All-Star An Article About Varsity Brands...

[KPep]

I hope it's not the last article on that matter. I hope some more will follow.

And it makes me wonder how bad it is on our side of the border.

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

It would not shock me to see gyms now adding clauses in their social media policies barring parents and athletes from saying anything negative about anything related to Varsity.

It would not shock me to see gyms enforce rules about negative comments towards Varsity better than rules about negative comments towards other teams/gyms/cheerleaders.

 

[tumbleyoda]

It's a sad day where we know what we know and yet have a hard time doing anything about it. What about that action list for USASF/Varsity? (AND I EVEN AUTOMATICALLY PUT THEM TOGETHER STILL BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THE TRUTH!)

Same thing it has always been...to try to take over the world....BWHAAAAA!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

The issue is that we have allowed them to have such a stranglehold that many don't see a feasible way to extricate themselves AND offer quality competitive opportunities for their athletes with meaningful end of year opportunities. I mean if you are not going to their comps, you are buying their uniforms, you are using their resources. Many are waiting on rebate checks to supplement what they are not making through gym programming. Programming that they took advice from them to implement in the first place.

This year there are numerous gyms offering competitions locally in an attempt to take back part of the market share. The overwhelming issues are how Varsity/USASF will respond if any of them are deemed a true threat and are gym owners sick and tired of it enough to say no to Varsity/USASF and yes to going back to competing in HS gyms, college gyms, and smaller older venues? No Worlds Bids, no Summit Bids. But returning to sport back to the athletes and parents and making it affordable once again?

 

[catlady]

I'm going to play devil's advocate....

We say we want safety and cheer to become a sport but, do we? Do you honestly think high schools are going to invest in spring floors, a place to store them and give up gym floor time for cheerleading? Do you think the school is going to be able to find qualified coaches with teaching degrees to take onto payroll, like they require in some states? If it becomes a sport the recording of injuries becomes more accurate. Do we want insurance companies to get good information? Catastrophic care insurance? If it becomes a sport, do you think the non-cheer leading taxpaying community is going to help justify its existence and cost? Just a threat of a law suit and it's done.

There was a comment earlier about Varsity charging extra to practice on safe surfaces. In their defense, spring floors cost money as well as the square footage they go on. BUT, Varsity also gets the opportunity to find out if parents are really willing to put their money where their mouth is to keep their kids safe. There lies the ugly truth. We can hate on Varsity all we want to but, how much do we look the other way when it comes to safety if it is going to cost us more money? I didn't see any World's parents running up and refusing to allow their kids to compete on the floor that everyone said was badly injuring kids but, everyone had plenty to say about it. We all say we are willing to pay for baseline concussion testing, we want sports trainers available at the gym, we want more security at venues to watch out for our kids, we want better screening and better qualifications for coaches.....On the other side of the mouth, this sport is putting me in the poor house. Yes, Varsity is responding and making choices to protect their interests.....BUT, don't think for a moment our resistance, or lack thereof, doesn't speak volumes.

 

[coachrah]

Same thing it has always been...to try to take over the world....BWHAAAAA!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

The issue is that we have allowed them to have such a stranglehold that many don't see a feasible way to extricate themselves AND offer quality competitive opportunities for their athletes with meaningful end of year opportunities. I mean if you are not going to their comps, you are buying their uniforms, you are using their resources. Many are waiting on rebate checks to supplement what they are not making through gym programming. Programming that they took advice from them to implement in the first place.

This year there are numerous gyms offering competitions locally in an attempt to take back part of the market share. The overwhelming issues are how Varsity/USASF will respond if any of them are deemed a true threat and are gym owners sick and tired of it enough to say no to Varsity/USASF and yes to going back to competing in HS gyms, college gyms, and smaller older venues? No Worlds Bids, no Summit Bids. But returning to sport back to the athletes and parents and making it affordable once again?

Post trial, college nationals was no longer meaningful for me as a coach. His testimony on what teams competed at NCA Nationals ...their skills...were minimized to mainly "crowd leading and dance"...I turned 50 shades of white during that portion of his testimony. The women I coach, that we all coach, who give their all to athletic excellence deserved the truth...the whole truth AND NOTHING but the truth!

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I'm going to play devil's advocate....

We say we want safety and cheer to become a sport but, do we? Do you honestly think high schools are going to invest in spring floors, a place to store them and give up gym floor time for cheerleading? Do you think the school is going to be able to find qualified coaches with teaching degrees to take onto payroll, like they require in some states? If it becomes a sport the recording of injuries becomes more accurate. Do we want insurance companies to get good information? Catastrophic care insurance? If it becomes a sport, do you think the non-cheer leading taxpaying community is going to help justify its existence and cost? Just a threat of a law suit and it's done.

