All-Star Texas Approves Cheer As A Sport For High Schools

[gofriars610]

It's all of Missouri. But like @cheernerd5678 said, cheer isn't a sport here, so that rule doesn't apply to us. MSHSAA has tried to strong arm people into choosing one or the other though. An official from them ruined my 14th birthday because they called and berated me, said that they were going to disband my middle school squad, get my allstar squad disqualified from all of our competitions that season, basically threatened ruin my life because cheer was my world at that time. My mom got involved, there may have been some creative sharing of details and omission of other details, but I was eventually able to cheer middle school sideline and all-star because I was only competing with one and comps didn't start until after football season ended. It also helped that my gym was across state line so they had no jurisdiction to control my gym in KS. It's been nearly ten years and I still resent MSHSAA to this day.

and I thought the Maine Principal's Association was absurd....good night nurse.

In Maine, the only sport that has rules like this is swimming. This was because swimmers would train all week with their club teams and only show up with their school teams on meet days. That's not exactly a "team." In other sports, (if time allows, obviously) doing high school and club at the same time is fine.

 

[cheernerd5678]

It's all of Missouri. But like @cheernerd5678 said, cheer isn't a sport here, so that rule doesn't apply to us. MSHSAA has tried to strong arm people into choosing one or the other though. An official from them ruined my 14th birthday because they called and berated me, said that they were going to disband my middle school squad, get my allstar squad disqualified from all of our competitions that season, basically threatened ruin my life because cheer was my world at that time. My mom got involved, there may have been some creative sharing of details and omission of other details, but I was eventually able to cheer middle school sideline and all-star because I was only competing with one and comps didn't start until after football season ended. It also helped that my gym was across state line so they had no jurisdiction to control my gym in KS. It's been nearly ten years and I still resent MSHSAA to this day.

Wow! I've never heard of them doing that, nobody I know has had issues with it. That's ridiculous... I would've been like "if you want me to choose, you can make cheer a sport, and lose all your talent. But since we're not a sport I don't have to follow that rule."


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[BlueCat]

When bureaucrats get involved, logic doesn't always prevail.

 

[Angelica]

I just wish they filmed the segment at a gym where the coaches wore shoes -_-

 

[ashscott41]

Wow! I've never heard of them doing that, nobody I know has had issues with it. That's ridiculous... I would've been like "if you want me to choose, you can make cheer a sport, and lose all your talent. But since we're not a sport I don't have to follow that rule."


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It was a long time ago and I think at the time they were trying to decide if they wanted us to be a sport or an activity. I know for a fact I wasn't breaking any rules at the time because my parents did a ton of research before I tried out at school. I'm pretty sure all this only happened because of a Suzie's mom that was mad her daughter had made the "lower" squad at school. If it had gone down on any other day, I probably would feel differently. The fact that a grown man yelled at a teenage girl on her birthday about something out of her control made me realize that MSHSAA is just crazy and I have never supported them since. I had a friend go through similar situation with swim, so it's definitely not just cheer. Missouri is just crazy about high school sports

 

[cheernerd5678]

It was a long time ago and I think at the time they were trying to decide if they wanted us to be a sport or an activity. I know for a fact I wasn't breaking any rules at the time because my parents did a ton of research before I tried out at school. I'm pretty sure all this only happened because of a Suzie's mom that was mad her daughter had made the "lower" squad at school. If it had gone down on any other day, I probably would feel differently. The fact that a grown man yelled at a teenage girl on her birthday about something out of her control made me realize that MSHSAA is just crazy and I have never supported them since. I had a friend go through similar situation with swim, so it's definitely not just cheer. Missouri is just crazy about high school sports

Yeah they're definitely crazy about the actual "sports." There are so many crazy rules and nobody's afraid to tattle on each other for things that aren't even really breaking rules.
Unrelated but once I was taking a picture at a swim meet and an official almost pushed me into the water with a $1000 camera. Excuse you.


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[SL&AM]

It's all of Missouri. But like @cheernerd5678 said, cheer isn't a sport here, so that rule doesn't apply to us. MSHSAA has tried to strong arm people into choosing one or the other though. An official from them ruined my 14th birthday because they called and berated me, said that they were going to disband my middle school squad, get my allstar squad disqualified from all of our competitions that season, basically threatened ruin my life because cheer was my world at that time. My mom got involved, there may have been some creative sharing of details and omission of other details, but I was eventually able to cheer middle school sideline and all-star because I was only competing with one and comps didn't start until after football season ended. It also helped that my gym was across state line so they had no jurisdiction to control my gym in KS. It's been nearly ten years and I still resent MSHSAA to this day.

