All-Star Juggling All Star Cheer With Distance And High School Cheer

[Keep_Believing]

My cp is a freshman this year, and for a couple of reasons decided not to try out for the high school team.

That is a really good point. Right now my CP gets between 2-3 hours of homework daily. She does a lot of it in the car drive back and forth to all star cheer. Since she hasn't experienced High School yet, I am not sure how much homework she will get there.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I will say All Star Cheer is the only thing she does, but I see where you are coming from. That is exactly where my concerns are. We can't be in two places at one time and I don't know how much things will overlap.

P.S. I am impressed how much your team practices in the Summer! I bet they are amazing!

Thanks! It's only a short portion of summer (the 4 weeks leading up to our camp and 2 after!) Then we move to just 4/week for 2 hours each in preparation for the school year to start.

 

[mamabear]

My cp is still little but we did balance a very competitive and time consuming rec program with AS for two years. A couple of things that I would also suggest is look at the social events that each team requires. Would she be expected to attend mandatory fundraisers, community events, pep rallies or team bonding activities? Even team pictures caused issues for us.

The other potential problem area might be during the summer. Will choreo conflict? Team camps? Summer practice hours?

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Does your HS insist the Freshman girls do the Freshman team? Do you have Freshman games with a 5th quarter on Thursday nights?

We were able to juggle both so far...but there were nights when I was zipping CP across two counties to make it. There were nights during Freshman year where she would perform in the half time show and we'd have to leave (thank you awesome HS coaches who were understanding) There were times when no matter what CP had to make hard choices and leave her HS team hanging on a Friday night because we had to catch her flight. Again understanding coaches for the most part, though she got benched for missing practice once when our flight home was grounded due to weather and she missed practice...

Then, just when you think you've got the schedule figured out...it's basketball season with games twice a week ...

So doable but requires understanding coaches and a lot of gas and time!

See, I can DEAL with an emergency like "We are stuck snowed in an airport on the way home from Cheersport." You had every intention of being here and I can't stop weather.

I mentioned that as a coach, I am trying to get better with coordinating with different schedules. Part of the deal that I have with parents whose kids do any sort of other time consuming activity is that I need advanced notice.

Example: You probably sat down with your kid's coaches and went over the schedule and knew for sure certain dates where you would not be available. (both on the school and all star side.)

What I can't tolerate is (and same is true for my All Star kids doing school as well) when you knew you couldn't make XYZ but didn't tell me until the last possible minute.

Example: You knew when you made the team in April that your All Star team does XYZ Regional the day of ABC High School comp on February 19th. Yet you just don't tell me. Then come February 10th, you're like "Um, I can't be at ABC. I have XYZ Regional with All Stars, sorry!"

Or you've known since April that your High School's camp week was the same week as choreography for my Senior 2. But you make no mention of it until the practice before you leave.

That is where I get a little less excited about sharing kids. You need to tell me BEFORE the season starts.

 

[MissCongeniality]

See, I can DEAL with an emergency like "We are stuck snowed in an airport on the way home from Cheersport." You had every intention of being here and I can't stop weather.

I mentioned that as a coach, I am trying to get better with coordinating with different schedules. Part of the deal that I have with parents whose kids do any sort of other time consuming activity is that I need advanced notice.

Example: You probably sat down with your kid's coaches and went over the schedule and knew for sure certain dates where you would not be available. (both on the school and all star side.)

What I can't tolerate is (and same is true for my All Star kids doing school as well) when you knew you couldn't make XYZ but didn't tell me until the last possible minute.

Example: You knew when you made the team in April that your All Star team does XYZ Regional the day of ABC High School comp on February 19th. Yet you just don't tell me. Then come February 10th, you're like "Um, I can't be at ABC. I have XYZ Regional with All Stars, sorry!"

Or you've known since April that your High School's camp week was the same week as choreography for my Senior 2. But you make no mention of it until the practice before you leave.

That is where I get a little less excited about sharing kids. You need to tell me BEFORE the season starts.

Yes! Communication and honesty is everything!

 

[Keep_Believing]

@oncecoolcoachnowmom Would you let someone try out who said my all star practices are tentatively on Wed. & Sundays. Here is our last years comp. schedule, but I won't be able to give you a current comp. schedule until the end of July, type situation? How much, is asking too much?

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

^^^^I'm going to be honest, that would be asking me for a whole lot because I have no concrete dates and there is a lot of "tentatively." Especially with the work group aspect in which you know nothing until late summer.

From a coaching perspective, I need kids HERE.

My biggest priorities are summer activities, comps, and games. This is SCHOOL cheer so my biggest issue is with those who are all "I want to do school cheer but my all star team practices Friday nights from 7-10." Um.

If you're not at games, well, you're not really doing school cheer. You're doing like "2 comps a year" cheer with some school stuff thrown in.

You also can't miss practice all the time and expect to participate in comps. It's not fair to the kids who are here.

It is not up to me to really allow someone to try out. I just point out that if you try out and make it, you can't just blindside me with a list of stuff you can't do.

Every program is different, though. Talk to the coaches!

 

[Keep_Believing]

^^^^I'm going to be honest, that would be asking me for a whole lot because I have no concrete dates and there is a lot of "tentatively." Especially with the work group aspect in which you know nothing until late summer.
Every program is different, though. Talk to the coaches!

Appreciate your honesty. Try outs for next school year won't be until March. When should I approach the Coach with my questions. Is now way too early? Should I wait until right before try outs?

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Now is a little early for a March tryout. If I had a tryout that early, I'd be willing to take questions in January/Feb because that's when people start gearing up for it.

