All-Star Cheer Athletics (questions/rumors)

[BlueCat]

What teams do you have this season?

New teams for 2011-12 in bold:

Tiny 1: Itty Bitty Kitties
Small Mini 1: Bobcats
Large Youth 2: Lions
Small Youth 3: Leopards
Youth 5: Wonderkatz
Small Junior 1: Bearkatz
Large Junior 2: Katz
Large Junior 3: Lynx
Large Junior 4: Thundercats
Junior Coed 5: Jags
Large Senior 2: Sabres
Large Senior 3: Cougars
Large Senior 4: Tigers
Large Senior 5R: Pumas
Large Senior 5: Panthers
Large Coed 5: Cheetahs
International AG 5: Fiercekatz
International CO 5: Wildcats
International AG 6: ?
Special Needs: Superkatz

Divisions may change.

Level 1: 3
Level 2: 3
Level 3: 3
Level 4: 2
Level 5: 7
Level 6: 1
SN: 1
Dance: ?

 

[cheerinfo]

Yup, it is just how fans can be. I was referring to Worlds 2010 actually when you REALLY could hear crickets when Orange was announced at Finals. It was very strange haha. This year, it was a little better...but not by much. It just is what it is. Like I said, globe counts evidence that it really doesn't matter to the judges or the performers....they still win.

 

[BlueCat]

Is there a chance that you will eventually push international 6 age girls 17 and up onto your level 6 team, and then between the senior age left place them on cheetahs as large coed, panthers large senior, and then another senior age worlds team? Possibly small Coed or small senior?

I don't understand the question. Do you mean push the age-eligible IO5 girls up to IO6? That is sort of what has happened already. There is no room on Panthers or Cheetahs, so the rest of that scenario isn't possible.

NOTE: Most likely spots to be available for new athletes: 2-3 guys for Cheetahs. 17 yrs + aged TALENTED girls for IO6 - emphasis on ability to base/fly L6 skills. These will need to be pretty exceptional, elite athletes.

 

[IPAY.SHECHEERS]

Your exactly right I think sometimes it's just the way it goes! But sometimes don't you feel like it affects things? But your right! From Atlanta Georgia-The Stingray All Stars.....CRICKETS...From San Marcos California-California All Stars Senior Elite....EARTHQUAKE....From Garland TX-Cheer Athletics-Panthers.....CRICKETS......lol

I think that t is lack of access for the fans seeing how the team has progressed from showcase to worlds. I think this is why Cali Sr. Elite and CEA Sr. Elite are fan favorites.

 

[cheer8]

We have talked about adding smaller, "satellite" gyms many times and even looked into some buildings in various cities. Our MAIN goal in doing that would be to develop a stronger youth program at the new location and build up our class and dance programs. We would not likely want to move our main competitive teams there, at least initially.

We also do not want to impose on our friends and their gyms "turf." While we probably are not too high on other gyms' friend lists at the moment, we honestly do NOT want to harm other programs and "steal" their customers. We would MUCH rather attract completely new athletes to the sport. For many reasons, the most treasured, valuable athletes in the gym are our tiny and minis.

The best analogy of our view of local gyms is like we are all stores in a big mall. Yes, we want people in the mall to come visit our store and shop here, but the absolute LAST thing we want is for all the other stores in the mall to go out of business. That would be a disaster. The main thing we want is for more people to go into the mall.

Plus we are friends with and respect the vast majority of our competitors and we consider it to be in poor taste to directly target other programs' athletes. I'm sure that many people don't believe this, but we have a very strong policy against any of our staff recruiting any athlete that they know to be a part of someone else's gym. If those athletes contact us first, then we will discuss our program with them and welcome them, but we will NOT knowingly go after them first. I can't say that it has never happened, but we strongly discourage it.

Other businesses do not always share that philosophy, but that is up for them to decide what set of business/personal ethics they choose. I don't consider it "immoral" or even "unethical" for people to directly recruit other programs' kids, but we do think it is tacky and disrespectful.

This is Integrity!

 

[kristenthegreat]

I noticed a lot of teams you posted are large. Would it be possible, hypothetically, for you to create some small teams down the road if you were willing to take on all those late athletes, assuming many of them had a similar skill set? (Not asking for me, just a hypothetical!)

