High School High School Vs All Star

I am glad that they have this process of appeal though, cause in IL you have to pick between the two and you can't do both.

I did both high school and all star. I could come up with a long list of differences but in the end I would say the outcome/goal was the same. I loved high school because it's something about wearing your school colors and cheering under the lights and having everyone know who you are. My high school routine was just as difficult as my all star routine but in different ways. Cheer floor is def harder in all aspects as you don't get that extra spring in your jumps and tumbling but good cheerleaders can do it on both. All stars was more weekend time consuming where as high school fell a lot more during the week. With both combined... EVERY SINGLE DAY. I have fond memories of both and wouldn't really be able to choose one over the other.

In some states high schools are just as competitive as all-star teams. In Virginia, IMO it's better to do all-stars and the comp teams for High Schools. BUT, Virginia also has some strict "comp season" guidelines. Comp teams cannot start their season until usually the first week of August. You are allowed to do 5 competitions which have to include your District, Regional & State competitions. THe other 2 you can do have to be sanctioned by the VHSL (Virginia Athletics Board). On top of that, you're looking at the time constraint. Practices start early August and Districts is Mid-October so if you really want to do other comps, it has to be in September. Doesn't leave much time to learn and perfect routines. Most of the kids on my team are all-stars but they take a beating from tumbling on spring and then going to dead floor.

Last year my high school team competed as allstars so it was kinda the same

I think that both all star and high school cheer are equally hard. (But I may be biased because my high school coach is my all star coach) Sideline is WAY easier than all star, but once you get into competition season, I think that they are both quite difficult

It all depends on what team you are on for example: If you are on a high school team that doesn't go to competions and only practices once a week and you're also on an allstar team that practices almost everyday and goes to competions alot. It can also be visa-versa where your highschool team practices more and is more competive than your allstar. In my case I think Allstar is A LOT harder because we practice 5-6 times a week.

I didn't want to make an entirely new thread about this so I'm just going to ask here.

What are your rules on practice? Do a lot of people usually miss or is attendance not a problem? If you do both high school and all star, how are they different? Does your team schedule around your other practices? Over the years and from what I've seen on here, I feel like some people think of practices as optional. I'm just curious!

Ours are completely mandatory, if you're late just a few minutes you're in trouble. During the summer you can pretty much only miss if you're really sick (or contagious) or for an emergency. Then during the school year you're sometimes allowed to be late for academic reasons with a note.

The rules for my high school and all star practices are generally the same. "Don't be late," "don't stunt or tumble while the coach isn't there," that kind of thing. Just normal!
As for high school vs. all star attendance stuff, there's always less people at all star practices. They are required, but since people are coming from far(ish) away, sometimes they just can't make it (which REALLY sucks.. you can imagine). My high school team doesn't schedule around my other practices, but my all star team does, which is really, really nice. Overall, both high school and all star practices are mandatory (except for a few "for fun" practices or open gyms in the summer).
If practices were optional... Oh my I think that would be bad!! A lot of people on my team probably would only show up when they felt like it):

I cheer both All-star and at school. In my experience all-star is much harder. School is fun if you just want to stand on the sidelines and look pretty, but compared to all-star there is no difficulty in it whatsoever.

Karlssssss said:

School is fun if you just want to stand on the sidelines and look pretty, but compared to all-star there is no difficulty in it whatsoever.

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As a high school cheerleader, this is the most annoying statement ever. You're not the only one to say it of course, but I'm going to address how I feel about it now. I worked hard for four years on a team that I loved. If people think that all I accomplished those four years was "looking pretty" at a game and waving poms around, then they're very wrong. In fact, this is the first summer since 7th grade I'm not in a gym everyday, typically with no A/C, working on a routine.
I am going to guess that your high school is very different than mine and I understand that was your personal experience, but I would hope, as a cheerleader, that you would be a little more respectful for girls who made high school cheerleading their entire lives.

I have been an allstar cheerleader for 3 years and I have started my first Highschool cheerleading season!
And I have to admit High school cheer practices have been tough. They start at 7:30 in the morning outside on our school track, run a half a mile at the begining and end. Then stretch, start jumps, stunting, and practing cheers. If we don't do a cheer as out coach would like it we have to run a lap together as a team around the track, they end at 9:30 I'm not gonna lie it's difficult already and we haven't even started games yet. When it comes to school cheerleading coaches are more focused on being clean, tight and together, rather than all the skills and tricks.

nothingimpossible said:

As a high school cheerleader, this is the most annoying statement ever. You're not the only one to say it of course, but I'm going to address how I feel about it now. I worked hard for four years on a team that I loved. If people think that all I accomplished those four years was "looking pretty" at a game and waving poms around, then they're very wrong. In fact, this is the first summer since 7th grade I'm not in a gym everyday, typically with no A/C, working on a routine.
I am going to guess that your high school is very different than mine and I understand that was your personal experience, but I would hope, as a cheerleader, that you would be a little more respectful for girls who made high school cheerleading their entire lives.

