All-Star How Did You Find Your Gym Home?

[momma2mycheerprincess]

When my daughter started cheer we got lucky. We called the first gym I saw online, we went for a visit, and we loved it! Everyone was great, coaches, kids, and parents. It was defiantly a family. We moved, and I assumed that it would be that easy again, but it took us a lot of trial and error, and a lot of tears and disappointment, to finally find a new gym that felt like home.
What was the experience like for everyone else? What were those deciding factors that made it feel like home for you? Did you know instantly that it was the right place for you or did it take a while?

 

[whatsupWILLIS]

Well when I first moved after cheering for about three years, I was still pretty young so we just went to the gym that our neighbors suggested because they went there too. At first I loved it but by the end of my 2nd season when I understood that there were much better programs in my area I realized what a disaster my gym was. So then I switched to KC Cheer and I love it! So I guess you could say it took me 2 years to find my home.

 

[pacheermama2]

The gym where we are at today did our rec cheer routine last year. My girls love cheer. There are a few other gyms that are about 1 1/2 hrs away from us. There is one in Morgantown WV but I am not to sure what that gym is like. So I guess unless something would happen I plan on staying where we are. Our coach is really good and this yr she is planning on taking our S5's to worlds. We as a group our going to Disney this yr in March. Thats huge for us as we have never been there as a family.

 

[INeverStopCheering]

I actually wanted to be a school cheerleader so I started taking private lessons at a gym nearby. I didn't make the school team and so I started cheering at ICE (not the famous one). My first season there was wonderful, I loved everything about it. Looking back we were that team with all heart and minimal skills, but I had a great time. Unfortunately at the end of that season they got bought out by another program. After one practice I knew that program wasn't for me. I was looking for another smallish gym with a family atmosphere, which is how I wound up where I am now. I still love cheering and coaching there, and look forward to spending my senior year at home at CCA.

 

[omgitssydthekid]

The first gym I was at, we chose because it was my little sister's old cheerleading gym. We hardly knew anything about cheerleading and after my first season there, we were already planning on what my next gym would be. I did an individual level 5 stunt group and I was on the senior level 4 team and working on my full. I wanted to get my full so that when I switched gyms, I would hopefully be on the level 5 team. I ended up leaving that gym mid-season for personal reasons and took a month long break before doing anything else. I went to another gym and loved everything about it, the uniforms, the coaches, the girls, and the winning record. I tried out and was placed on the senior level 4 team and was disappointed but I knew that was the team I deserved to be on. I t was a rough season but I grew a lot as a person and a cheerleader. I tried out the next year but something was different and I hated it and everything about it. It just made me feel like I didn't matter so I quit cheerleading all together. My friend asked me to come to her gym because they were looking for one more person to fill out the team. I went in and talked with the owner and watched the team practice for a while and then she asked if I wanted to participate. I landed my full for the first time in two months after straining the Peroneal tendons in both my ankles. The gym was a much more positive environment and it was just one big family. I was so happy there and I just hate that I only got to cheer there my senior year. The gym gave me so many opportunities including cheering in college as well as being apart of NCA staff. I am so thankful I found a home at Fury Athletics!

 

[dawgshow]

We got a postcard from CP's gym and she begged us to look into it. At the time there were only 3 gyms to choose from and one was out of the question because they didn't have age appropriate teams. I called the gym that sent the postcard and the owner had all the right answers. Sceptic that I am I didn't believe that it was so good so I went and checked it out in person. I talked to the parents who were there and got the same answers.
Just for the heck of it, I contacted the other gym and was less than impressed with the response. Couldn't get a straight answer to save my life. The uniforms clinched it for me--not the gym for us.
I took CP to her first tiny practice at the first gym and that was all she wrote

 

[alexamarysouza]

Well originally, we had gone to the gym to sign me up for gymnastics. I saw the allstar teams practicing and 6 year old me told my mom-no, I want to do that! We signed up and it was wonderful for the first 4 or 5 years. Then coaching switched. The year they won their first worlds title,my 7th season with them, the entire season was dedicated to that one team. It was like our branch of the gym didn't exist. That was my last season because we realized I needed to be somewhere that I'd receive proper training without being given the 'sloppy seconds'. Now in my third season with my new gym, it's my home away from home. The girls were so accepting to me and a friend who switched with me, we couldn't ask for anything better.

 

[canttouchthis]

i found mine out through gymnastics!!
begged my mom who eventually said what the hey lets try it.
then she took me out after 2 years because she thinks it made me more "gay" were over that stage thank allah but yeah. i miss cheer

 

[AmyCF2010]

I moved to a new gym last season because my old one did not have a team that suited me for the season. honestly, i was absolutely terrified because my new gym is very good and well known so i kinda assumed that the people there would be conceited and mean but it was the opposite. I can honestly say that i've never been closer to a group of girls or a coach than this past year. I think I realized it was my "gym home" when we were at a competition. Every coach that I knew or had talked to before gave me a hug or said hi when I saw them. It made me feel like I belong there and I never realized how much of a family we had all become. Even though we lost that day, I remember it as a happy memory because its the day I realized I had a second family. Also, I missed tryouts for this season so I went back a month late for a private tryout. My old coach gave me the biggest hug and said he missed me and when he saw that I was nervous, he said "why are you scared? this is your home." that's been stuck in my head. I'm just so grateful because not only have I found a place that is home to me, the people there think of me as family as well. This is a feeling I hope everyone can find because I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world.

 

[Karlssssss]

The gym where I first started competitive cheerleading is a gymnastic gym as well as a cheer gym. I had been taking gymnastics there since I was two years old, so in the fifth grade when I decided to start cheering, I was already at the perfect place. I had five amazing seasons and that gym, and was very sad to have to leave it this year.

