All-Star Cheer Extreme Questions And Answers From Courtney

[StarshipTrooper]

Ok, so I REALLY hate we are hijacking this thread. Should we do this somewhere else? No matter what this thread was intended for questions about CEA and so they could answer them.

Please.

 

[King]

I guess that's where we differ. While it may not be ILLEGAL to do things, if I think something a gym is doing is morally wrong, or hurting the furtherance of our sport, I do care. And while I want to make it clear that I DO NOT hold anything against the parents and athletes involved, I do take issue with the owners that choose to continue the practice. In a sport where the coaches can vote and speak their mind and in the end a panel of judges can override the majority, there's not much more we can do than call out the gyms that are doing what we are against.

I look at it as: I setup an environment where I decide what people can and cannot do. I set the boundaries and limitations. Within those boundaries and limitations there should not be the ability to perform actions I deem unacceptable. If there are I cannot be upset with those people because they did something I allowed them to do. I should be upset at myself for giving them the ability in the first place.

If I allowed people to edit their posts forever on this board should I be mad then when posters start abusing that ability? I know it is gonna happen and there is no way to police it. Instead I get rid of the ability... and away went the problem.

 

[lakerfantlc]

So Courtney..maybe this has been asked...but how did you come to be such a Celine fan?
ps...how'd I do kingston?

 

[King]

I have created a thread to move this dicussion over. Please address further responses over there that are not releated to CEA question and answer.

 

[CoachTamara]

I think though people have been complaining about changing the game but it gets them nowhere because of the $$$ made off it. We have been seeking the USASF it seems like forever about the crossover issue. Still nothing. Very few Ep's will touch it as well because of the $$$. To me a state, regional or national championship means nothing if every division and age is "crossover" with higher level athletes doing lower level skills. Best Level 5 doing a Level 1 pyramid award goes to....Best Level 5 doing a Level 2 Stunt sequence......Arrghh!!!

And I think the major difference is that large gyms have the opportunity to do this on a large scale. I think if I took my level 3 kids that could still do youth 1, it would be about 4 kids and would not make much of a difference.
CEA is not only a large gym but they put themselves out there. I can think of another gym that does it across the board in every level, and their goal is to stay under the radar and come out of nowhere and win. They never allow anyone to question them, because they know they would see backlash like this. Same thing with "try outs" for NCA/Cheersport/Worlds. If you are twitter, you know other gyms are doing the exact same thing.

To each his own. Until there are rules about it, nobody is cheating-they are doing what is best for their business.

 

[WorkToWin]

All of the crossovers at CEA crossover at the same level, correct? That makes a huge difference in my mind. Level 5 athletes are competing on multiple level 5 teams (level 4s on 4, etc.), which personally I don't see anything wrong with it. They are competing at their level.

 

[cheerinfo]

All of the crossovers at CEA crossover at the same level, correct? That makes a huge difference in my mind. Level 5 athletes are competing on multiple level 5 teams (level 4s on 4, etc.), which personally I don't see anything wrong with it. They are competing at their level.

Not sure what their current practice is, but I know in past years, they have crossed over levels as well (not as NCA obviously). I know that youth 5 kids have crossed to youth 2, etc. Again, not illegal, but answering your question.

 

[WORKxB4xUxREIGN]

Has it already been decided where at in Charlotte the new CEA location will be located?

 

[CGAcheer]

Maybe no one will go crazy on me but I think I'll share my opinion-

CEA uses crossovers and they do it very well and to my understanding set up in a way that its not overworking kids and the various other reasons that people use for why they are against crossovers. I think "excessive use" is where people start getting offended and defensive.

NCA Dallas has crossover rules that would affect the teams and which kids can be on which teams if your gym happens to use a lot of crossovers. So I'm sure there has to be some creative rearranging to make it work.

Worlds also has strict crossover rules, so within the alternate rules etc. there has to be some creative rearranging to have all the teams that earned bids be able to compete at worlds.

I don't see where having a "tryout" to help with the creative rearranging. We all know that having tryouts is one of the best ways to get kids to push themselves. We should probably all have tryouts every 3 or 4 months. But saying you're having a tryout is still a tryout even if all the original kids are the ones who made the team. But really who out there has a team that has stayed exactly the same from the original May tryouts all the way through the end of the season?

Stacking a level 5 team? its not like they putting all their level 5 kids on a level 2 or 3 team to go to Dallas.

CEA gets scrutinized because they are a big well known gym that does things differently. Some people may disagree with the way things are done, some may not care, some people might want to figure out how to do it themselves. But people are curious and try to ask and get answers so that they can understand on a thread titled Cheer Extreme Questions And Answers From Courtney and they get other "Teal Army" people being defensive and offended and arguing.

If the USASF makes stricter rules on Crossovers (I think they passed the vote, but for whatever reason the least strict 3team max version passed) it will probably hurt CEA for a season or two, but Courtney and the rest of the staff I'm sure are smart and talented enough to make the adjustments necessary to keep CEA up there as one (or 7) of the top gyms in the country

 

[cheerinfo]

Please post ALL crossover related posts in the NEW thread kingston created. kthanks.

 

[tumbleyoda]

Has it already been decided where at in Charlotte the new CEA location will be located?

???? No more Lake Norman or in addition to Lake Norman?

