All-Star Disqualifying Cheaters

[Cheer Dad]

Well....28+ pages later, my theory is confirmed:

The all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

Now, before I get labeled as a "newbie" or a "hater," please be aware, I've been involved in cheerleading for 20 years. I cheered at my high school, college, and, as an adult, the international division at Worlds. I've done choreography for teams who have won many competitions. I have taught tumbling and stunting to kids who have gone on to cheer on the best college cheer programs in the country. Cheerleading has been one of the most important things in my life for most of the years I've spent on this Earth. I hate to say it, but the all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

It started with "everyone gets a trophy." In youth sports, there is generally only one national champion crowned in any given age group by any specific organization. In all star cheerleading, many cheerleaders are national champions many times over in a single year. There's still only one "national championship" that's given any recognition in high school cheerleading. If a high school "wins nationals" from any other competition, anyone within the cheerleading world knows that championship was a joke. In all star cheerleading every cheerleader flaunts their national championship from every competition. Whether they competed in a division of 20 teams or a division of one is inconsequential, the "cheer princess" wears her jacket everywhere and just keeps it hush hush when she was on the only team in her division. Sometimes, she wears three different jackets, on three different days, that all look exactly alike, because she won three different competitions in three consecutive months, from the same competition company.

I thought it would improve when USASF came along and World's started. I was wrong. It was just a few years later, and we were given: World's, Final Destination, the Summit, All Levels Championship....help me out here if you know any more. Then we changed World's from being a competition where you really had to "bring it" to get a bid, to one where anyone could chase a bid down, regardless of their actual skill level, it was a matter of finding the right bid event.

Then, as if we weren't already exploiting these young people enough, we created the Majors, and the term "cheerlebrity." I know one kid specifically who claims "cheerlebrity" status and can't even do a backhandspring. She has no talent or skills, she's a pretty face that knows how to use Instagram to stir up attention for herself. These other kids are enamored with these kids who should be their peers not their idols, and the industry loves it because bringing these kids to the Majors creates more jingle in the change jar.

Where do gym owners and parents come in? They endorse all of this behavior by playing into it. Gym owners/coaches do anything they can possibly do to "hit the grid" for a level five team, often encouraging athletes to work on skills they have no business working on. Parents attend practices and scream at their kids to try skills that are dangerously above their skill level because "if you don't make level 5 next year, I'm not spending all this money." Both, apparently, are guilty of altering birth certificates and/or pulling kids to compete on a team for which they are ineligible. They do this, because in the world of all star cheerleading, no one should ever have to take their lumps and lose a competition or two. Every team should always win, and everyone should go home with a jacket, because without winning their is no success. The industry has completely lost site of the lessons these young people can learn from a successful performance, with skills they have confidence in, but maybe fell just short of the team ahead of them. No, it's better to be a trainwreck on a level 5 team, and have that level 5 label, than to be able to walk out on the mat with confidence and pride in your level 4 skills. Shame on all of the adults. You're developing divas who will never be able to take their lumps in the real world. Cheerleading doesn't last forever.

You are still a newbie to the boards. Your experience in the industry, as extensive as it is, is irrelevant.

Welcome.


**Whenever I see someone YELLING on the boards I imagine it is pink font**

 

[Official OWECheer]

Well....28+ pages later, my theory is confirmed:

The all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

Now, before I get labeled as a "newbie" or a "hater," please be aware, I've been involved in cheerleading for 20 years. I cheered at my high school, college, and, as an adult, the international division at Worlds. I've done choreography for teams who have won many competitions. I have taught tumbling and stunting to kids who have gone on to cheer on the best college cheer programs in the country. Cheerleading has been one of the most important things in my life for most of the years I've spent on this Earth. I hate to say it, but the all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

It started with "everyone gets a trophy." In youth sports, there is generally only one national champion crowned in any given age group by any specific organization. In all star cheerleading, many cheerleaders are national champions many times over in a single year. There's still only one "national championship" that's given any recognition in high school cheerleading. If a high school "wins nationals" from any other competition, anyone within the cheerleading world knows that championship was a joke. In all star cheerleading every cheerleader flaunts their national championship from every competition. Whether they competed in a division of 20 teams or a division of one is inconsequential, the "cheer princess" wears her jacket everywhere and just keeps it hush hush when she was on the only team in her division. Sometimes, she wears three different jackets, on three different days, that all look exactly alike, because she won three different competitions in three consecutive months, from the same competition company.

