All-Star You Get A Trophy, I Get A Trophy, We All Get A Trophy! Good Or Bad

[amy1k]

It is odd to hear about all these participation gifts and receiving individual medals/trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in addition to the gym winning a trophy. I feel like here in the Northwest they figure we don't know any better, because we don't get that many participation gifts and only get medals a couple times a year. I suppose maybe I not paying enough attention, but my CP shows me what they get and they definitely don't get something at every comp. I do find it interesting that sometimes when she watches a cheerleader's You Tube video that they have several trophies in their rooms...where do they get those!?! I will say they do get pins if it is a Varsity comp, but I'm talking about other gifts. The best thing I think she has ever gotten was an ATC pillowcase. She loves it!

It's been a long time, but my daughter got a necklace and blanket from Spirit Cheer...and socks (great participant gift!) the last two years from Sea to Sky. Last year, ATC gave bags. One of our parents swooped on them and required the parents check them out from her. She doesn't like me, so I didn't bother. I hope her house is full of ATC bags. Haha!

 

[SL&AM]

@kristenthegreat they actually did an article on helicopter parents a while ago stating about 1/3 of parents submit their kids job applications after college and several will show up with their kids at the interview and/or try to negotiate their salary. I can't even imagine what would come out of my mouth if I worked in HR.

Helicopter Parents Hover In The Workplace : NPR

Clearly I had children in the wrong generation, but that is so not happening in this house. Wowzers!

 

[mollymags]

Was the Jamfest hoodie gray or red? Pretty sure fomer cp still has those.

Once upon a time they used to give out hoodies at many comps for winning....former cp had a ton of those from her first season and they were great. Never needed or wanted to buy a shirt or a sweatshirt at a comp. We have a couple of blankets that are still in good use as well as a beach towel from Reach the Beach. Aren't the Worlds drawstring bags participation gifts? I don't see anyone complaining about those. The worst participation gift or award ever received were a cardboard picture frame from some Jamfest comp (why bother wasting my $ handing those out) and a COA v-neck pullover that looked and felt like a plastic blue tablecloth.

I have a red one I won at a Jamfest nationals during my senior year in 2007. I gained a bunch of weight after HS and college and I've been working on losing it this year... being able to wear that red hoodie again is one of my goals, haha!

 

[quietmom]

My kids love their cheersport blankets.

 

[Cheerfun2]

My kids only care about trophies and medals they actually win. They totally know the difference and always have. Interesting story about competition...the elementary school my children attended had a running program during recess where the children run laps and receive prizes each time they reach a distance milestone. The children LOVE it and some of them get really excited about trying to be the first to get a prize. One year, a teacher decided instead of letting the kids run as many laps as they could for the first 10 min of recess, she decided that everyone would just run 2 laps per day. Just sucked all of the fun out of the program. The kids in this class started to hate running, and didn't care about the milestones since they were all reaching the goals at the same time. It was a fascinating exercise in the competitive nature of humans.

The participation gifts are different to me...they are just event swag, a souvenir. Cp LOVED the Cheersport blanket and the string bag from Summit.

 

[Helen uk uni cheer]

For me sometimes I feel while knowing the difference between winning and losing if you placed better than you thought you would even though that was not winning shouldn't you feel proud of your team trophy or not. Heck last season all my aim was not to come dead last and try and get over 50-70% range. This was not a good season for me as I am competitive and want to be my best to help my team while the teams/coaches were we never win because...... I just felt we didnt have commitment level but we got a trophy at each comp even the ones we came dead last and 9th out of 11. Thinking back I think getting no trophy would have given my team and coaches the motivation to work harder

 

[kristenthegreat]

Just out of curiosity...

Say Cheersport gave out participation medals at EACH event. They had 34 events last year. Let's say there are 600 athletes at each event (most are surely WAY higher, pretty sure Grand has a couple thousand athletes alone). That's 20,400 athletes over the year. If they get the CHEAPEST medals available, they're $1 a pop. That's $20,400 a YEAR they could be saving if they cut those out at the very least.

I did some numbers for ONE competition. There were 68 teams. I did small as the average size (20 per team, including rec, HS, dance, etc). To me this accounted for some being large teams and some being much smaller (they didn't list sizes). I took off 100 for athletes who might be double teaming. That's still at least 1250 kids or so. If THAT was the average for each comp, multiplied by the number of events they had last year, that's at least $42,500 they could be saving.

In short- competitions, I strongly encourage you to rethink your distribution of trophies/medals. If you're going to insist on participation gifts, make them something worthwhile! Or cut them down a bit because you could easily save thousands! Sincerely, Your Bottom Line.

 

[CheerBank]

I have a red one I won at a Jamfest nationals during my senior year in 2007. I gained a bunch of weight after HS and college and I've been working on losing it this year... being able to wear that red hoodie again is one of my goals, haha!

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

Just out of curiosity...

Say Cheersport gave out participation medals at EACH event. They had 34 events last year. Let's say there are 600 athletes at each event (most are surely WAY higher, pretty sure Grand has a couple thousand athletes alone). That's 20,400 athletes over the year. If they get the CHEAPEST medals available, they're $1 a pop. That's $20,400 a YEAR they could be saving if they cut those out at the very least.