 

[quitthedrama]

If you dislike USASF and NCA for allowing crossovers, may I suggest you take it up with them and not make CEA the object of your anger?

I do have a huge issue with USASF, and in particular crossovers but I have no vote on the rules committee, so short of sending them emails with my input there is nothing I can do to help change the rules - if I am mistaken and can do more through USASF, please let me know. I can, however, join the vast majority in voicing my opinion on this board in hopes that USASF representatives will recognize major shortcomings in their rules. Regardless, I highly doubt USASF put the rule of no more than ten substitutions in place with the thought process of “hey– why don’t you have ten of your athletes who have already competed this season on teams that received a paid bid and will compete at Worlds on those teams and put them on a team that can’t get a bid on their own so that they can get a bid and then we will have some evaluations to fill the third of the team that can’t legally compete at Worlds because they are already competitng with another team. Is it legal what was done? As much as I hate it, yes it is. Is it ethical? I don’t think so, but you do – we can agree to disagee. Does it show a huge problem with the current rules? I absolutely think so. And one last thought – you seem to think it is only because it relates CEA that I am posting this. However, I have been vocal about other gyms who I don’t feel play within the intent of the rules. I happen to believe that when something is occurring that is detrimental to the sport regardless of whether it is “legal”, it may not be in the spirit in which the rule was created, and should be discussed to better the progression of our sport. And btw - I'm all set with my organs.

 

[King]

Locking this thread for a few hours to move the bigger discussion over.

 

[cheercurl]

I'll let Courtney respond to that if she choses because I do not know the facts. I can tell you all this. WE AT CEA DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU DO INTERNALLY WITH YOUR TEAMS. I just have no idea why CEA is scrutinized at this level. One must conclude that either we beg and invite people to do this, or others are trying to point out these things in an attempt I believe is to diminish the kid's and the staff's success. The dreaded asterisk so to speak. Who else is put under this type of microscope? Maybe you can find incidences similar in similar gyms and post about them? However, I will tell you most of these kids doing the travelling and multiple teams do it themselves for their own reasons and not the behest of the staff. THEY want their kids seen on high profile teams. It would be crazy not to use a standing double at Worlds. How much you wanna bet that would happen anywhere?

Betcha you are right....any team out there is probably going to make room for a standing double. In fact I am willing to go out on a limb here and say 90% of gyms sending teams to Worlds probably re-evaluate their current team to make sure they are all pulling their weight and throwing/performing the skills that they tried out with and were put on that team for. I think CEA may want to consider changing the word new tryouts to re-evaluations. After reading this entire thread that is my take on the CEA World tryout thing....just sayin'

 

[Ceacoach]

We are at UCA this weekend so I very much appreciate the 5 or so pages of this thread that occupied more than a few wait times for rides.

Thanks to bluecat for your wisdom, I think you nailed it and I appreciate your post. After year's of invasive questions i'm used
To the criticism and I appreciate the opportunity to have a platform to shed light on our system.. Mostly because I care a lot about growing our industry and It's possible that if more coaches adopted some of our ideas they may have more athletes which is good for all of us.

Essentially the issue at the very heart of our crossover reasoning is pretty simple. CEA's focus is shifted much more dramatically towards training the individual athletes in our level 1-4 and youth 5 divisions rather than the routines themselves. No doubt our "system" is different and anytime there is a gap of unknown criticism is inevitable. Sometimes in our result oriented culture we forget that all a parent really wants to see or even cares about is their individual athlete succeed and improve. The team's finish is a distant second priority. This reality I learned most emphatically watching Kenley compete in the Dallas arena... Even as the coach of the team I couldn't help but feel the desire to hope she hit over everything else. This "system" and culture is at the heart of why I spend a disproportionate amount of time on programs like next generation. Whatever your personal feeling towards crossing over are one thing I feel I can accurately assess is the following. Athletes who participate on more than one team at CEA accelerate in skill progression much more
rapidly than those who do not. I can also speak from experience in saying that an athlete is much more likely to return for another season following one in which they learned and competed a new skill. A team's success affects our retention rate statistically very little in our program. Therefore, athlete willing to do so they are more likely to improve and therefore return after a season on two teams. No need to defend or refute this position, just offer another way to look at the rationale.

FootNote: We had both a lg jr 5 and lg jr coed 5 In 2011. We weren't certain whether junior elite "a" would compete as a coed or an all girl team at nca ... No one wants to be on a team called junior elite "the other one..not the one goin to nca" so we named one junior
Elite b.. It was very obvious which one was more skilled. What was not clear
Was which team Holden would compete
on .. We reserved the right
To consider where we would be most competitive by naming our "team" in December when we decided which division to enter kville. That is where the language about the "Dallas" team originated. No one including us knew for sure which division JE a would compete in specifically at NCA, If Holden had been added someone would have to come off.. Simple and yet apparently very confusing from the outside


Lastly the issues that have occurred because I didn't finish my march calendar b4 leaving for back to back out of State national #4 and had to resort to posting a weeks worth of practice times on my fb page is a lesson learned.. Next time I'll listen to my assistant and finish it beforehand.

Celine dion...long story

CEA Charlotte is in addition to Lake Norman. Location and Intent will be announced April 1.

I'm sure I missed a question in there somewhere so i'll check back later.

Have a great weekend everyone!! Good Luck at UCA