All-Star Crazy Cheer Mom Question....

[cheermomforever]

My daughter does AllStar...LOVES it and has/will give up anything and everything (ie soccer, volleyball, plans with friends, trips, etc) to be able to do it.

I would like her to have an activity at school and suggested sideline cheer so she can have a group of girls at school as well as her beloved allstar cheer friends - next year is her first year in high school.

She is beyond against it. I don't get it. Says NO WAY and won't even try it.

The crazy cheer mom question - do I make her at least try a few practices in the summer? Or do I let her just not do it.

My daughter tried out for the cheer team last spring as a freshmen and at first practice decided it was not worth her time......she loves All Stars and just felt her whole heart would not be in it, plus it is hard on your body as spring floors are not used. She did volleyball instead and loved it, as it is a shorter season and something different. Her friends called her last week and begged her to come to tryouts for next year, but again she said no. I do not think it is a good idea to make her try it if she does not want to. She will make friends at school without it.

 

[mstealtoyou]

My oldest tried high school cheerleading when she was a freshman. She hated it and spent the whole football season worrying they were going to break her and she'd be no good for her allstar team. She tried as hard as she could to get enough demerits to get released from the team but it didn't do any good. She also refused to do anything more than a standing tuck. LOL That was the first and last year she tried out.

Middle never wanted to do school cheer either. It was expensive and they weren't good.

Little bit is home schooled so she just does allstars. But I wouldn't imagine that would be something she would enjoy.

I think the diving idea is a good one. Good LUck!

 

[mommy2mygirls]

My oldest tried high school cheerleading when she was a freshman. She hated it and spent the whole football season worrying they were going to break her and she'd be no good for her allstar team. She tried as hard as she could to get enough demerits to get released from the team but it didn't do any good. She also refused to do anything more than a standing tuck. LOL That was the first and last year she tried out.

Middle never wanted to do school cheer either. It was expensive and they weren't good.

Little bit is home schooled so she just does allstars. But I wouldn't imagine that would be something she would enjoy.

I think the diving idea is a good one. Good LUck!

I think worrying that she is going to get hurt and be no good for allstar is her concern as well... we shall see how dive goes, I signed her up for some classes to see what she thinks about it.

 

[cheerisloving]

As it has been stated high school is different depending where you are. My team has girls whose knowledge of cheer is from there few years on the team, videos ect. And honestly me. I am the only allstar in the group and while some view it as being a know it all, my coach recongizes it's expirence. These girls don't love cheer any less. And I'm closer to them then any of my competitive teams because I see them everyday during school.

Our football team sucks (think bring it on), but it's comp season so we focus on that and just make light of our 1-9 record. Basketball season is probably the better sport to cheer for because I get to tumble and its pretty impressive. I thought high school cheer would sucked but honestly ive met some great girls who love cheer as much as me. Doesn't matter where we've done it.

 

[WorkToWin]

I could go on and on about the reasons why I hated school cheer but I'll keep it short. My mom made me cheer for three years. Freshman through junior year. She said since she spent so much on all-star it would be a waste to not even use it for school. My school didn't stunt, tumble, or jump. To clarify, I mean not even preps or Round offs. Literally nothing. It was all clapping. School cheer caused a lot of time problems with all-star... Well I mean of course I never skipped all-star I would just leave the hs games early.

But it also caused a lot of problems with my mom. We fought about it constantly. It caused so much resentment. I'm an extremely stubborn person, and I was a brat, so whenever my mom was at the games I had to make sure she understood just how miserable I was so I would glare at her the whole time and make sure my motions were extra sloppy. (I'm sure your daugbter wouldn't be like that though).

 

[TheTalkedAboutMinor]

How about school dance team? Would she like that? That's what I might do.

 

[BlueAndGreenMom]

Mine is only middle school but loves sidelines! She is on Jr5 and is by far the most advanced on the MS team but she just loves the whole school spirit surrounding it. They do stunt and tumble- not much, but for her it is just a fun, relatively stress free activity! I hope she continues through HS with it!

 

[flcheermom]

I wouldn't force her to do it either, since she does all stars - she has that aspect. There are other school activities to get involved with. My daughter did school cheer freshman yr - did it with her friends, who are not all star cheerleaders - it was just ok...freshman could only make JV - so they cheered JV games, so not very exciting lol. She was the best one on the team skill wise, as she was the only all star cheerleader (she goes to a smaller hs) so then they expected her to "help" them with stunts etc but then didnt want her input on other things because she was not captain...so she got very frustrated....and then when they wanted to try certain things - she was like "um NO... not gonna do that and break my neck - and plus I have my all star team to think about - and I have to compete with them, so not doing anything remotely risky" so she clashed with the teacher/cheer coach.... and then tried again this year for JR year and made varsity but couldn't take the politics of the captains and the drama so she quit...and they were not good lol. There are HS teams that do have competitve teams and good sideline teams, so if that is the case then that MAY be worth trying - but if not I would not bother. I would try another activity. Mine also tried tennis team for awhile, never played a game lol because they only took the top 6 girls but she was proud of herself for trying something besides cheer and was still excercise and she met different people.

