All-Star Communities Without A L5 Team

[L5cheermom]

I live in a metropolitan area in coastal SC with a population of 600K+. There are basically 6 All-Star gyms in the area. Only one has even a L4 team (which won NCA this year). There have been gyms in the area for more than 10 years. I am baffled that we simply cannot produce the interest/skill in a community of this size to generate a L5 team. Are there other similar sized communities that have the same problem? I have a few theories. One is that we do not have any large university presence where young people see skilled cheerleaders in action. Another is that our population is spread around a fairly large geographic area. Any other thoughts? Or ideas for increasing interest?


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[AllstarObsession]

My community is commonly referred to as "The Boonies" of California cheer. I live out towards the coast of California, and the closest "big" gym we have is Cali Livermore and now PCM Vacaville. These are both across the bay from me, and while GoogleMaps says around an hour and a half to two hours for the drive, bay area traffic can easily double that time.

For a lot of cheer families, its too far. My county has one prominent gym, and the highest team is ss level 3. There is enough interest to field several very large rec programs, large high school teams, and several low level (we're talking youth and junior 1 here) gyms, and they all tend to be coached by moms/"I cheered in high school once so I know..." type coaches. There are also several gymnastics gyms with decently high level athletes. However, level 5 is a long ways off for us. In other words, there are a lot of level one, two, and three cheerleaders here, and that's about where it caps off. Everyone else goes to Cali. Having a tuck is a big deal here, let alone a full. Multiple athletes? Forget it.

We have a relatively small California State University here, Sonoma State. From recent Facebook posts, I'm gathering that they're receiving help from aforementioned level 3 gym. Progress, I guess.

My best guess is that cheerleading just isn't taken very seriously around here. No hate at all, because I've been involved with this community for my entire life and never passed the bare minimum of level 4 (if that). I would just love to see some progress!

 

[CheerBank]

On Long Island there are at least 6 all-star gyms within a 30-40 mile radius but not one has yet been able to field a truly competitive level 5 team. Most of the gyms have sent teams to World on AL bids at one time or another, and one sent an IAG on a full paid this past season that made it to semis, but for the most part, high school cheer and other sports (soccer, lax) take precedence over all-stars. We also see a lot of kids on half-year teams, but not many of them make the transition and committment to full year teams.

 

[SheCheers]

I live in a metropolitan area in coastal SC with a population of 600K+. There are basically 6 All-Star gyms in the area. Only one has even a L4 team (which won NCA this year). There have been gyms in the area for more than 10 years. I am baffled that we simply cannot produce the interest/skill in a community of this size to generate a L5 team. Are there other similar sized communities that have the same problem? I have a few theories. One is that we do not have any large university presence where young people see skilled cheerleaders in action. Another is that our population is spread around a fairly large geographic area. Any other thoughts? Or ideas for increasing interest?


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San Antonio, tx, over a million people, and never produced a worlds team in the recent past (or possibly ever). There have been some restricted teams at times, but nothing competitive until last year. We lived there for 9 years and 7 of those years cp cheered there, but I don't ever recall seeing any level 5 that could hang in my time. There is a private high school that seems to have a great team year after year with majority fulls, so the talent is around. Just don't know where they choose to go...most likely Austin and Houston.

 

[AScheer]

Sort of surprisingly the middle Tennessee area has been having a dry spell for L5 the past couple of years, though I think a new generation is coming up this season. With the strong cheer background and competitive school programs it's a little odd. It's been a rebuilding phase for sure.

 

[amanda-flips]

San Antonio, tx, over a million people, and never produced a worlds team in the recent past (or possibly ever). There have been some restricted teams at times, but nothing competitive until last year. We lived there for 9 years and 7 of those years cp cheered there, but I don't ever recall seeing any level 5 that could hang in my time. There is a private high school that seems to have a great team year after year with majority fulls, so the talent is around. Just don't know where they choose to go...most likely Austin and Houston.

I think Pinnacle had a world team in 2009 and I think Stars Vipers (in Schertz, but close enough?) has a level five team, but I don't know if they're a true level five.



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[CGAcheer]

It takes time to build, especially if Allstar Cheer is relatively young in the area- Less than 8 years old. Add to that the increased demands of what a "level 5" team is compared to a few years ago and it takes even longer to get there.