 

[BlueCat]

Next question! Does CA still do team training for high schools! I remember the gym being crazy during high school nationals with all several teams like rockwall, sachse, colleyville, hebron, plano west... and some other used to all practice at the gym!

We do still have a team training program, but fewer high schools do competitions than used to - at least in our area. Many of those kids simply do all-star for competition and prefer to just focus on "cheerleading" with their school teams. Nothing wrong with that. We train some teams that do not compete as well.

 

[cheer8]

I'm not BlueCat but I think I can answer this one pretty easy.....Fierceboard. The Fierceboard, to my understanding, is VERY east coast heavy as far as members and "fans". And the existence of this board and the ever-growing membership is giving those east coast teams a HUGE fan base that 4-5 years ago would have never existed. While the Texas/Oklahoma gyms/teams are just as strong, our fan base is just extremely small due to the lack of midwestern people joining the boards.

Even though I am a coach for 15 years I am a CA Fan and I am from East Coast Hollywood! I yelled for you guys

 

[CApantherSmallSenior90]

Do we know for sure if panthers are going to go large?
Or stay medium?

 

[BlueCat]

I noticed a lot of teams you posted are large. Would it be possible, hypothetically, for you to create some small teams down the road if you were willing to take on all those late athletes, assuming many of them had a similar skill set? (Not asking for me, just a hypothetical!)

It is possible, but we need to put all of our focus on our current teams and athletes for now. The last thing we want to do is lower our ability to provide a great service and experience for current CA family. If we get to the point where we think we could add a team or roster spots without it negatively affecting anything we have currently, then we would be thrilled to take on new athletes.

As I mentioned earlier, we could have handled at least a hundred more athletes IF they had shown up for the regular tryout or even called to let us know of their intention to try out after they completed their current season. We could have had time to bring in more quality staff members and could have set up the schedule to make it work. The problem now is that to add more kids we would really need to start all of our rosters, schedules, and coaching scenarios from scratch and that isn't fair to our current customers.

Trust me, as a businessman, it is incredibly painful to turn kids away, but it is what it is. Sometimes short-term profit simply doesn't outweigh focusing on the big picture.

 

[BlueCat]

Regarding all of the crowd noise posts:

Setting up a crowd-pleasing routine and setting up a high-scoring routine are NOT the same thing. Obviously, there is some overlap, but the judges are not watching for the same things that Suzy cheer fan is. I wish that the judging criteria was more in line with what the crowd wants to see, but until it is, you will see lots of people outraged/shocked at results. Worlds is not a popularity contest.

Human nature to cheer for the underdog. For better or worse, Stingrays and CA aren't going to get the underdog labels any time soon and I'm pretty sure our kids understand that. I was amazed at how quiet the crowd was for Top Gun, too. They deserved much more response than they got.

 

[BlueCat]

Do we know for sure if panthers are going to go large?
Or stay medium?

We do not know for sure. We probably won't know for certain until mid-late summer.

 

[Nothanks]

Regarding all of the crowd noise posts:

Setting up a crowd-pleasing routine and setting up a high-scoring routine are NOT the same thing. Obviously, there is some overlap, but the judges are not watching for the same things that Suzy cheer fan is. I wish that the judging criteria was more in line with what the crowd wants to see, but until it is, you will see lots of people outraged/shocked at results. Worlds is not a popularity contest.

Human nature to cheer for the underdog. For better or worse, Stingrays and CA aren't going to get the underdog labels any time soon and I'm pretty sure our kids understand that. I was amazed at how quiet the crowd was for Top Gun, too. They deserved much more response than they got.

i think i was cheering louder for cheetahs and panthers louder than i did for the other two teams from my gym worlds. and i made my sister and boyfriend cheer too. haha

 

[Mclovin]

How many times do your teams practice per week and do they practice on weekends during the summer? How many hours per practice and do your upper levels practice more or longer than your lower levels??

 

[BlueCat]

How many times do your teams practice per week and do they practice on weekends during the summer? How many hours per practice and do your upper levels practice more or longer than your lower levels??

Every team is pretty much the same. 3.5 hours a week total. Typically 2 hours on Sunday, 1.5 hours on a weeknight. This includes everything - tumbling, choreography, etc. Some athletes take additional tumbling classes, but it is not mandatory.

We realize that this is much shorter than most programs. We just try to have efficient practices.