 

[BuegeSmalls]

I've been in school cheer all my life and I loved it. Does her school just cheer at games or do they compete too? My school competes and there have been many girls that have been on all stars and high school. High school cheer is good because you get the thrill of competitions (if you compete) and you get to cheer for your sports teams (not as fun if the sports teams are bad lol). Its a good way to make friends, especially because she is going to be a freshman. Its nice going into high school knowing some classmates already and some of the upperclassmen. The only down fall about high school cheer is that there tends to be more drama because ever sees each other throughout the day. But I've never had too much trouble with that on my team. Why not go for it?

 

[SparkleSpankies]

When I was in HS, All-Star wasn't an option, however, I loved to compete. My Parents just assumed I would have gone to the public school and instead to get everything out of cheer that I wanted I went to the Catholic school who was known for going to UCA Nationals each year, etc.

As a coach, I am going to tell you, I feel that at the end of the day, it's whatever is best for the kid, however, at times, while I love watching GOOD all-star teams, I completely despise what All-Star has done to HS cheer. People don't take it seriously anymore and All-Stars who are they cheering for, why is it cheerleading?

Now that I am done w/ my rant... do not force her to do what she doesn't want to do, it's not worth it for her, you, her coaches, her teammates, etc. However, as a mom I would say make sure she tries to do something at the school. A lot of the above suggestions were great!

 

[gymcatmomx2]

I tried it twice, once my freshman year, and then my junior year again when I switched schools.

From my experience, the thing I really hated about it is they really stress seniority. Doesn't matter how good you are, seniors will be in front. That frustrated me. Like, why am I even going to bother if the seniors will ALWAYS be in front of me. Our top girls were our captains, or captains were ALWAYS in front, and they were picked by the coach because they had been on the team the longest. It just got very frustrating to me and it was forever holding us back.

Obviously every team isn't like this. That's just what I've learned!

I can understand your frustration with the seniors always being in front and the captains/co-captions always being in front but unfortunately it's not just school cheer that conforms to seniority. Seniority plays a big part in your adult life. For years I was never able to take Christmas off when my kids were little because my co-worker had alot more seniority than I did (even though his kids were already grown!!). Seniority is just a part of life. I'm sure when girls become seniors they feel completely different about seniority then they did as underclassmen.

 

[AllstarObsession]

I can understand your frustration with the seniors always being in front and the captains/co-captions always being in front but unfortunately it's not just school cheer that conforms to seniority. Seniority plays a big part in your adult life. For years I was never able to take Christmas off when my kids were little because my co-worker had alot more seniority than I did (even though his kids were already grown!!). Seniority is just a part of life. I'm sure when girls become seniors they feel completely different about seniority then they did as underclassmen.

I totally get it. Its just frustrating to watch people be rewarded for slacking.

 

[pacheermama2]

my cp's do school cheer and allstars. They would give up school cheer for allstars but they are only 8 and 10 so I want them to keep it up for a few yrs because school cheer isn't much! They only cheer at a few football games and we just started competitions a couple of yrs ago.

 

[cheerheart4life]

I totally get it. Its just frustrating to watch people be rewarded for slacking.

Just remember that all the seniors spent their time in the back too!!

 

[NCCheerMama]

My CP did not cheer in Middle School bc I did not like the coach. She did start cheering her freshman year in high school on JV, then made Varsity in 10th grade. We see it important because cheering for sports, gives you skills that you will not get cheering for an All-Star team, especially if she is planning to cheer in college. Her school coach, just said in a meeting last week, that a lot of kids cheering in college have to learn to be "cheerleaders". I know my CP has the skills (tumbling, stunting) that are required to be on a college team, but she needed help on the skills of getting the crowd involved in the games, learning about the sports she cheered for etc, and just being more "spirited". Also, our school is very sports oriented, especially the football team so cheering at football games is amazing for her.
BTW, a guy on our coed team also was dive team captain at his high school-so that could be a good option. She needs to be happy with what she does, but in our experience cheering for high school has really rounded out who she is as an athlete.