State Allstars Tiny Novice 1 Mini 1 Youth 2 Youth 3 Junior 3 Junior 6 Senior 4.2 Senior 4 Senior Open Coed 6
The trends I’m noticing so far: Less teams/larger in size More high level youth and junior teams Lots of gyms introducing lower level international teams this season. I’m seeing lots of junior international teams levels 1-4 More non tumble teams
With the rising cost of the sport, having bigger teams makes it more financially beneficial for gyms in terms of choreo costs, music costs and coaching overhead costs. Add in the less burnout on athletes and it’s a win win. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It helps keep the overall cost per athlete lower, which is generally great for parents, gyms, and event producers. The trend over the last few years has been for teams to get smaller, so a trend the other way is a positive. (It isn't always possible to make it work, but I like that more gyms seem to be going that way.)
*** Upper Merion All Stars*** Tiny Fundamentals Prep 1 Novice 1 Mini Prep 1 Youth 2 Youth 3 Junior 2.1 Junior 3 Junior 5 Junior 6 Senior 4 Senior 6 XS Co-Ed (Worlds) Senior 6 Sm Open Co-Ed (Worlds)
I'm been involved with All-star cheerleading since 2005, so basically the second year of Worlds, and I echo many people's comments that I'm not OFFICIALLY confused by all these new divisions. It was a headache to figure out Senior vs. Senior Open vs. International this year and now it's a whole other mess. There's a Junior 2.1 now or was that your own team on the fence about being J2 vs. J1? Can someone also clarify International Junior Divisions? Like is this the same thing as Senior vs International where ages are slightly different + tumbling/building is valued slightly differently?
2.1, and 3.1/3.2 are prep divisions and were added last year. And yes international junior and senior are under IASF like int'l open is and have different age ranges and scoring. Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
I believe I understand the new divisions/brackets/scoring, and I think I even understand the rationale behind each change. But from a big-picture point of view, the whole thing is utter craziness. We spent a tremendous amount of effort 15-20 years ago trying to unify/simplify the sport's guidelines and divisions, and now we are heading in the exact opposite way. We do not need hundreds of different divisions from so many different ways to classify teams (ages/levels/gym size/gender/age calculation/tumbling integration/music percentage/geography/length of routine/practice time/etc.). What legitimate sport/activity has that?
Cheer Athletics Plano bringing back wonderkatz (Youth4) exciting too see more gyms joining this division and growing their youth programs even more!
CEA Charlotte tweeting about having Youth 4 too. Looks like that division is making a comeback. When my CP was first in that division there was Prodigy, WE, Stingrays, CEA Raleigh, CEA Charlotte, Spirit of Texas and Cheer Athletics and then over the past few years it got smaller but it looks like a lot are bringing it back this season.
@BlueCat will we be seeing a spread of Plano teams this year like you used to post? I always look forward to seeing Plano's growth/team structuring year by year, especially this year with the new divisions
Yes, but we don't finalize teams in all location until next week. We are generally trying to increase team size when possible, and not necessarily trying to have more teams. (That is a general strategy, sometimes specific situations require different actions.)
Flyerz announced a 7.0 all girl and a 7.0 coed which I’m assuming means a major player is officially in the non tumble 7 game! Really excited to see this division this year and in future seasons!
An easy fix to eliminate some divisions is for the US to follow most of the world and remove the age cap for senior teams.