 

[Cheer Tennessee]

Sort of surprisingly the middle Tennessee area has been having a dry spell for L5 the past couple of years, though I think a new generation is coming up this season. With the strong cheer background and competitive school programs it's a little odd. It's been a rebuilding phase for sure.

Middle Tennessee lost majority of the coaches that trained and successfully coached level 5 athletes.. I can thing of 1 or 2 coaches left.

We used to pour out level 5 talent at premier but all 3 coaches are no longer coaching (Chasity, Greg & Gregory)

Primetyme also lost it's level 5 coaches (Karen, Sarah, Bruce - Greg & Gregory later)

ETA: Still great coaches in Middle TN and great level 5 coaches. Kristen (Cheerville) is amazing & Premier has added some fantastic coaches this season to rebuild.

 

[cheergirl09]

I live in Jacksonville, FL and back in the day there were two big gyms that fielded multiple level 5 teams, American Allstars and Florida Elite. Both gyms are no longer and now there are a bunch of smaller gyms throughout Jax with a few larger gyms who hold their own (Infinity, 1st Class, and Zone). Even with 1million plus people in Jax there still isn't one gym though with a true level 5 team now. Infinity and 1st Class both fielded a R5 last season but neither had a true L5. Jax is overloaded with talent but we have way to many gyms so the talent is spread out.


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[cheernerd5678]

Mid Missouri doesn't have any worlds teams. Capitol city hasn't been the last couple years, and I'm not sure if they were contenders when they did go? We have worlds teams in St Louis and Kansas City though.


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[Cheer Tennessee]

Middle Tennessee lost majority of the coaches that trained and successfully coached level 5 athletes.. I can thing of 1 or 2 coaches left.

We used to pour out level 5 talent at premier but all 3 coaches are no longer coaching (Chasity, Greg & Gregory)

Primetyme also lost it's level 5 coaches (Karen, Sarah, Bruce - Greg & Gregory later)

I think gymnastics gyms enrollment can also effect cheer gyms.. When Let it shine was doing fantastic with elite gymnast we would get a large number of kids with either technical layouts, fulls & doubles.. When they saw a decline.. So did we

 

[gofriars610]

welllp Maine produced Cat Haley....so there's that....

I know Maine Stars had (has?) an R5 team and Planet Cheer has sent teams to Worlds before, but not within the last two years IIRC.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I actually applaud gyms for NOT fielding them if they do not have a ton of true L5 kids.

Everyone wants the potential financial and PR draw of having a Level 5.

It's easy to slap those two "barely have my full" L5 kids on a team of layouts and call it a 5 team.

It takes a lot more time and patience to let your L4 athletes develop at L4 until they are more well-rounded.

 

[L5cheermom]

It takes a lot more time and patience to let your L4 athletes develop at L4 until they are more well-rounded.

But the quandary is what do you do with that handful of true level 5 athletes while you wait for a dozen or so more kids to catch up? How do you keep them from getting discouraged and moving on. If a gym's highest level team is L4 and that team is full of athletes who aren't going anywhere and not necessarily pushing for L5 skills there really isn't room for advancing kids to even hit that level. It's the cheer equivalent of the glass ceiling. It's really a challenge for small gyms.


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[CGAcheer]

But the quandary is what do you do with that handful of true level 5 athletes while you wait for a dozen or so more kids to catch up? How do you keep them from getting discouraged and moving on. If a gym's highest level team is L4 and that team is full of athletes who aren't going anywhere and not necessarily pushing for L5 skills there really isn't room for advancing kids to even hit that level. It's the cheer equivalent of the glass ceiling. It's really a challenge for small gyms.


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You are prett much correct! It takes a while- within my gym I remember when just a few kids had their tucks, they were the standouts, they didn't really see the kids ahead of them to drive them to try to catch up. Then everybody started getting tucks because their was enough people in front of them for people to realize that it was a very possible goal. We are at that point now with our fulls we have about 8 with it, about 8 working on it and 1 double. The kids that are coming up and have just gotten their tucks are seeing that fulls are a realistic goal and the path is there they just have to follow it.

It's a slow cycle but eventually it catches up