All-Star Cheer Parents, I Beg Of You...

[KRECCheer]

Always have a meeting place or simply walk the team back to the bleachers.

her child who would've been long-since released after watching the video and getting the post-performance pep talk.
quote]

A coach should never just release children, especially those on a mini or youth team. We always wait until a parent has come for their child.

 

[CharlotteASMom]

I agree the planning at CANAM was ridiculous this weekend but also agree with the previous posters that having a plan in place before the competiton can alleviate these issues. We received an email gym wide stating our meeting place outside the arena. Our coaches stay with the Tiny/Mini/Yout kids until they are picked up regardless of warm-ups. Nothing is ever fool proof but it worked pretty well under unusual circumstances.

 

[Alexandria_1025]

VIP stands for Very Impatient People. No matter how hard you try to accommodate people in the section, there is going to be people who feel as though they deserve more. What I dislike the most is when teams or athletes from other teams pile up in there and take away from the athletes and parents who are affiliated with the gym.
For example:
I'm a cheerleader on stingrays and I want to see stingrays smoke. Instead of being able to cheer my hardest in the front of the VIP section I'm forced to barely see anything because team so and so from gym whatever took all of the good seats to watch smoke.

 

[CharlotteASMom]

VIP stands for Very Impatient People. No matter how hard you try to accommodate people in the section, there is going to be people who feel as though they deserve more. What I dislike the most is when teams or athletes from other teams pile up in there and take away from the athletes and parents who are affiliated with the gym.
For example:
I'm a cheerleader on stingrays and I want to see stingrays smoke. Instead of being able to cheer my hardest in the front of the VIP section I'm forced to barely see anything because team so and so from gym whatever took all of the good seats to watch smoke.

Well it is pretty awesome to see Smoke up close and personal!

But I agree, I usually sit to the back when watching a team that my daughter is not on.

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

I agree the planning at CANAM was ridiculous this weekend but also agree with the previous posters that having a plan in place before the competiton can alleviate these issues. We received an email gym wide stating our meeting place outside the arena. Our coaches stay with the Tiny/Mini/Yout kids until they are picked up regardless of warm-ups. Nothing is ever fool proof but it worked pretty well under unusual circumstances.

Yes. It was awful. I think "traffic" would have flowed much better if it had gone the opposite way. As in if you wanted to get to the seating, you went up those righthand stairs first, across the top, down the left side, and walked behind the VIP area over to the right side to leave. That also would have eliminated at least some of that massive congestion on the right-hand side where everyone was a)entering the arena b)standing and watching c) lining up to get in the VIP area and d) picking up their kids who just performed.

 

[CharlotteASMom]

Good idea!

 

[Fameous MOM]

Always have a meeting place or simply walk the team back to the bleachers.

Unfortunately, at this past weekend's comp, there were literally hundreds of people packed into the stands, and standing on the floor on the opposite side of the VIP exit. The afore-mentioned 9-year-olds Mom still would've had to wade through all those people clogging the stands, then make her back down through the stands on the opposite side and through the masses of fans gathered for another team at the entrance to the VIP area in order to get to her child who would've been long-since released after watching the video and getting the post-performance pep talk.
Though I definitely agree that a meeting place is nice, at very least, mini and youth-age teams should only be released to parents or known representatives of parents at events that large. There's no way in the world 2-3 coaches could have corralled 36 small children through that throng to even GET TO a meeting place. And the sponsoring company should understand the safety of the KIDS comes first. Let the parents get to their children!

We must have been at the same comp lol!