 

[whatsarisalee]

I actually looked into gyms that had good instruction for tumbling, cheering wasn't the priority at that time. I ended up getting lucky that they started a cheerleading program. After that I had a tumbling coach that I had and when he switched gyms so did I. He knew me and how I do things almost as well as I did. He was also really big on perfection before progression. He was my favorite.

 

[12stepCheermom]

We signed up with the only gym we'd heard of because we were newbie cheer parents and had no idea about anything in this industry. This gym was about 10 minutes from the house so we went there. We stayed for three years, still not knowing much, although by that time we THOUGHT we did. That last year they'd hired two amazing coaches that took over their top team (was a jr3) then picked up the Jr2 and totally redid their whole routine in about two weeks. That team suddenly started to be competitive.

That jr3 not only won every competition they went to, but they got best of level in almost every competition too. It was the first time we'd seen "real" cheer and were simply stunned. My daughter filled in to fly on that jr2 and the practices were just entirely different than their mini2 practices had ever been. She was topped out in skills and bored stiff on that team and the jr2 gave her life.

Those amazing coaches were given the opportunity to start their very own program across town. We had no idea because they never talked about it. We had to find out in late April they were leaving and we heard that through the grapevine. They were completely silent about it (and my kid was taking privates with them and we still didnt know!) but the rumors had been flying since December (we just weren't in the rumor loop apparently). When we asked them point blank, they said out of professional courtesy they wouldn't discuss anything publicly until after the awards banquet. And they didn't.

It was a really really hard decision for us. Went back and forth for about 3 weeks trying to decide what to do...be loyal to our gym or follow these two amazing, but very young, coaches to a brand new program in a place where a cheer program had never survived even a season.

In the end, we followed our gut. We decided to be loyal to our kid and not the business we were paying for. She was topped out at level two and we saw the potential of those two coaches and decided we wouldn't see if they COULD make it, we'd go with them and ensure, to the best of our ability, that they DID make it for our daughter's sake. She was never going to get to the elite levels of this sport where she was and we took a chance these two amazing coaches would get her there.

The final awards banquet removed any guilt I was feeling (which was a lot I don't mind saying). It was simply the most awful, hateful, unprofessional thing I'd ever attended, courtesy of the original gym owner, and let me know we made the right call both in who we were leaving and who we were choosing to go to.

The following day....we donned our red, black and silver and have bled Aviator ever since. And that program that we were concerned might struggle, and THEY felt might only make 2 teams in year one...started with 98 athletes on five teams, went to seven, then ten last year and now we have eleven teams in year four and around 200 kids.

And the elite levels bet....we built our first worlds team in year three that got a bid and competed small senior coed. My kids aren't on it yet, but with this coaching staff it won't be long. The other thing we got was a second cheerleader. Our first gym refuses to allow boys to cheer (apparently boys aren't supposed to cheer and it's inappropriate for them to stunt girls...and they also buy the stereotype about male cheerleaders...which I'll not comment about) so when our son saw the opportunity, he took it.

They took him from negative tumbling (craptastic wouldnt take him) to a solid level 4 who's been competing true single based unassisted stunts since last season on jr coed 3 in only three seasons.

Go where the quality coaches are.....the rest takes care of itself.

 

[chyeeaaa69]

When I was doing high school cheerleading a few years ago, I decided to stay later at Provincials to watch the allstar teams, and was just floored watching the Road To Worlds competition (basically showcases all the teams competing for a bid). From there I absolutely fell in love with Cheer Sport Great Whites, and have loved them so much ever since. I've gotten to know so many girls from there, and know one of the owners quite well, so naturally that was my choice for where I wanted to cheer. I've always seen how it was such a family and such dedicated parents and friends. I got a message from Ali (the owner I know quite well) saying that there was a lot of interest in fielding an IOC 6 team this year, and last night went to tryout for the team/first practice with the team. It was such a positive and encouraging experience. Regardless of how out of shape I am right now and how difficult it was for me to get back into it, the people I worked with were so patient and so helpful. I'm insanely pumped to start my first year of all star! (now just hoping I don't lose my spot.....)

 

[ohsnapitslex]

I guess you can say that it is by fate that the very first gym that I started cheerleading with is my all star gym, and I am still with them today. I love the people and the atmosphere, and couldn't imagine myself cheering anywhere else. It's only 15 minutes away from my house which makes it feel even more like home. This will be my 5th year cheering at State and my last...it's gonna be so sad to leave at the end of the season WAH

 

[alexandra_ashleigh]

Wow, I have a long path that I had to take to get where I am today. Lets see...
My allstar career began eight years ago when one of my sisters friends asked her to try out for a local gymnastics gym's (X-Cel Allstars) cheerleading team. She competed on the team, and I was intrigued at what she was doing, so i signed up the next year. I competed at that gym for one year, and the next year at tryouts they didnt have enough senior aged girls. With my sister being senior aged, we needed a senior team. We went with our friends to another gym (All American Kats) and we absolutely loved the program. We stayed there for a year, and when tryouts came around, the gym owner ended up closing the gym to go coach at FCA. We followed the coach there, and tried out. It turned out to be too far of a drive, so we looked for a closer gym. My older sister also wanted to dance, we chose Pittsburgh Poison. We stayed there for three years, and loved every second of it. My mom then decided to relocate out family to Detroit, Michigan. During one of the competitions, my mom made a friend whose daughter is on Elite Cheer Michigan, so she went to her to ask where I should cheer in Michigan. She suggested Vizion because thats where her daughter was going, but knew it would be too far for us to go, and she suggested Midwest Xplosion. I was hesitant at first, but im so happy now. I couldn't imagine being at any other gym. Soooooo here I am, eight years later, happy at my home gym