] program would be the way to go since this is what they love so much," she said. "A rec program would allow us to compete as much as we would like to. We all made this decision together."

Kafka said other factors involving the N.J. American Youth Football Jersey Shore Conference, and the leadership of the cheerleading, made the decision "easier."

"When we went to Florida in December, we were all disappointed on how dirty and unorganized the arena was," she said in an email to Patch. "I had the experience to go to nationals with my oldest daughter in 2005 when it was Pop Warner, and it was completely different. It was everything you would expect: clean, organized, vendors filled the sidelines."

She said the conference did not like the decision, and when Hourigan met with the conference's board, "they treated her with extreme disrespect."

Karahuta, however, said such claims are "an absolute lie" and that he never acted in a disrespectful manner.

"This is a web of lies being created to masquerade deeper and bigger issue(s)," he wrote in an email to Patch.

Some parents say many cheerleaders want to remain completely affiliated with the conference and not go to "rec." The meeting on Monday could address parents who do not want to go to rec and assess what their options are, some parents say.

Kafka, however, said she doesn't understand the decision to discontinue use of the Cheer Barn, saying: "Our parents and children have fund-raised for years to have that built."

"Our girls and boys have a competition coming up and now and they have no safe place to practice," she said.

She said the group plans to be at the Monday meeting and "our cheerleaders decided on their own, through texting each other, that they should write the mayor a letter asking for his help.

"Each and every girl wrote letters that we will drop off Monday morning. These kids grew to love each other like family," she said. "They all are extremely close and love the coaches so much. How does an organization that says they are for the children take something away that they love so much?"