Got it Yeah, it took me a second to re-read the last line. One of our assistant coach's at my CP's gym is a HS cheerleader and I'd hate to see her put in that position. And then I know quite a few girl's who do both, locally and then at the second gym CP is at this summer.

Makes me thankful we'll be moving out of MO before this will ever affect CP though it does give me something more to look for in deciding on the next place to move.

 

[luv2cheer92]

This just makes me glad Virginia doesn't follow that rule. Cheer is a sport here and you can do both. I only did school cheer and didn't do allstar cheer, but I did travel and school soccer every year. It was pretty much an unwritten rule that you had to be on a club team to make the varsity soccer team, boys and girls. Why, I have no idea, I guess they thought it made you a better player. But it would have been really hard for me to pick between the two.


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[Audrey]

I didn't think anything was actually going to come of AMA declaring cheer a sport. It didn't seem that relevant to me. Glad it's actually affecting change though! This is exciting.

 

[Dixie]

The AMA ruling wasn't a big impact in this vote. As with most things it's money and power related. This is a 1 year "test" period to see if the UIL wants to take on cheer. I know many people voted this down because there are still a lot of questions. Who will pay for coaches (actually knowledgable, licensed adults, not just an available staff member to sign up to teach cheer), when funds are tight will districts take away from core curriculum to pay for a cheer program, will cheer programs like the UIL following their every move? It might be a step in the right direction, but it might be opening a can of worms most wanted to remain closed. Certainly will be interesting to watch.


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[CheerExtra]

I keep seeing people talk about cheer being approved as a sport for high-school here and there but I never looked into it much, what does this actually mean? They're talking about changing the safety rules and regulations but besides that what changes? Is it really gonna be that big of a difference? I feel like the only things I have heard about it are negative. Especially if high-school cheer turning into an official sport means choosing between allstar or high-school, almost every allstar cheerleader I know is also on their high-school or middle-school team.

 

[luv2cheer92]

I keep seeing people talk about cheer being approved as a sport for high-school here and there but I never looked into it much, what does this actually mean? They're talking about changing the safety rules and regulations but besides that what changes? Is it really gonna be that big of a difference? I feel like the only things I have heard about it are negative. Especially if high-school cheer turning into an official sport means choosing between allstar or high-school, almost every allstar cheerleader I know is also on their high-school or middle-school team.

Is it a guarantee that will happen though? There are several states where cheer is a sport that you don't have to choose.


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[delbelle2.0]

We have access to the school's athletic trainer just like all the sports do. I'm not sure if it's the same at the other high schools in town (or the rest of the state).
We also have a full set of mats (no Velcro though). Not all schools have a full mat. We practice in the gym during the summer but when we can't get the gym during the school year, we practice in the commons. This year they took the old weight room and made it the "spirit room" that we share with dance... It's big enough to roll out 4 mats so not very useful for running routines. We are hopefully getting a new set of mats and Velcro this year as a part of the spirit room "project" (I will throw a party once we have all easy rolls). This is just my school, I know it's pretty inconsistent through the state. We're a big school with a strong athletic program and generous donors.

ETA: the competitions are pretty disorganized. At regionals we don't have a real warmup room. The "warmup room" is a meeting room with ceilings that aren't even high enough to warm up a prep, and no mats. There's nowhere to sit either. State is okay I guess. There's a warmup room at least, but it seems like forever from warmups to actually competing.
Missouri struggles.

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Yes! I used to compete at regionals and state and one year "warm-ups" was in a hot windowless room and then one year they made us all shove in this small section and we couldn't talk to our parents. At least state was a little more organized but scoring is still sketchy at least at the regional level.

 

[King]

I keep seeing people talk about cheer being approved as a sport for high-school here and there but I never looked into it much, what does this actually mean? They're talking about changing the safety rules and regulations but besides that what changes? Is it really gonna be that big of a difference? I feel like the only things I have heard about it are negative. Especially if high-school cheer turning into an official sport means choosing between allstar or high-school, almost every allstar cheerleader I know is also on their high-school or middle-school team.

There is probably a list of positives and negatives. What we think might happen:

Possible Positives:
Better requirements for practice facilities
Better required training for coaches
Better athletic training

Possible Negatives:
Force people to choose between allstar and high school
Limit the amount Allstar Gyms can help high school
Regulations make competition impossible or even force HS to go ground bound
Possible elimination of high school participation in national championship

I know I listed more on the negative but quality wise i think the ones on the positive are more important. There are possibly others I am not thinking about. If anyone has them please add.

 

[CheerBank]

It's a waiting game in NY right now to see what changes will be made, especially with regards to nationals.