There was a comment earlier about Varsity charging extra to practice on safe surfaces. In their defense, spring floors cost money as well as the square footage they go on. BUT, Varsity also gets the opportunity to find out if parents are really willing to put their money where their mouth is to keep their kids safe. There lies the ugly truth. We can hate on Varsity all we want to but, how much do we look the other way when it comes to safety if it is going to cost us more money? I didn't see any World's parents running up and refusing to allow their kids to compete on the floor that everyone said was badly injuring kids but, everyone had plenty to say about it. We all say we are willing to pay for baseline concussion testing, we want sports trainers available at the gym, we want more security at venues to watch out for our kids, we want better screening and better qualifications for coaches.....On the other side of the mouth, this sport is putting me in the poor house. Yes, Varsity is responding and making choices to protect their interests.....BUT, don't think for a moment our resistance, or lack thereof, doesn't speak volumes.

Well first off, I don't know that "we" want cheer to be a sport. Most people I know actually do not want that. I've never advocated for cheer to be a sport. My issue isn't varsity not wanting cheer to be a sort - it's their reasoning. (and my biggest issue is really just the monopoly they have. I never like monopolies, in any industry because it always hurts the consumer)

Second... The issue isn't that they charge to practice on safer surfaces. I think we all know that it would cost more to have that setup. The issue I have is that the rules actually say that practicing *must* be done on particular surfaces, yet at Worlds they are allowing the fields to be used for practicing (not just allowing but actually setting it up that way). So I don't need to put my money where my mouth is... They do. I'm not the one making rules and then making set-ups and competitions that directly violate them. If you're not supposed to practice on fields or pavement, then stop allowing it at your events.

(and really, it's not parents that make that decision, so it wouldn't show them I'M willing to put my money where my mouth is - it'd be the gym putting my money where THEIR mouth is. We all know gyms are happy to do that, as they've been doing it since day one)

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[East78]

So surprising that gyms from all over be country had to hurry up and tweet thier we choose varsity support. It's almost like they were afraid if they didn't it would be held against them...I'm sure Varsity wouldn't do anything crazy like that

 

[Ashley]

I'm going to play devil's advocate....

We say we want safety and cheer to become a sport but, do we? Do you honestly think high schools are going to invest in spring floors, a place to store them and give up gym floor time for cheerleading? Do you think the school is going to be able to find qualified coaches with teaching degrees to take onto payroll, like they require in some states? If it becomes a sport the recording of injuries becomes more accurate. Do we want insurance companies to get good information? Catastrophic care insurance? If it becomes a sport, do you think the non-cheer leading taxpaying community is going to help justify its existence and cost? Just a threat of a law suit and it's done.

Well not all of that is synonymous with becoming a sport. A&T has (in the past) been treated as just as much of a sport at the colleges as any other and they don't compete on a spring floor. Requiring coaches to be teachers is a thing that doesn't make sense anyway for any sport, and cheerleading as an activity runs just as much the risk of that happening (how many clubs at schools are run by outsiders?) And whether cheerleading is a sport or not it still costs money to run. When I was in high school, my school system charged athletic fees to do a sport (and that included cheerleading, though we were just a "sport"). It wasn't free.

I don't think cheer being a sport magically solves all of our problems, but I feel like some of your arguments here are not exclusive to that categorization.

 

[Ashley]

So surprising that gyms from all over be country had to hurry up and tweet thier we choose varsity support. It's almost like they were afraid if they didn't it would be held against them...I'm sure Varsity wouldn't do anything crazy like that

It's disguisting. I'm so over it. Varsity is acting like they're David getting picked on by a huge Goliath - and gyms are going along with it! Varsity is not a tiny little company getting targeted unfairly. They ARE the Goliath. They're a billion dollar company that has fought against anything that threatens the monopoly they hold on the market.

 

[AndyT_T]

The issue is no one says what the rate of injury is. Just the numbers of reported injuries. The rate is more important than the number.


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Not being an official sport where injury reporting is mandatory and a trainer is always present makes it pretty difficult to accurately portray the rate of injury though.

 

[GreatWhite92]

I thought grass was considered a "safe" surface in terms of the definition? Don't all college teams cheer on grass? And do college level stunts and pyramids on grass? Maybe I'm just not getting the outrage over practicing on grass when school teams perform there all the time because it's considered "safe" to do stunts on in the rules. Now concrete would be a different story.


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[AndyT_T]

I'm going to play devil's advocate....

We say we want safety and cheer to become a sport but, do we? Do you honestly think high schools are going to invest in spring floors, a place to store them and give up gym floor time for cheerleading?

I hate this argument, neither my high school nor college had a pool but both had a very competitive swim and dive team for both boys and girls. The school didn't invest in a pool, they rented time using someone else's.
There's a cheer gym or gymnastics gym in every town, requiring a school to rent time in a gym isn't unheard of and it's not that big of a deal.

