College University Of Maryland Competitive Cheer!

[Future]

I never said people couldn't commend or embrace this. Its a really cool new sport...But I was a Gymnast for my whole life...i left gymnastics for the excitement and adrenaline of cheer. That meet had the same pace and Atmosphere as a good gymnastics meet (personally I would say gymnastics is now more exciting). Honestly this meet seemed to drag on forever and get more and more boring. Gymnastics is a slow paced sport, but u wait and hold your breath for those moments that take your breath away like the amazing dismounts or release moves...i watched the whole meet and didn't have an eye catching moment. Your right it is as far from gymnastics as it is from cheer, It is its OWN sport. Which makes me wonder why its associated with cheer at all.

Why is it associated? It is associated to the tune of 2 million dollars that have gone to the cheer, gymnastics, diving, track and field, and other athletes via programs at universities, including scholarships. 85% of these athletes come from a cheer gym or high school background.....Why would these university coaches not look at these athletes?

 

[Mightymouse34]

Why is it associated? It is associated to the tune of 2 million dollars that have gone to the cheer, gymnastics, diving, track and field, and other athletes via programs at universities, including scholarships. 85% of these athletes come from a cheer gym or high school background.....Why would these university coaches not look at these athletes?

If cheerleaders want to do that sport there is nothing wrong with it...its associated because were are talking about it on a CHEERLEADING forum. I never said coaches couldn't look at these athletes. My point was and will remain that this whole NCATA thing was born out of the attempt to make cheerleading a sport...and what happened? They created something that is in fact not cheerleading. In my personal opinion they failed to make cheerleading a sport and give cheerleaders the true recognition of athletes they deserve. As said before congrats to all those who participate and benefit from NCATA, its and extreme accomplishment. But in my opinion you can keep the scholarships and the money, and ill keep my cheerleading. I never needed a university to tell me I am collegiate athlete, I already knew.

 

[cdscheergirls]

This meet style is new and from my understanding the reasons this meet style came into being stems back to the Quinnipiac Title IX court case. Some of the comments in the judges ruling (against cheer and for volleyball) is 1)the team needed a "regular season" NOT just ..we're going to this competition and competing against these teams...we think 2)You need to track the athletes' stats, so All-American's can be determined (as in any NCAA sport).

So having attended most of these meets and the Oregon/UMD championship this past weekend, I commend but also have deep concerns about this whole set up. The meet style gives us SO much more to enjoy than just a mere 2:30. However, I believe the scoring matrix was not detailed enough and was really taken advantage of by the Oregon program. From what I understand, the matrix counts bases steps (bad) vs flyer flexibility, body positions etc. So reading the comments on this thread saying "Oregon won most of the heats/rounds leading into the final routine" is really distorting. From my layman's perspective..Oregon got the same stunt value for putting up a switch up lib as Maryland did for doing a quarter switch up straight to stretch/bow. There were no points given for flexibility or flyer positioning. UMD just didn't want to stray away from what they do so well (showmanship/flexibility/finesse.inovation) just to "work the score sheet". Yet Oregon decided to go the route of putting up 2 mans and 1 mans...excuse me 1-womans (with no flexibility/and actually looked shaky) ...just to hit a scoresheet.

In addition (and I know I'm biased on this but you can judge for yourself and look on goducks.com video coverage)...there were definitely scoring issues throughout the competition. UMD's tumbling pass which scored a 9.5 and WON the individual tumbling award earlier in the day...1 hour later scored an 8.3. They must have "thought" she stepped off the mat but it's obvious on the replay...she landed in control ON the matt and turned and stepped off the matt. That alone cost UMD over 1 point in those "heats" that Oregon "won". Many more of these sorts of things happened.

Yes, change is uncomfortable. I can definitely accept that an go with growing pains. However....this weekend was really not right. The UMD/Oregon meet rewarded manipulations of the scoresheet and there was such a level of bias that it was embarassing. This is a shame because these coaches/administrators have worked so hard to stand behind this emerging sport. Almost 500,000 young men & women are committed to "cheerleading" across the country. We don't need to "create a new sport" we are trying to VALIDATE and SANCTION a sport that our kids have grown to love over the past 15 years. So for those of you who say.....this isn't cheerleading...."HELLO?!?...it has sprung up from cheerleading. Let's not distort it into some crude form of acrobatics...

Well...I better get off this soap box I'm on because it's about to collapse under me!

 

[ztaprincess]

Cheer, as defined by the Women's Sports Foundation and Office of Civil Rights have determined the current cheer model of just a 2.5 minute routine, is NOT a sport, it is considered 'entertainment'. Before it could be deemed a sport of any kind for any reason, it had to change, become much more than 2.5 minute 'performance'....it needed to have all of the parts of sport included.

If that is the case then it not a sport, changing the format created something NEW which means you are not making CHEER a sport. You are creating a new sport. I'm sorry but what NCATA is not cheerleading so how is what they are doing making cheer a sport?

I would also like to know how well this is catching on and how many schools are signed on to do this next year???

 

[cdscheergirls]

I have "heard" there a 2-3 more well-known "cheer" schools joining NCATA next year. I just don't want to name them. (but I'm worried after this past weekend's "championship"...seriously)

 

[cheermom5678]

I have "heard" there a 2-3 more well-known "cheer" schools joining NCATA next year. I just don't want to name them. (but I'm worried after this past weekend's "championship"...seriously)

how many are currently registered? How many schools were registered for the 2010-2011 school year.