I thought it would improve when USASF came along and World's started. I was wrong. It was just a few years later, and we were given: World's, Final Destination, the Summit, All Levels Championship....help me out here if you know any more. Then we changed World's from being a competition where you really had to "bring it" to get a bid, to one where anyone could chase a bid down, regardless of their actual skill level, it was a matter of finding the right bid event.

Then, as if we weren't already exploiting these young people enough, we created the Majors, and the term "cheerlebrity." I know one kid specifically who claims "cheerlebrity" status and can't even do a backhandspring. She has no talent or skills, she's a pretty face that knows how to use Instagram to stir up attention for herself. These other kids are enamored with these kids who should be their peers not their idols, and the industry loves it because bringing these kids to the Majors creates more jingle in the change jar.

Where do gym owners and parents come in? They endorse all of this behavior by playing into it. Gym owners/coaches do anything they can possibly do to "hit the grid" for a level five team, often encouraging athletes to work on skills they have no business working on. Parents attend practices and scream at their kids to try skills that are dangerously above their skill level because "if you don't make level 5 next year, I'm not spending all this money." Both, apparently, are guilty of altering birth certificates and/or pulling kids to compete on a team for which they are ineligible. They do this, because in the world of all star cheerleading, no one should ever have to take their lumps and lose a competition or two. Every team should always win, and everyone should go home with a jacket, because without winning their is no success. The industry has completely lost site of the lessons these young people can learn from a successful performance, with skills they have confidence in, but maybe fell just short of the team ahead of them. No, it's better to be a trainwreck on a level 5 team, and have that level 5 label, than to be able to walk out on the mat with confidence and pride in your level 4 skills. Shame on all of the adults. You're developing divas who will never be able to take their lumps in the real world. Cheerleading doesn't last forever.

Let's not act like there aren't problems in high school cheer. It may not have some of the issues that all-star does, but it is far from perfect.

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

Well....28+ pages later, my theory is confirmed:

The all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

Now, before I get labeled as a "newbie" or a "hater," please be aware, I've been involved in cheerleading for 20 years. I cheered at my high school, college, and, as an adult, the international division at Worlds. I've done choreography for teams who have won many competitions. I have taught tumbling and stunting to kids who have gone on to cheer on the best college cheer programs in the country. Cheerleading has been one of the most important things in my life for most of the years I've spent on this Earth. I hate to say it, but the all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

It started with "everyone gets a trophy." In youth sports, there is generally only one national champion crowned in any given age group by any specific organization. In all star cheerleading, many cheerleaders are national champions many times over in a single year. There's still only one "national championship" that's given any recognition in high school cheerleading. If a high school "wins nationals" from any other competition, anyone within the cheerleading world knows that championship was a joke. In all star cheerleading every cheerleader flaunts their national championship from every competition. Whether they competed in a division of 20 teams or a division of one is inconsequential, the "cheer princess" wears her jacket everywhere and just keeps it hush hush when she was on the only team in her division. Sometimes, she wears three different jackets, on three different days, that all look exactly alike, because she won three different competitions in three consecutive months, from the same competition company.

I thought it would improve when USASF came along and World's started. I was wrong. It was just a few years later, and we were given: World's, Final Destination, the Summit, All Levels Championship....help me out here if you know any more. Then we changed World's from being a competition where you really had to "bring it" to get a bid, to one where anyone could chase a bid down, regardless of their actual skill level, it was a matter of finding the right bid event.

Then, as if we weren't already exploiting these young people enough, we created the Majors, and the term "cheerlebrity." I know one kid specifically who claims "cheerlebrity" status and can't even do a backhandspring. She has no talent or skills, she's a pretty face that knows how to use Instagram to stir up attention for herself. These other kids are enamored with these kids who should be their peers not their idols, and the industry loves it because bringing these kids to the Majors creates more jingle in the change jar.

Where do gym owners and parents come in? They endorse all of this behavior by playing into it. Gym owners/coaches do anything they can possibly do to "hit the grid" for a level five team, often encouraging athletes to work on skills they have no business working on. Parents attend practices and scream at their kids to try skills that are dangerously above their skill level because "if you don't make level 5 next year, I'm not spending all this money." Both, apparently, are guilty of altering birth certificates and/or pulling kids to compete on a team for which they are ineligible. They do this, because in the world of all star cheerleading, no one should ever have to take their lumps and lose a competition or two. Every team should always win, and everyone should go home with a jacket, because without winning their is no success. The industry has completely lost site of the lessons these young people can learn from a successful performance, with skills they have confidence in, but maybe fell just short of the team ahead of them. No, it's better to be a trainwreck on a level 5 team, and have that level 5 label, than to be able to walk out on the mat with confidence and pride in your level 4 skills. Shame on all of the adults. You're developing divas who will never be able to take their lumps in the real world. Cheerleading doesn't last forever.

