All-Star Csp Tweet: No More Travelling For Cea Teams.

[Official OWECheer]

I think we only had 2 or 3 allstars on my school team my whole 4 years. And they all ended up quitting allstars at some point to just do school cheer even though our competition season was only like 2-3 months long. There may be more now since allstar is more popular in the area, not sure, just realized I graduated almost 6 years ago and now I feel weird.

I hope that works for me. I want to start coaching middle school or high school cheer in my area, and I am afraid that I won't be able to cultivate an attitude among my athletes that they HAVE to get better.

 

[mamabear]

I predict it was meant to get me all riled up. I refrained. Lol.

That's ok...I did get riled up on your behalf. Thank goodness, I edited myself before I posted what I really wanted to say, since well, you know, I directed it at the wrong person

 

[uhhlyssa01]

I have a question, mainly for the parents footing these bills.

I was never on a team that went to these grand, expensive competitions but my last couple of years we did a lot of competitions. I think my last couple of years the average was 14/15 a season. With around half out of state. So maybe my bill per year was ~$4000? Nothing in the range of some of these top level teams.

So my questions is at what point, if there is one, do you tell your child "listen, if you want to continue to do this, you need to help out because we cannot afford this on our own"? Im not really talking about "help out around the house more", I'm talking about making them fundraise, getting a job, helping financially with the payments. And clearly I'm taking about highschool students unless you wanna blur the lines of the child labor laws.

Fortunately, both of the gyms I cheered at had concession stands at the local university sports stadium and minor league baseball stadium that you could work as fundraising. In a way it was basically a job and instead of the paycheck going to you, it goes straight to your account at the gym via the booster club. I started working games when I was 14 (even if the age was 16 and older) because my parents made it clear that I needed to help out. My last two years I worked enough to pay for almost all of the money that went to the gym. Tuition, gym fees, competition fees, uniform, event shirts, make-up, whatever. My parents paid for travel and that's it.

I don't see why the older kids can't help out with these outrageous expenses. I know how busy it gets, I was on two teams, did tumbling classes, stayed on honor roll and payed for my cheer, but it's possible. If it's something the kids want to do, they should help with the expenses as best they can. And if it's something the kids are super invested in, they will find a way to make it all work. Why should the responsibility be placed solely on the parents?

I'm interested in people's opinions, go!

Starting with the first year I started all stars (7th grade) during the summer my parents would wake me up at 9am every single Saturday, make me put on my practice clothes with a bow in my hair, and go door to door asking for donations. Our booster club was a 501c3 so I could tell them it was a tax write off and had a form for anyone that asked. I freaking. hated it! But the money I earned every summer more than covered all of my competition fees. My parents also made sure I was involved in every fundraiser possible.

I wasn't the kid that stayed in the connecting hotel at every competition. I wasn't the kid that went on a shopping spree every time our team stayed overnight near a mall and eating at 5 star restaurants. I was the kid driving home and back every day if the competition was within 3 hours (even if it meant waking up at 4am to make it in time for warmups). I was sent to stay with other parents sometimes when hotel stays were required. I sure as heck was not allowed to miss a single day of school if it wasn't absolutely necessary, which absolutely necessary did not include getting back from a comp at 2am, I was still required to go to school the next day. It wasn't easy, and sometimes I hated all the extra work my parents made me do, but now I appreciate the lengths they went to to make sure I had the opportunity to stay involved and pursue my passion, and for that I thank them.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Starting with the first year I started all stars (7th grade) during the summer my parents would wake me up at 9am every single Saturday, make me put on my practice clothes with a bow in my hair, and go door to door asking for donations. Our booster club was a 501c3 so I could tell them it was a tax write off and had a form for anyone that asked. I freaking. hated it! But the money I earned every summer more than covered all of my competition fees. My parents also made sure I was involved in every fundraiser possible.

I wasn't the kid that stayed in the connecting hotel at every competition. I wasn't the kid that went on a shopping spree every time our team stayed overnight near a mall and eating at 5 star restaurants. I was the kid driving home and back every day if the competition was within 3 hours (even if it meant waking up at 4am to make it in time for warmups). I was sent to stay with other parents sometimes when hotel stays were required. I sure as heck was not allowed to miss a single day of school if it wasn't absolutely necessary, which absolutely necessary did not include getting back from a comp at 2am, I was still required to go to school the next day. It wasn't easy, and sometimes I hated all the extra work my parents made me do, but now I appreciate the lengths they went to to make sure I had the opportunity to stay involved and pursue my passion, and for that I thank them.

Your parents sound awesome!

 

[uhhlyssa01]

Your parents sound awesome!

Hahaha I sure didn't think so when I was a teenager!

 

[Official OWECheer]

Hahaha I sure didn't think so when I was a teenager!

Lol I almost added "...in hindsight"

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

Starting with the first year I started all stars (7th grade) during the summer my parents would wake me up at 9am every single Saturday, make me put on my practice clothes with a bow in my hair, and go door to door asking for donations. Our booster club was a 501c3 so I could tell them it was a tax write off and had a form for anyone that asked. I freaking. hated it! But the money I earned every summer more than covered all of my competition fees. My parents also made sure I was involved in every fundraiser possible.

