All-Star Age Changes?

[Amy L]

Interesting. There may not have been a bottom, but now that we said it, here come the crazies. Lol.

Curious: do any higher level Junior teams have kids on them THAT young?

Maybe not 5 year olds but we had at least one girl who was 7 years old turning 8 during the season.

 

[rdavis4]

*that sound you just heard was every Mini 1 mom trying to figure out how to get her 5 year old to stay up past 745 by June because that's when J2 practice starts*

LOL we have those moms. As for me, I'm praying my mini will stay mini this season because the next she will age out and that means riding the bus and staying for the entire competition. She'll do fine with that; I'm not sure I will though lol!

 

[Keep_Believing]

@luv2cheer92 I did, but was focused on the recent bottom ages that were put into place. It made me think they were moving in the right direction. Then this came out............

 

[Cheerfun2]

Interesting. There may not have been a bottom, but now that we said it, here come the crazies. Lol.

Curious: do any higher level Junior teams have kids on them THAT young?

We were on a level 5 Jr team and our youngest was 9 and the oldest all turned 15 during the season. It was a little weird at first bc in terms of development, pre and post puberty kids aren't even in the same galaxy. However, we had great coaches and parents and it all worked. We encouraged the old ones to be mindful of being good role models for the little ones, and the parents of the little ones just had to put their big boy/girl pants on & realize their child might hear slightly inappropriate talk (nothing major, but heck, even the music the older kids listen to is a bit sketchy, you know?) I honestly cannot fathom a parent wanting a 5, 6, 7 year old on a junior team no matter how highly skilled, and I can't imagine a gym owner thinking its a good idea. These things tend to naturally work themselves out.

 

[Mndl]

Unpopular opinion, I think they should allow some flexibility for age brackets for D2 gyms. D1 gyms shouldn't have a problem fielding teams with appropriate age guidelines.

I tend to agree, CP's gym had around 68 athletes, if they'd been allowed to bump junior up to 15 or lower senior to 9 it would have been much easier for them to field teams.

 

[dat.jpp]

I thought it was 7?

When I first started cheer, I thought junior was like 8-14 and youth was 9-11 (why the hell did I think that? LOL)

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Maybe not 5 year olds but we had at least one girl who was 7 years old turning 8 during the season.

The youngest I have known or done privates with was maybe 8?

 

[CLynn]

I think it would have been better to announce these changes (as in no change is happening) sooner as many gyms are already having tryouts.... I was in favor of the changes and think it would have been a step forward.

 

[mischiefmanaged]

I am in the minority but I'm glad they dropped the ages. We are at a very small program in a very rural area, this year they had 1 team, Junior 1 and the ages on it were 6-14 and it worked out fine, there was a variety of ages and they paired the middle school girls up with a younger girl as a "big sister" and the team bonded in a big sister/little sister way. We have actually been trying to figure out how to do teams and we were afraid we would have to turn a couple of girls who are interested away because of the bottom ages and not having a team for them. So this comes as good news for CP's organization.

Edited to add since we are in AZ once they reach high school the girls move on to high school cheer.

 

[Hscoach10]

I find the age grid in general a little ridiculous. 10 to me is too young for senior. I even think 12 is still a little young for a Worlds team, would prefer 13-14. I think youth is okay starting at 5 but junior should be 8-9. I totally get it that small gyms may need exceptions so maybe the d2 gyms having less strict age grids would be a good idea!

 

[CLynn]

I am in the minority but I'm glad they dropped the ages.

I can see how it is better in certain situations, but don't think it is positive for the sport overall.

 

[cherita.cheerology]

I can see how it is better in certain situations, but don't think it is positive for the sport overall.

I agree 100%. It's like they're making rules to compensate for a small percentage of our sport.

 

[mamabear]

One of the most successful NJ gyms doesn't field any youth or mini teams. I am not sure what their youngest aged athlete is but it works for them.

My cp was 9 on a jr team and I think that was the minimum age that I would want her to be. The team never bonded as strongly as her teams have since then (where they are all youth aged).

 

[Rudags]

Just to comment on a few topics on here:

1. I am so happy they "changed it back" (I mean basically they did by making it 5). I don't understand why people are freaking out. There used to be no minimum so they technically raised it 5 years.

2. I dont think making it different for D1 or D2 would be wise. It should be streamlined. I know several "D2" gyms that are now "D1" and I know of several "D1" that are now "D2" - It would be confusing to stray away from a streamlined age grid in my opinion.

3. At the end of the day, its not Varsity or USASF who determines what is a smart coaching decision (AKA putting 5 year old on Junior team) its a gym owner. Personally, even a prodigy 5 year old doesn't have the body awareness or cognitive abilities to pick up junior aged choreography in MOST cases (yes, there will be exceptions to the rule)

4. Hats off to USASF for listening to several complaints. I have seen NOTHING BUT POSITIVE posts from gym owners ecstatic they changed it back (Only negatives have been some gyms already had tryouts).

 

[Cobalt_Jeron]

As a small small gym (30 kids), I'm happy they changed it back. It means being able to field 2 teams vs 4 like we were going to. 1 of the 4 teams only having 3 kids on it at the moment.

Sure we would love to max out an age group for youth, junior, etc. It gives you the best advantage possible (most mature kids possible for your age group). But with only 30 kids ranging in age from 6 to 17 it's nearly an impossibility. Then add in the fact the skills range from, never cheered before with no tumbling, to experienced level 3-4 kids it makes it even harder.

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