 

[Keep_Believing]

Now is a little early for a March tryout. If I had a tryout that early, I'd be willing to take questions in January/Feb because that's when people start gearing up for it.

Thanks, I will ask end of January!

 

[FierceIsTheName]

I am in the same situation your daughter is in for next year. I will be a junior next year, and my parents really want me to get the experience from high school (even though i'd mainly choose allstar). We have been planning to move back to my 1 1/2 hour drive to a gym next year, which practices 2 days a week, and should not really have conflicts with high school practice during the summer (as at my high school they practice at 8 am) My concern is during the school year when on lets say a wednesday i have allstar practice from 6-8:30, which means i will have to leave the house by 3:30/4pm. That leaves no room for high school practice if they had conflict that night. I dont want to make one team feel more important than the other, but allstar is so much more strict that you HAVE to be at practice or you could lose your spots.
I do high school pep band at my school, and during basketball season i've noticed that games are on random weekdays, which led to me having to skip some games to go to allstar practice.
And wow your schools have a freshman squad? We don't even let freshman try out. We just have a varsity squad of 12...

 

[CheerBank]

I remember having conflicts between MS cheer and all-star (including one competition) for my oldest and it was always a struggle running from one thing to another. I also have two younger kids so I had to factor their afterschool activities into the mix as well. I hate half-a$$ing something or pulling from one thing for another especially when you have unreasonable coaches who pretend they are reasonable lol, and that is what was happening. It was quite stressful for me. And the AS gym was only 20 minutes away, not the distance you drive.
Former-cp only did HS her freshman year, she did not do all-star. They practiced 4-5 days after school and getting her to all-star would have been tough, not to mention time to do her school work. She truly became the stellar student she is today after she was all finished with cheer. She would not have been able to do both and keep up with her school work.
Current cp did not even try out for HS this season because she is on 2 team in AS and I would only let her do 2 teams in total. The combination was was her choice, and she wanted to do both in AS. Next season when she has aged out of juniors, she might try out for HS. No freshman made the HS team this season (it is a very senior-heavy team), so it worked out for the best anyway. Cp has friends whose HS coaches will work with the AS schedule, but we never experienced that.
This may have already been mentioned, but a big factor is how competitive your cp's HS squad is. If it is more social, she could probably pull off both. If it is highly competitive it may not be as easy.

 

[Keep_Believing]

Current cp did not even try out for HS this season because she is on 2 team in AS and I would only let her do 2 teams in total. The combination was was her choice, and she wanted to do both in AS.

My youngest CP use to double team at our old small cheer gym. She has said more than once she would love to double team again at our new gym, but they rarely have girls double team. So, do not think I will ever be in a situation to have to figure that one out! LOL

 

[cheerforeverever]

Know what you are getting into before tryouts. Each high school program is VERY different in terms of coaching, practices, games etc.... Its a given that HS will have football games in fall on Thurs and/or Friday. Some schools that share stadiums have games on weird nights like Saturday (or Wedns for JV/fish) too though in TX! Some coaches will work with AS kids, some unfortunately will not....had one "sponsor" my freshmen year that would schedule things on the same day and tell the girls to choose! She was awful (luckily I was taking a break from AS that year......)
Look at the high school constitution (and also their practice calendar if online) to see what is mandatory. Typically you are not able to miss summer camp or any games, period. Practices are able to be more flexible, if it is not a consistent occurrence & if you communicate with both coaches prior. Most senior all star teams will be practicing Mon/Wedn odds are, because they know that Thursdays are JV/fish game days and Fridays are Varsity games. Let the allstar coaches know ASAP what the high school practice days are, so they can work around that when choosing what night each team practices. It gets more dicey for basketball season though because it is usually 1 to 2 weeknights a week (could be Mon-Thurs) and there really is no way of knowing which days will be varsity nights vs. JV nights.

I was able to juggle both growing up, as my school team had a "cheerleading" block during the day as an actual class (so minimal after school practice unless it was a special event) . After school, we'd drive straight to the area the gym was located in (1hr with traffic) and have dinner there/do homework. Then we'd drive back after practice and go to sleep, because i had to wake up for school/practice. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
The worst was a year when I had Varsity games on Friday nights that were far away and then a three hour allstar practice at 9am Saturday morning every week in fall. Often times for away games we would get back to the school past midnight (so not in bed before 1am) & then having to wake up at 8am to actually function for a hard practice the next day was horrible. As those have said before, it was also a lot of homework done in the car, to games, and also during/in between class.........I'd finish work for the actual class I was in (especially during electives) and then work on other homework in that class. I remember studying while eating lunch also, though I sat with the national honor society kids so it wasn't a weird thing to see at the table LOL. During basketball season, we were broken up into several small groups (since not all of us could fit on the side of the court at once) and my coach put me in the group that was assigned to game nights that were on opposite days of my allstar practices thankfully.

 

[FTSP]

My CP is a freshman and is currently doing All Star and high school cheer. It is a huge commitment to do both. She practices for high school M,T,Th,F from 4-6 and Saturday from 9-11. With games Friday night or Saturday afternoon. All Star practices T 7-9, W 7-8 for tumbling and Sunday 6-9. She is not allowed to miss anything for high school cheer or she will be removed from the team. They are very serious about high school sports coming first here. CP is only doing school cheer for football because she is doing the Disney Christmas parade because she was named All American at camp and the high school coach already said she can't miss practice for it.
CP is taking all honors and AP classes so her homework gets done before high school practice and after practice. She is averaging 4 hours a night of homework.