All-Star Legitimate Nationals

[gymrat12]

It also depends if you're in a "popular" division. Sorry, but when my tinys won 1st out of 14 at a "nationals" I acted like they had won the super bowl! There's always divisions that are more popular than others (tiny 1, mini 1, youth 2, senior 2, etc) which makes winning that division exciting no matter what comp it is! But I definitely understand where you are coming from! There's a local gym who's biggest team (junior 2, yes jr2!) advertises EVERYWHERE about their "National Title Holders" and if you're smart enough to look up results they won small gym small junior 1 against themselves.... you my friend are not a "National Champion":banghead:

 

[xolaurennnxo]

Yes but my problem with it is, if you really want to compete against the best of the best teams in your division in the nation, I wouldn't go to those competitions. If those are the only national competitions you plan on going to.

i completly understand where your comming from but some of those comps we do compete against really good teams...like my team competed against stingrays, famous ect

 

[IowaEliteJulia]

I'm curious to know if anyone has the participation numbers for all of the "national" championships. We all know that NCA is the largest with over 850 teams but what about the others? I know DCC Nationals (Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders partnered with Spirit Celebration) had over 350 teams participating. Anybody have the numbers for the others?

UCA had around 450 teams this year. Cheersport i think had about 800. Jamfest Supernationals had 400-500 teams

 

[as1rico]

I feel there is a very strong "second tier" Nationals behind Cheersport, NCA and Jamfest Super Nationals....BATC, Spirit Sports BATB, Battle under the Big Top, pretty sure all these are pushing the 400 team number. To me thats a respectable number for a National over 400 teams.

 

[gymcatmomx2]

It also depends if you're in a "popular" division. Sorry, but when my tinys won 1st out of 14 at a "nationals" I acted like they had won the super bowl! There's always divisions that are more popular than others (tiny 1, mini 1, youth 2, senior 2, etc) which makes winning that division exciting no matter what comp it is! But I definitely understand where you are coming from! There's a local gym who's biggest team (junior 2, yes jr2!) advertises EVERYWHERE about their "National Title Holders" and if you're smart enough to look up results they won small gym small junior 1 against themselves.... you my friend are not a "National Champion":banghead:

I completely agree with you about the younger teams and how exciting it is when they win!! Our mini level 1 team has won high point at 2 "nationals" out of 58 and 63 small and large gyms. Now that's an accomplishment!!

 

[gymrat12]

I completely agree with you about the younger teams and how exciting it is when they win!! Our mini level 1 team has won high point at 2 "nationals" out of 58 and 63 small and large gyms. Now that's an accomplishment!!

An accomplishment indeed!! That's great!!

 

[Deleted member 15]

I'm curious to know if anyone has the participation numbers for all of the "national" championships. We all know that NCA is the largest with over 850 teams but what about the others? I know DCC Nationals (Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders partnered with Spirit Celebration) had over 350 teams participating. Anybody have the numbers for the others?

Cheersport has been larger than NCA the past few years. I haven't done the number for this season, but last year Cheersport had more total teams and more all star cheer teams.

 

[gymcatmomx2]

Cheersport has been larger than NCA the past few years. I haven't done the number for this season, but last year Cheersport had more total teams and more all star cheer teams.

I thought NCA touted themselves as being the largest all-star cheer competition in the world... they should probably get their stats corect

 

[Deleted member 15]

I thought NCA touted themselves as being the largest all-star cheer competition in the world... they should probably get their stats corect

They way they word it is something like the largest All Star only competition. Cheersport National also has school teams, making what NCA says true.

I think JAMfest Cheer Super Nationals has also said it's the largest Cheer only nationals, which is also true.

 

[Mom2K]

I don't have a problem with a gym promoting that they won "fill in the blank" nationals nearly as much as those that don't specify at all. There is a local gym that is advertising themselves as the "Home of the 2012 National Champions" as if there is only one, and they are it. Newbies looking for a gym generally won't have a clue what that actually means.