Stuff like this happens in all youth sports, not just cheer. And things happen in the professional working world that parallel situations like the ones you mentioned. And in like all areas of life. So I guess everything is a joke.

Wah wah wah life isn't what you want it to be.

ETA: The snark is strong at 8am on this Sunday morn. I realize this, I do.

 

[dawgshow]

@OldskoolKYcheercoach if it were a joke, then people wouldn't get upset when a few gyms out of the hundreds, if not thousands, of gyms in the country do these things. The anger shown by so many tells me that this behavior isn't the norm.

I still don't understand why people get upset that for-profit companies try to make money. That one always makes me shake my head.

 

[Beans100]

Well....28+ pages later, my theory is confirmed:

You're developing divas who will never be able to take their lumps in the real world. Cheerleading doesn't last forever.

Uhm ouch. You're right, you can't be on a cheer team forever. But, the lessons I've learned from cheerleading will last forever. I'm a different person because I did all star cheer. For a lot of people, cheer is not a 1 and done type thing. And, I've taken these lessons into the real world. So what, I'm 22, but I go to school full time, work full time, have a part-time internship and pay my bills while living 2000 miles from my family.

There are crazy people in every sport, even high school cheer... Obviously we are going to hear more about the crazies because they are fun to talk about! But, it's not like every gym out there in corrupt and encouraging all these lies. We, as a cheer community, would not be pissed off if we all thought it was okay.

And, yea, it's pretty obvious that all gyms encourage athletes to just chuck whatever skills. Watching Worlds totally confirms that theory.

 

[catlady]

@OldskoolKYcheercoach you are comparing apples to oranges. There is a huge difference between comparing AS which is saturated in some areas of the Nation and ghost towns in others. With HS cheer, you have competition at local, region and state level. Based on the Cheer gyms listed in Wiki, there is one AS gym in Vermont and very few in others. Many gyms and parents can't afford to go to what we consider the big Nationals. With that said, many HS's don't go to that single National you are referring to because, they are only allowed to go to State. So, even in the HS world of sports, you still don't really know who that "National" champ is.

What you can compare, are there are some great comps, along with some great AS and HS programs, others stink and are poorly run, full of drama and politics.

 

[Cheergurl]

Well....28+ pages later, my theory is confirmed:

The all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

Now, before I get labeled as a "newbie" or a "hater," please be aware, I've been involved in cheerleading for 20 years. I cheered at my high school, college, and, as an adult, the international division at Worlds. I've done choreography for teams who have won many competitions. I have taught tumbling and stunting to kids who have gone on to cheer on the best college cheer programs in the country. Cheerleading has been one of the most important things in my life for most of the years I've spent on this Earth. I hate to say it, but the all star cheerleading industry is a complete joke.

It started with "everyone gets a trophy." In youth sports, there is generally only one national champion crowned in any given age group by any specific organization. In all star cheerleading, many cheerleaders are national champions many times over in a single year. There's still only one "national championship" that's given any recognition in high school cheerleading. If a high school "wins nationals" from any other competition, anyone within the cheerleading world knows that championship was a joke. In all star cheerleading every cheerleader flaunts their national championship from every competition. Whether they competed in a division of 20 teams or a division of one is inconsequential, the "cheer princess" wears her jacket everywhere and just keeps it hush hush when she was on the only team in her division. Sometimes, she wears three different jackets, on three different days, that all look exactly alike, because she won three different competitions in three consecutive months, from the same competition company.

I thought it would improve when USASF came along and World's started. I was wrong. It was just a few years later, and we were given: World's, Final Destination, the Summit, All Levels Championship....help me out here if you know any more. Then we changed World's from being a competition where you really had to "bring it" to get a bid, to one where anyone could chase a bid down, regardless of their actual skill level, it was a matter of finding the right bid event.

Then, as if we weren't already exploiting these young people enough, we created the Majors, and the term "cheerlebrity." I know one kid specifically who claims "cheerlebrity" status and can't even do a backhandspring. She has no talent or skills, she's a pretty face that knows how to use Instagram to stir up attention for herself. These other kids are enamored with these kids who should be their peers not their idols, and the industry loves it because bringing these kids to the Majors creates more jingle in the change jar.

