All-Star Your Definition Of A World's Caliber Team

[Mom Jeans]

So here's an interesting question.

Right now, I think I counted something like 70 teams that have bids - either paid or at-large - to Worlds in small senior 5. How many programs have competed small senior 5 teams this year? 100? 150? 200? I wonder what the breakdown would be for other divisions.

I honestly do not know the answer, just curious as to what the ratio is.

I'm curious too, in Calif there are 6 sm sr 5 teams, our biggest div at comps is Int Co-ed I don't know how many but my guess is about 20. Unlimited we have 1. The rest are somewhere in between. Ratio wise the smallest division- minus Unlimited has received the most bids, 5 out of the 6 small senior teams have bids to Worlds.

 

[kristenthegreat]

3 is more an issue with the industry itself with the numerous EPs. I don't know if Varsity at least attempts to coordinate all their diff companies schedules. But on any given weekend, within the same driving distance, you can find multiple events happening. It sounds bad, but they need to find a way to cut these events down and encourage larger numbers at fewer events until cheer is big enough to support the many that go on now; and kinda say tough, you want to compete you have to travel. I know it sounds like a hard lined approach, and it's not to slight the families who want to be involved, but that's the reality of it. It's still a relatively small sport.

That's all well and good for teams in Texas/Florida/Georgia etc, who don't have to travel as far to the big, bid-winning competitions or even the MAJOR competitions in general, but the largest competition that gets CLOSE to the northeast is Athletic in Providence? Maybe you would count a few others, but in general the northeast level 5 teams (the few that there are) have to travel to begin with to get to decent, larger competitions. Slimming it down even more? It'd be nonexistant..

 

[WOWFACTOR]

I was out of town this week on vacation, but a prime example of a team exploiting the kids of their gym just to say they went to worlds happened in Illinois. A team who finished in 11th out of 12 at GLCC in Detroit, the owner wrote an article to the local newspaper saying how his program made it to the world series of cheer after only being together for 4 weeks. He went on to say that they beat gyms that have been practicing for over 6 to 9 months. He did not say he received the bid even though his team finished in last the week before, and second to last at this competition to receive this bid, but earned it by beating other top teams. Then he put business phone number and company website saying how you can try out. This was shown to me because I do not live in same suburb area as this person, but this is what handing out bids that are not earned does. It gives owners who use their kids to promote their gym a chance to fabricate stories to get more people in their gym, which is wrong. I feel this is a slap in the face to all the girls who work extremely hard all year to perfect their routines, to get on stage at national events and earn their bids by winning or placing very high to get bid, not because their is no one else to give it to.

To those concerned here is the actual on-line article from the local paper.

(Photo excluded)
Allstar Athletics Senior 5 team from Tinley Park IL, qualified to compete in the 2011 USASF Worlds Cheerleading Competition in Orlando Florida. This is considered the olympics of cheerleading where athletes from all over the world compete. We are excited to be back participating in this event where we have done very well two other years.

Team members are from various south suburbs and Indiana. Earning this bid was a significant accomplishment for this team. They came together just four weeks ago and learned the routine one week later. Most teams at this level practice six-nine months before having an opportunity to earn a bid. It took a lot of heart, character and parental support to accomplish what they did in such a short time.

Please visit www.usallstarscheer.com for more information about this team or call 708.532.6506 about potential business sponsorships to help with travel costs to attend the competition.

 

[NJ Coach]

To those concerned here is the actual on-line article from the local paper.

(Photo excluded)
Allstar Athletics Senior 5 team from Tinley Park IL, qualified to compete in the 2011 USASF Worlds Cheerleading Competition in Orlando Florida. This is considered the olympics of cheerleading where athletes from all over the world compete. We are excited to be back participating in this event where we have done very well two other years.

Team members are from various south suburbs and Indiana. Earning this bid was a significant accomplishment for this team. They came together just four weeks ago and learned the routine one week later. Most teams at this level practice six-nine months before having an opportunity to earn a bid. It took a lot of heart, character and parental support to accomplish what they did in such a short time.

Please visit www.usallstarscheer.com for more information about this team or call 708.532.6506 about potential business sponsorships to help with travel costs to attend the competition.

I don't know, but that doesn't seem like a bad article at all. They should be proud of the fact they got a bid and have only been together 4 weeks. It's not like it's their fault the other teams already had one.

 

[The Sixth]

That's all well and good for teams in Texas/Florida/Georgia etc, who don't have to travel as far to the big, bid-winning competitions or even the MAJOR competitions in general, but the largest competition that gets CLOSE to the northeast is Athletic in Providence? Maybe you would count a few others, but in general the northeast level 5 teams (the few that there are) have to travel to begin with to get to decent, larger competitions. Slimming it down even more? It'd be nonexistant..