I did some numbers for ONE competition. There were 68 teams. I did small as the average size (20 per team, including rec, HS, dance, etc). To me this accounted for some being large teams and some being much smaller (they didn't list sizes). I took off 100 for athletes who might be double teaming. That's still at least 1250 kids or so. If THAT was the average for each comp, multiplied by the number of events they had last year, that's at least $42,500 they could be saving.

In short- competitions, I strongly encourage you to rethink your distribution of trophies/medals. If you're going to insist on participation gifts, make them something worthwhile! Or cut them down a bit because you could easily save thousands! Sincerely, Your Bottom Line.

That's only if the EPs pay for the medals they hand out. Something tells me they don't - that it comes from the registration fees each athlete needs to pay to compete.

 

[Pebbles49]

Just out of curiosity...

Say Cheersport gave out participation medals at EACH event. They had 34 events last year. Let's say there are 600 athletes at each event (most are surely WAY higher, pretty sure Grand has a couple thousand athletes alone). That's 20,400 athletes over the year. If they get the CHEAPEST medals available, they're $1 a pop. That's $20,400 a YEAR they could be saving if they cut those out at the very least.

I did some numbers for ONE competition. There were 68 teams. I did small as the average size (20 per team, including rec, HS, dance, etc). To me this accounted for some being large teams and some being much smaller (they didn't list sizes). I took off 100 for athletes who might be double teaming. That's still at least 1250 kids or so. If THAT was the average for each comp, multiplied by the number of events they had last year, that's at least $42,500 they could be saving.

In short- competitions, I strongly encourage you to rethink your distribution of trophies/medals. If you're going to insist on participation gifts, make them something worthwhile! Or cut them down a bit because you could easily save thousands! Sincerely, Your Bottom Line.

If you watch Real Sport, everything you just mentioned and accounted for was tallied in the rising cost of entry fees for competing. I mentioned in an earlier post, that the trophy business owners are reaping a lot of money now that we have this mentality that everybody must feel like "winners."
What is so funny to me about this conversation; everybody seems to hate this concept of rewarding for participation, but there got to be more people pushing for it, otherwise we would not have this issue...

 

[SL&AM]

If you watch Real Sport, everything you just mentioned and accounted for was tallied in the rising cost of entry fees for competing. I mentioned in an earlier post, that the trophy business owners are reaping a lot of money now that we have this mentality that everybody must feel like "winners."
What is so funny to me about this conversation; everybody seems to hate this concept of rewarding for participation, but there got to be more people pushing for it, otherwise we would not have this issue...

I think it's a societal issue that started with a few and the bulk of Americans don't care enough to fight against it. I mean, today at Publix my youngest cut in front of a teenager to get her free cookie at the bakery. When I told her she needed to apologize, not only did the woman working for Publix but the teenager brush it off like it was no big deal---NO! It is a big deal when a child who should have spacial awareness doesn't and won't apologize; the woman working at Publix looked at me like I was a monster when I took the cookie away. It's that same mentality---she's a kid, therefore she DESERVES that cookie regardless of her behavior and attitude at the time. Even though, she deserved nothing.

I noticed that shift in philosophy start to take shape in the mid 2000's, now it's just a million times worse.

 

[FaithOverFear!]

last year jam live had some pretty sweet 1st place sunglasses. I was just wearing them yesterday haha, I really like jambrand's participation gifts. that being said, no, not everyone should get a trophy, even if they're little.

 

[TheVipersMom]

It is odd to hear about all these participation gifts and receiving individual medals/trophies for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in addition to the gym winning a trophy. I feel like here in the Northwest they figure we don't know any better, because we don't get that many participation gifts and only get medals a couple times a year. I suppose maybe I not paying enough attention, but my CP shows me what they get and they definitely don't get something at every comp. I do find it interesting that sometimes when she watches a cheerleader's You Tube video that they have several trophies in their rooms...where do they get those!?! I will say they do get pins if it is a Varsity comp, but I'm talking about other gifts. The best thing I think she has ever gotten was an ATC pillowcase. She loves it!

Our gym doesn't keep any trophies but NCA trophies and only banners if it's from a big comp so they give away all the others. My kid has several trophies she was allowed to take home and keep from comps the team won and some of them are nice trophies

ironically they were shoved into a corner between her wall and her dresser, with some of her medals hanging on it. They use to be displayed but now they are like an after thought. When we move next month I hope to find a better place for them if she wants to keep them, if not I'll give them to someone else that was on those teams with her.
They are kind of dusty lol
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[kristenthegreat]

That's only if the EPs pay for the medals they hand out. Something tells me they don't - that it comes from the registration fees each athlete needs to pay to compete.

You could also argue that the entry fees are a reimbursement for what the EPs pay up front.

Either way you slice it, a SERIOUS chunk of change could be saved by cutting down on those types of things, especially since we know they all end up in the landfill.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

My husband refused to let our little guy participate in a local tee ball league...

Because.

(Ready?)

IT'S CALLED FUN LEAGUE SOFTBALL AND THEY DON'T KEEP SCORE. EVERYONE WINS.