Where do gym owners and parents come in? They endorse all of this behavior by playing into it. Gym owners/coaches do anything they can possibly do to "hit the grid" for a level five team, often encouraging athletes to work on skills they have no business working on. Parents attend practices and scream at their kids to try skills that are dangerously above their skill level because "if you don't make level 5 next year, I'm not spending all this money." Both, apparently, are guilty of altering birth certificates and/or pulling kids to compete on a team for which they are ineligible. They do this, because in the world of all star cheerleading, no one should ever have to take their lumps and lose a competition or two. Every team should always win, and everyone should go home with a jacket, because without winning their is no success. The industry has completely lost site of the lessons these young people can learn from a successful performance, with skills they have confidence in, but maybe fell just short of the team ahead of them. No, it's better to be a trainwreck on a level 5 team, and have that level 5 label, than to be able to walk out on the mat with confidence and pride in your level 4 skills. Shame on all of the adults. You're developing divas who will never be able to take their lumps in the real world. Cheerleading doesn't last forever.

I think we have moved on past Flip City now (I know I have) .... I am going to enjoy my competition today! Good Luck At Florida Matchplay!

 

[quitthedrama]

someone needs a snickers......

 

[Cheermom1969]

someone needs a snickers......

That's been dipped in vodka.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TealShades]

someone needs a snickers......

You turn into an old school snob when you're hungry

 

[dawgshow]

That's been dipped in vodka.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Rum goes much better with Snickers. Learn your pairings, geesh.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I've competed in both (old school, before there were levels.)

I've coached athletes in both (mostly on the private lesson side.)

There are issues and merits to both.

I don't think one is superior to the other.

FYI: There is cheating in school cheer as well.

There are also plenty of not-really-national champs on the HS side of things.

 

[FaithOverFear!]

They are Large Senior Coed Restricted 5. But does Top Gun actually have good lower levels? No! Most of their lower levels have been beaten by Flip City. Cheer Florida and Boca Extreme aren't that good.

TG's large Junior 3 won summit last year, and lots of their other teams went to Summit. I'd watch your gym trash talking because I'm pretty sure we have parents from some of those gyms that "aren't so good" on the boards. Flip City may beat lots of people but it's not fair if they're cheating.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[grassisgreener]

: 25176"]I have not seen their Senior Open 5 team. How many times have they competed this season? Did they compete

I have not seen their Senior Open 5 team. How many times have they competed this season? Did they compete against anyone? All of us cheerleaders are infamous for bragging about winning or being Grand Champs when we competed against NO ONE! I am guilty myself. Is it all about winning? This is what I a trying to say here. They need to teach the how to win or lose gracefully. They coaches and owners need to set good examples for their athletes. It is easy to have great Level 2 teams when those kids have level 4/5 skills. As a kid, I wouldn't want to be on a team lower than my skill level nor would I want to be on two teams. If you look at their kids a lot of the have knee braces or wrist braces. I think the Summit was designed for gyms who have great Level 1 -4 teams. Worlds is in my opinion designed for Level 5 teams in an area that brings together the best of the best. The Best of the best go to Top Gun as the gym in the region to go to, why? to win and win safely. Flip City has won the Summit which is great! They had an amazing team, I believe it was Youth 2 or Junior 2. I have to say they have dedicated athletes and parents. They spend a lot of time at the gym. It is their second home. But if you leave that gym don't expect them to ever speak to you again. There are other programs that have great athletes without all those extra practices called at the last minute. They love to cheer but it's not their whole life. I am all about loyalty but I have a life outside of cheer. I want o have friends that cheer at all different gyms not just the one I am at. I wish them well. I just hope they learn from this experience. They need to stop talking over there and just focus on what they are good at. People keep talking because the Coach and others have been. This is why I haven't posted the photos I have. I wish them well and hope they all learned from this experience. I would just focus on being the best and forget about the rest. The parents are aware and can make decisions going forward. Their eyes are open. I have always been taught forgiveness so parents forgive but keep your eyes open and make your decisions about next season when tryouts come along. Good Luck Flip City Athletes and Parents. I look forwarding to seeing you this season. They made an example out of Flip City so everyone learn from it.

I did see Flip City's Sr 5 at The State competition and they were good! They beat Florida Top Dog. So yes they did have competition.

 

[AngelsMum24]

The industry has completely lost site of the lessons these young people can learn from a successful performance, with skills they have confidence in, but maybe fell just short of the team ahead of them. No, it's better to be a trainwreck on a level 5 team, and have that level 5 label, than to be able to walk out on the mat with confidence and pride in your level 4 skills. Shame on all of the adults. You're developing divas who will never be able to take their lumps in the real world. Cheerleading doesn't last forever.

I can't shimmy this enough!