I would rather sacrifice a few programs in really small towns where there isn't a gym to use (or having them ground bound) in order to get spring floors for the entire industry.

 

[randomactsofcheer]

I'm going to play devil's advocate....

We say we want safety and cheer to become a sport but, do we? Do you honestly think high schools are going to invest in spring floors, a place to store them and give up gym floor time for cheerleading? Do you think the school is going to be able to find qualified coaches with teaching degrees to take onto payroll, like they require in some states? If it becomes a sport the recording of injuries becomes more accurate. Do we want insurance companies to get good information? Catastrophic care insurance? If it becomes a sport, do you think the non-cheer leading taxpaying community is going to help justify its existence and cost? Just a threat of a law suit and it's done.

There was a comment earlier about Varsity charging extra to practice on safe surfaces. In their defense, spring floors cost money as well as the square footage they go on. BUT, Varsity also gets the opportunity to find out if parents are really willing to put their money where their mouth is to keep their kids safe. There lies the ugly truth. We can hate on Varsity all we want to but, how much do we look the other way when it comes to safety if it is going to cost us more money? I didn't see any World's parents running up and refusing to allow their kids to compete on the floor that everyone said was badly injuring kids but, everyone had plenty to say about it. We all say we are willing to pay for baseline concussion testing, we want sports trainers available at the gym, we want more security at venues to watch out for our kids, we want better screening and better qualifications for coaches.....On the other side of the mouth, this sport is putting me in the poor house. Yes, Varsity is responding and making choices to protect their interests.....BUT, don't think for a moment our resistance, or lack thereof, doesn't speak volumes.

I am going to separate this into an all-star then high school response. There is no question in my mind that all-star cheer is a sport. I don't know of many people that wouldn't consider it a sport. Because all-star cheer is a private/club sport, an official designation as such doesn't hold the meaning that it does for high school cheer. Parents who have a child on an all-star team already pay immense amounts of money to have their child participate in this sport. Let's face it, this sport has already priced out those who can't afford it. There are very few gyms that can afford to give scholarships or tuition discounts to more than one or 2 kids. Therefore, if your child is desperate to cheer (outside of school) and you cannot afford all-star, your child is most likely on a rec team. I already pay $1,000's of dollars for CP to participate in this sport, I won't blink at a extra couple hundred if it means an improvement in safety (not extra padding in the Varsity wallet).

Safety regulations require teams to practice on certain surfaces. This rule is disregarded at Worlds not only by coaches and athletes, but by the official sanctioning body of the event. I have never been to Worlds, but it sounds like teams are actually encouraged to practice on the fields if their team doesn't pay for the practice floor. As far as the competition floor goes, I don't think people figured out there was something wrong with the floor until after there were several injuries. I probably wouldn't notice if a team competed on a floor with an entire panel missing before CP's team.

So what are my options for resistance? Moving gyms only means I am sucking from the same Varsity power teet in a different uniform. Pull my kid from the sport? I have a feeling that the only person who will feel that punishment is CP.

There are no other options within this sport. Varsity has a monopoly on cheerleading.

As far as high school cheer goes: I am not okay with looking the other way when it comes to safety. Safety costs money. To say we shouldn't designate cheer as a sport because it will cost more money to implement safety standards sounds ridiculous to me, no matter who makes the argument. Even without the official "sport" designation, safety standards need to be raised for high school cheerleading. Yes, designating cheer as a sport will cost schools more money. Some schools will not be able to afford to have a competition cheer team and will have to "ground" their teams to just sideline cheerleading. And that is okay.

 

[Keep_Believing]

Apologize, have not read the whole thread. I do have a question if cheer becomes an official sport will kids still be allowed to cheer for school and all star cheer teams? I have heard rumors kids will have to pick one or the other, but don't know if this is true.

 

[Ashley]

I thought grass was considered a "safe" surface in terms of the definition? Don't all college teams cheer on grass? And do college level stunts and pyramids on grass? Maybe I'm just not getting the outrage over practicing on grass when school teams perform there all the time because it's considered "safe" to do stunts on in the rules. Now concrete would be a different story.


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And they *don't* allow you to stunt on concrete. We got yelled at at worlds even though the grass was wet with dew and was thus probably less safe than the dozen spotters we had around us.

Plus, not too many competitions offer any sort of practice space, free or not. Is the practice time free at Cheersport? Who else offers it?

I'm not really going to hold this one against them, personally. You could get an hour free and gyms would still practice on the grass at all-star or WWOS

Apologize, have not read the whole thread. I do have a question if cheer becomes an official sport will kids still be allowed to cheer for school and all star cheer teams? I have heard rumors kids will have to pick one or the other, but don't know if this is true.

There's no national rule about this as far as I know. Some states already don't let school cheerleaders do all-stars. But plenty of other sports have club/travel versions where the athletes are probably doing both.