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I understand what you are saying. Most high schools do have hardworking cheerleading teams. I was just referring to my high school. We have no competition team, my coach doesn't know anything about cheerleading and isn't willing to help us with anything, and most of the girls don't want to work to get anything done. "Looking Pretty" is all the cheerleaders at my school really do. I don't like it, I only cheer at school because it's what my parents want. My heart is in allstar. I didn't mean to offend anyone by my comment, because I wish my school had a good team and cared about more than looks, but they don't.

Karlssssss said:

I understand what you are saying. Most high schools do have hardworking cheerleading teams. I was just referring to my high school. We have no competition team, my coach doesn't know anything about cheerleading and isn't willing to help us with anything, and most of the girls don't want to work to get anything done. "Looking Pretty" is all the cheerleaders at my school really do. I don't like it, I only cheer at school because it's what my parents want. My heart is in allstar. I didn't mean to offend anyone by my comment, because I wish my school had a good team and cared about more than looks, but they don't.

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I completely understand...it just gets under my skin sometimes!

fortheloveofTNT said:

I have been an allstar cheerleader for 3 years and I have started my first Highschool cheerleading season!
And I have to admit High school cheer practices have been tough. They start at 7:30 in the morning outside on our school track, run a half a mile at the begining and end. Then stretch, start jumps, stunting, and practing cheers. If we don't do a cheer as out coach would like it we have to run a lap together as a team around the track, they end at 9:30 I'm not gonna lie it's difficult already and we haven't even started games yet. When it comes to school cheerleading coaches are more focused on being clean, tight and together, rather than all the skills and tricks.

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That's awesome! You'll thank them for training you so good once you've graduated and want to stay in shape. I haven't ran in a very long time and it's killing me to get up and go. But anyways, games are the fun part. Everyone's so pumped up and you'll be excited, don't be worried about it.

All-Stars, hands down.

The thing is...All-Star Cheerleading has a much different purpose than High School Cheerleading. Even if a high school team competes, there MAIN goal "should" be to support the school teams and promote school spirit. In turn, high-school teams across the nation all tend to be very different and focus on different things. Some are your more basic sideline cheers and school spirit type teams while others are a little more focused on getting some good stunts down to make the rival high school cheer team jealous and to maybe kick butt at a competition.

With All-Stars, I feel like it's much more "even playing ground" since everyone knows what to "expect" from All-Stars based on the level of the team.

As far as watching goes, All-Stars hands down are my favorite. I'm way over the waving the pom poms and "go team" stuff. All-Stars is cheer thats moved on to bigger and better things!

Although, with that said... I see nothing wrong with High School Cheer. It's just a lot more boring than All-Stars. Even though they are both "cheerleading", it is like comparing apples and oranges. Watching All-Stars on ESPN is my favorite, but I am impressed by some good High-School Teams as well, there's just fewer of them to really be impressed by.

Personally, we have very few all star gyms in our area, but we have about 10 high school squads here who could beat those all star gyms at a competition. We take our cheer serious around here, high school is where it's at. Our season lasts 11 months out of the year with 3-4 practices a week during the summer in, yes, an un-airconditioned gym. We don't get the benefit of having hundreds of girls to choose from therefore we have to transform newbies into world class athletes in a matter of 2 months before it's time to work on material for games while still working on competition routine. High school cheer, while it's very serious to us, doesn't get a lot of respect from other coaches and we are often "bumped" from the gym and have to stunt and cheer in hallways, outside, or the cafeteria in order to perfect our routines. High school cheerleaders don't get the luxury of focusing on just one 2 1/2 minute routine. They also have to learn at least 8 floor cheers, 10 crowd cheers, and over 75 sidelines to perform at games. High school cheerleaders don't get the luxury of only having to hit a routine 1 time. We have to hit our routines and cheers every game, at least 2 times a week not to mention practices. High school cheerleaders also have to work within the very strict guidelines that we have for stunting, which are much more strict than all star so coaches and choreographers, if you're lucky enough to be able to afford one, have to become that much more creative on how to not look like every other squad.

While I appreciate the athleticism that all stars brings to the table and I enjoy all stars, high school cheerleaders are far from inferior. Perhaps some aren't used to the hard work and dedication that high school cheerleaders in my area put forth, but watch us perform and you'll remember the name.