 

[cdscheergirls]

College? 6 teams this past season the inaugural season. (Azusa-Pacific, Baylor, Fairmont, Maryland, Oregon, Quinnipiac). Notice I put those ALPHABETICALLY...in the spirit of neutrality! All these teams are following NCAA rules although they are not yet NCAA accredited. This is such a HUGE benefit to have the full backing of the athletic department vs being a club or intramural sport. I'm SO thankful for this from an academic and medical perspective.

 

[cheermom5678]

do you know how many teams are in the Stunt division that Louisville is involved with?

 

[ztaprincess]

I have "heard" there a 2-3 more well-known "cheer" schools joining NCATA next year. I just don't want to name them. (but I'm worried after this past weekend's "championship"...seriously)

That is kind of what I am getting at. If there are parents and athletes who have backed this thing from the beginning and they are seeing major problems how is that going to make those schools who are thinking about joining going to feel?

 

[ztaprincess]

do you know how many teams are in the Stunt division that Louisville is involved with?

6 schools participated in Daytona but there were more teams that did events throughout the year. I know that Morehead did the Cheersport event and were not in Daytona. They talk about the championship in Daytona on the USACheer.net website.

 

[cheermom5678]

6 schools participated in Daytona but there were more teams that did events throughout the year. I know that Morehead did the Cheersport event and were not in Daytona. They talk about the championship in Daytona on the USACheer.net website.

so how may schools total would be registered as a Stunt school? by the way, what is the official name for Stunt?

 

[ztaprincess]

so how may schools total would be registered as a Stunt school? by the way, what is the official name for Stunt?

The website said that 22 schools participated in STUNT events this year. The offical name is STUNT.

 

[cheermom5678]

The website said that 22 schools participated in STUNT events this year. The offical name is STUNT.

thank you for the info, and the web site. I did go there and to their Stunt.org link. I'm very interested in the differences between the 2 emerging sports.

 

[Future]

This meet style is new and from my understanding the reasons this meet style came into being stems back to the Quinnipiac Title IX court case. Some of the comments in the judges ruling (against cheer and for volleyball) is 1)the team needed a "regular season" NOT just ..we're going to this competition and competing against these teams...we think 2)You need to track the athletes' stats, so All-American's can be determined (as in any NCAA sport).

So having attended most of these meets and the Oregon/UMD championship this past weekend, I commend but also have deep concerns about this whole set up. The meet style gives us SO much more to enjoy than just a mere 2:30. However, I believe the scoring matrix was not detailed enough and was really taken advantage of by the Oregon program. From what I understand, the matrix counts bases steps (bad) vs flyer flexibility, body positions etc. So reading the comments on this thread saying "Oregon won most of the heats/rounds leading into the final routine" is really distorting. From my layman's perspective..Oregon got the same stunt value for putting up a switch up lib as Maryland did for doing a quarter switch up straight to stretch/bow. There were no points given for flexibility or flyer positioning. UMD just didn't want to stray away from what they do so well (showmanship/flexibility/finesse.inovation) just to "work the score sheet". Yet Oregon decided to go the route of putting up 2 mans and 1 mans...excuse me 1-womans (with no flexibility/and actually looked shaky) ...just to hit a scoresheet.

In addition (and I know I'm biased on this but you can judge for yourself and look on goducks.com video coverage)...there were definitely scoring issues throughout the competition. UMD's tumbling pass which scored a 9.5 and WON the individual tumbling award earlier in the day...1 hour later scored an 8.3. They must have "thought" she stepped off the mat but it's obvious on the replay...she landed in control ON the matt and turned and stepped off the matt. That alone cost UMD over 1 point in those "heats" that Oregon "won". Many more of these sorts of things happened.

Yes, change is uncomfortable. I can definitely accept that an go with growing pains. However....this weekend was really not right. The UMD/Oregon meet rewarded manipulations of the scoresheet and there was such a level of bias that it was embarassing. This is a shame because these coaches/administrators have worked so hard to stand behind this emerging sport. Almost 500,000 young men & women are committed to "cheerleading" across the country. We don't need to "create a new sport" we are trying to VALIDATE and SANCTION a sport that our kids have grown to love over the past 15 years. So for those of you who say.....this isn't cheerleading...."HELLO?!?...it has sprung up from cheerleading. Let's not distort it into some crude form of acrobatics...

Well...I better get off this soap box I'm on because it's about to collapse under me!

The coaches themselves arrived at the score sheet used for NCATA. If coaches feel it is not serving them well, then change it to reflect what they want. University of Maryland showed tremendous athletic ability on their team, as did others. The scoring was a bit different due to the change up of judges for each meet (does not lend itself to consistency). Should not really happen that way, in my opinion.

 

[taytay]

i think there were a lot of dead spots in md's routine. YES!!! Their TUMBLING IS AMAZING!!!!!! clean, amazing, gorgeous, powerful! I seriously wanted to die cuz they make it look ssooo effortless and they are on non spring!!!!!! MD reallly REALLY impressed me!! But Oregons stunts were harder(strength-wise), and more numerous to my first time watching eye. The strength and endurance in Oregons routine was more level 6 and MDs looked like a good lvl 5, so it just depends on what is scored higher, does cleanliness count, what is more heavily weighed, stunts or tumble? again im not well versed in this sport or rules but just my opinion