 

[addicted2cheer]

I personally "tier" my nationals in my mind. NCA, Cheersport, UCA, Jamfest are top tier. The next would be comps like, Spirit of Hope or WSF Inday Or similar comps that may not draw all the "big names" but do run 2 or 3 arenas of all star teams. I know of a program that swept what I consider to be a "local regional" from a company that runs 10 to 15 "nationals" a year. Let's face it, most of the people at those comps are locals or within 4 hours or so from the comp. It was a great success and victory for their program. Almost every team had competition and a few divisions had several teams to compete against. What made me laugh was local press on the event where it was quoted from a coach in the program that it was one of the most prestigious comps in the country! It was the week before NCA, I told my kid, oh well, we better not bother going to Dallas, the big national of the year has already taken place! This coach is well educated to how the countries comps run. To me, this was total misrepresentation. People new to cheer read this in the paper and want to be part of a team like this having no idea that they are not getting the whole story. I have no problem attending smaller or regional nationals I just wish there could be another title rather than "national champion" How can one cheer company name 15 national champions in small sr 5?? or any level for that matter? JMO,

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

Okay so I have a growing pet peeve. I see a lot of gyms, mostly smaller gyms, advertising national wins on their websites/facebooks etc. Most likely trying to impress potential new athletes and their families and get them to join. However, a lot of these national championships were won at nationals that I would barely even consider a nationals. I'm talking about the national competitions were their is no qualifier and hardly ever more than 5 teams in each division. So my question is, which national competition do you consider the top 5 to 10 (if you feel 10 should be on the list) most prestigious national competitions?

I don't think "We spent $2000 per family to go to NCA and Lost" is a very effective marketing technique.

 

[yojaehs]

I don't think "We spent $2000 per family to go to NCA and Lost" is a very effective marketing technique.

This all depends on how much research a parent does and what their priorities are. Accomplishments to some might not seem like an accomplishment to others. Even though I feel that NCA is the premier All-Star event, if there are only 3 in your division and you "Win NCA" but two weeks later you face tougher "local" competition with say 10 teams, me personally, I'd be more impressed with the local win, if that makes any sense. There is currently no standard for EP's to distinguish what they call their events so everyone is a "National Champion" these days, which is unfortunate but it is what it is. Small or Large if your product sucks you won't keep clients regardless of what kind of PR tactics you use.

 

[IowaEliteJulia]

I don't think "We spent $2000 per family to go to NCA and Lost" is a very effective marketing technique.

So you're saying false advertisement should be utilized because it is a more effective marketing technique? I think placing at a prestigious nationals can be regarded just as highly as winning a smaller less competitive competition.

 

[MomOf2ThatsMe]

This all depends on how much research a parent does and what their priorities are. Accomplishments to some might not seem like an accomplishment to others. Even though I feel that NCA is the premier All-Star event, if there are only 3 in your division and you "Win NCA" but two weeks later you face tougher "local" competition with say 10 teams, me personally, I'd be more impressed with the local win, if that makes any sense. There is currently no standard for EP's to distinguish what they call their events so everyone is a "National Champion" these days, which is unfortunate but it is what it is. Small or Large if your product sucks you won't keep clients regardless of what kind of PR tactics you use.

Correct; I was only rebutting the argument that gyms advertise their "barely" national titles to essentially dupe athletes and parents. According to the OP it's not worth anything unless it is one of the biggest competitions in the country- which as you noted can still have only 3 teams in the division. IIRC, NCA only had 2 teams in Youth 5. If gyms that are part of the "99%" aren't supposed to use their successes, no matter how small or large on their website, or celebrate them, then what are they supposed to do? How would that make a whole gym of athletes feel? Can you imagine telling the kids at your gym that all but 1 of the competitions you go to each year aren't prestigious enough and the gym will only advertise "true" national titles from the big one? That would be a very effective way to chase parents out the door with their checkbooks in hand.