I wasn't the kid that stayed in the connecting hotel at every competition. I wasn't the kid that went on a shopping spree every time our team stayed overnight near a mall and eating at 5 star restaurants. I was the kid driving home and back every day if the competition was within 3 hours (even if it meant waking up at 4am to make it in time for warmups). I was sent to stay with other parents sometimes when hotel stays were required. I sure as heck was not allowed to miss a single day of school if it wasn't absolutely necessary, which absolutely necessary did not include getting back from a comp at 2am, I was still required to go to school the next day. It wasn't easy, and sometimes I hated all the extra work my parents made me do, but now I appreciate the lengths they went to to make sure I had the opportunity to stay involved and pursue my passion, and for that I thank them.

Girl same. Except one parent always traveled with me since both were coaches and genuinely loved to watch teams. I definitely wouldn't have been able to accomplish all that I have if my parents hadn't instilled the "the world is not fair" and "work hard to get what you want" mindset in my young little self. And it really all happened because of cheerleading.

Side note: The only time I ever fell asleep in school was when we got back home from Battle at the Beach Monday morning at 5:30am. We spent all night on a bus and I dont sleep on buses. School started 7:30am. It happened in German class and my teacher yelled at me in German. Very scary to wake up to.

 

[seein_starz]

I'm surprised that parents travel that much with their senior level 5 athletes. I mean I would understand big comps like NCA and worlds but the rest I would imagine you would entrust the coaches to keep tabs. Back in my days of AS cheer I think my parents attended two comps and that was it.

My mom always traveled with me, not my dad or brothers/sister. But my mom didn't trust anyone to watch me for the weekend because the one time I went with another family, the mom I was staying with got in a fist fight with another team mom and pretty much all h e double hockey sticks broke loose. So I had to travel with a family member

 

[vannahlexis]

I worked at a daycare while I was in high school. It started right after school and ended right before practice. I was up late doing hw a lot bc that was the only time I could. I skipped prom my senior year to pay for an individual camp that was like $300 and did a lot of team fundraising in the summer to pay for warmups, shoes, camp, camp clothes etc. I used to take our bottles back so I could pay for tumbling clinics lol. My parents def paid for most of the required stuff but I always paid for the extras. Definitely didn't pay 1/2 as much as these level five teams though. But I definitely had time to work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Official OWECheer]

Girl same. I definitely wouldn't have been able to accomplish all that I have if my parents hadn't instilled the "the world is not fair" and "work hard to get what you want" mindset in my young little self. And it really all happened because of cheerleading.

Side note: The only time I ever fell asleep in school was when we got back home from Battle at the Beach Monday morning at 5:30am. We spent all night on a bus and I dont sleep on buses. School started 7:30am. It happened in German class and my teacher yelled at me in German. Very scary to wake up to.

SMH true! There was a girl under one of my videos that posted this:

"my school has only given us four inches 6 feet wide and 4 feet long mats and it has caused so much injury! We often have to even practice on marble because varsity takes the mats (even though we do more advanced stunts lol). We even had to practice outside in the mud in 40 degree weather because we didn't have space to practice and someone landed on their head in stunting because the bases couldn't keep their feet gripped on the ground!"

And this: "It's funny because the school made us practice out there because they didn't want us to look bad at the up-coming first game and if we didn't practice they would cancel our team! WHAT?!"

You can't tell me that the same thing would happen to the football or basketball teams. SMH

 

[uhhlyssa01]

Girl same. Except one parent always traveled with me since both were coaches and genuinely loved to watch teams. I definitely wouldn't have been able to accomplish all that I have if my parents hadn't instilled the "the world is not fair" and "work hard to get what you want" mindset in my young little self. And it really all happened because of cheerleading.

Side note: The only time I ever fell asleep in school was when we got back home from Battle at the Beach Monday morning at 5:30am. We spent all night on a bus and I dont sleep on buses. School started 7:30am. It happened in German class and my teacher yelled at me in German. Very scary to wake up to.

LOL I immediate thought of this meme. Frightening.

 

[Official OWECheer]

It was said before tryouts that while they weren't mandatory, if you were in town you were expected to be there. Cheer is huge in my hometown and the coaches take it very seriously. And I'm sure if someone consistently didn't come for no good reason there would have been consequences.

Lucky you. My state says that we can't "directly or indirectly" make a kid train out of season.

 

[Tator tots]

F5 cancelled UCA? (Just saw it in the UCA thread). To save the families money maybe?

MT F5 is not attending now.

 

[Official OWECheer]

F5 cancelled UCA? (Just saw it in the UCA thread). To save the families money maybe?

This could be the start of something great, who knows? But I think they already have their Worlds bid, so going to UCA would be futile.

 

[Tator tots]

This could be the start of something great, who knows? But I think they already have their Worlds bid, so going to UCA would be futile.

True! But the more I'm thinking about it, canceling a long distance competition so close to the date would be money lost, I would think. Wasn't this competition the last "jewel" in the triple crown?