All-Star Crazy Cheer Mom Question....

I would tell your daughter to talk to some of the cheerleaders of the highschool she is attending next year and see how they like it. I LOVED sideline cheering for varsity football probably more than allstar to be honest. I think it all depends on the town but where I'm from football is life so I was so happy to be a part of it. I would tell her to try it for one season and then decide if she wants to stick with it. I cant tell you how many noncheer friends I have who wished they tried out for cheering instead of soccer basketball etc at the end of our senior year. plus, bribe her with the fact that she will be cheering on some pretty cute boys

just dont you dare let them hurt my Paigeypoo. Tell her to take up something safer.. like chess team!

I second the idea of getting involved in at least some sort of school-sponsored extracurriculars. I did NOTHING related to school throughout my entire high school career, and I really, really regret it. I mean, I certainly had my hobbies outside of school but it was nothing school sponsored or endorsed. I don't feel like I made the most of those years at all. It's all a blur now....

I do both and I like it because it is a little more relaxed. No doubt we work really hard on my team, but it's less stressful tan being on an allstar team and you do create a lot of close friends in high school. It's not for everyone though and some just don't enjoy it, so I wouldn't force her into it, but it's her freshman year so let her enjoy it. I'm about to be a senior and I used that year to see hat I could get into and it ended up being high school cheer

Thank you so much everyone -- I am in the mindset of just wanting her to do SOMETHING school related and not have her life be all about Allstar (as much as we both love it and LOVE the girls and families that are involved in our gym).
I thought cheer because being her freshman year it wouldn't be something that she would have to "learn" so to speak, it would just come a little easier than other things. We are now looking at dive team?! We shall see.. I am VERY determined that she is involved in SOMETHING during those school years.

I thought i wouldn't like sideline freshman year- but i loved it. We also had a competition team at my school, so it kind of gave me the same challenges i would have at all-star practice (conditioning, running, extra practices for flyer stretching, tumbling... etc) If she doesn't want to do it, there were a couple of girls on my team that did diving, and they loved it!

SmileyRyleigh said:

I thought i wouldn't like sideline freshman year- but i loved it. We also had a competition team at my school, so it kind of gave me the same challenges i would have at all-star practice (conditioning, running, extra practices for flyer stretching, tumbling... etc) If she doesn't want to do it, there were a couple of girls on my team that did diving, and they loved it!

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That is my concern.... she doesn't think she will like it but she might LOVE it... :\ How will she ever know if she doesn't try?

i have a few friends that did allstar and were on the diving team at school and it was so great for them. because they had been taught tumbling and gymnastics techniques from cheer they were great at more of the advanced dives, especially because us cheerleaders know how to flip and twist our bodies so well! if she's really opposed to school cheer then i think diving is a great option for her!

kem1129 said:

i have a few friends that did allstar and were on the diving team at school and it was so great for them. because they had been taught tumbling and gymnastics techniques from cheer they were great at more of the advanced dives, especially because us cheerleaders know how to flip and twist our bodies so well! if she's really opposed to school cheer then i think diving is a great option for her!

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That is what I am hoping for - plus she is a top girl so hopefully diving won't be as scary as having your hands in the life of 3 girls lolol. I think that is her concern with high school is the overall stigma of what people believe cheerleaders to be and the fear of having "non allstar trained" girls under her.

mommy2mygirls said:

That is my concern.... she doesn't think she will like it but she might LOVE it... :\ How will she ever know if she doesn't try?

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maybe if she has friends trying out with her she might have fun. one of my best friends since kindergarten is on the team with me!

I thought the exact same thing, but by the end of the year I ended up having an amazing time with my school team. My friend didn't want to do school cheer because her school team had no experience what so ever in cheer. She didn't want to be made a fool of. However my school team is actually very advanced (primarily because we all do compettitve cheer). Either way I can understand why she wouldn't want to but she might find it a wonderful experience. After my first year I feel like I have 2 extra families! (school cheer and competitive)

I would say don't make her do it. My mom made me do it this year and its really such a waste of my time and I honestly had a mental breakdown after every highschool practice. terrible.

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!

Dive team sounds really fun and I bet that's something she'd do great in. Plus both activities will help each other out (cheer helps diving and diving will help cheer). I'd just be cautious when it comes to commitment to both activities. A girl who I used to cheer with's brother did swimming and diving and he spent a lot of time in the water and training. Of course it was his thing, just like cheer is your daughter's but if she starts getting competitive with diving, practices and meets/competitions might start to conflict which will make it stressful if she loves both things. But if she does go into diving, you'll have to post videos! Diving and syncro diving are one of my favorite events to watch at the Olympics, probably tied with gymnastics!

I wouldn't force her, but encouraging her is a good idea. Some other options are dive team, track team, and gymnastics team. They will all benefit her all star cheerleading skills. Also, if she wants to cheer in College let her know that some College teams require high school cheer experience to try out. If College cheer is important to her that might motivate her to give it a try.