I understand what you're saying. And don't necessarily disagree. Let me expand a bit on what I was saying. I'm not saying cut out all comps not considered major or big. I'm actually targeting some of the smaller ones. Texas for example typically does a majority of comps in San Antonio, H Town, and DFW. But on any given weekend you'll find comps in smaller areas such as Austin, San Marcos, Belton, etc. These are the areas I'd rather say hey travel to the bigger cities to compete. Or at the least have a bit mire strategic planning so the smaller ones aren't competing with each other on the same weekend. So it's not a blanket statement for every part of the county. But in competition rich parts, if the attendance isn't great, then apply it.

 

[Flyer mom]

To those concerned here is the actual on-line article from the local paper.

(Photo excluded)
Allstar Athletics Senior 5 team from Tinley Park IL, qualified to compete in the 2011 USASF Worlds Cheerleading Competition in Orlando Florida. This is considered the olympics of cheerleading where athletes from all over the world compete. We are excited to be back participating in this event where we have done very well two other years.

Team members are from various south suburbs and Indiana. Earning this bid was a significant accomplishment for this team. They came together just four weeks ago and learned the routine one week later. Most teams at this level practice six-nine months before having an opportunity to earn a bid. It took a lot of heart, character and parental support to accomplish what they did in such a short time.

Please visit www.usallstarscheer.com for more information about this team or call 708.532.6506 about potential business sponsorships to help with travel costs to attend the competition.

It is a very simple thing, you should not be rewarded to the largest event in your sport when you come in last, and second to last in your division. This applies to all teams. Is there any other sport, high school, collegiate, professional, where you get rewarded to the perform at the olympics of their sport when finishing so low. I understand it is about money, but there should be some minimum requirements to get in. They are throwing harder stunts in the level 4, and sometimes even level 3 divisions then some of these teams used to recieve a bid. I am not blaming the kids, who are working their butt off to get a bid, but what lessons are you teaching them. It is ok if you finish last, you will be rewarded anyway because everyone else already won. Their is a reason why most teams practice 6-9 months before having an opportunity to earn a bid, so they don't finish at the bottom of their division when doing it.

 

[CheerCoach84]

It is a very simple thing, you should not be rewarded to the largest event in your sport when you come in last, and second to last in your division. This applies to all teams. Is there any other sport, high school, collegiate, professional, where you get rewarded to the perform at the olympics of their sport when finishing so low. I understand it is about money, but there should be some minimum requirements to get in. They are throwing harder stunts in the level 4, and sometimes even level 3 divisions then some of these teams used to recieve a bid. I am not blaming the kids, who are working their butt off to get a bid, but what lessons are you teaching them. It is ok if you finish last, you will be rewarded anyway because everyone else already won. Their is a reason why most teams practice 6-9 months before having an opportunity to earn a bid, so they don't finish at the bottom of their division when doing it.

I believe this may have already been posted, but when you get to that National, regardless of who it is, and lets say for example, it is in February and in the Lg. sr all girl, and lg lim coed, or expand on this in all of the sr 5 categories, that all of the top 3-5 of all of those divisions have paid bids-not always the case, but say they do and you have teams in the bottom 5-7 of those divisions, who do the bids go to? if hte EP decide that is where they go, should those companies not award the bid to a team who placed in that bottom of the placements? sometimes the scores may still fall in the upper percentage, even if they didn't win. I hope that makes sense...? now that I have read it, i hope so....???!!!

 

[ufomom]

It is a very simple thing, you should not be rewarded to the largest event in your sport when you come in last, and second to last in your division. This applies to all teams. Is there any other sport, high school, collegiate, professional, where you get rewarded to the perform at the olympics of their sport when finishing so low. I understand it is about money, but there should be some minimum requirements to get in. They are throwing harder stunts in the level 4, and sometimes even level 3 divisions then some of these teams used to recieve a bid. I am not blaming the kids, who are working their butt off to get a bid, but what lessons are you teaching them. It is ok if you finish last, you will be rewarded anyway because everyone else already won. Their is a reason why most teams practice 6-9 months before having an opportunity to earn a bid, so they don't finish at the bottom of their division when doing it.

The team did not award themselves the bid. The event producer did, and I assume, under USASF guidelines for handing out bids. I may be misreading your posts and intent and you seem upset with this gym for getting the bid, but for sport credibility blah, blah...it's on the event producers and USASF. I apologize if I misread your posts. Good luck to them and to every single team that got a bid and attends. I think I will figure out who the World's Calibre teams are late on Day 2. I hope every team that is trying to fund raise is successful and placing an article in the newspaper is a good idea.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

It is a very simple thing, you should not be rewarded to the largest event in your sport when you come in last, and second to last in your division. This applies to all teams. Is there any other sport, high school, collegiate, professional, where you get rewarded to the perform at the olympics of their sport when finishing so low. I understand it is about money, but there should be some minimum requirements to get in. They are throwing harder stunts in the level 4, and sometimes even level 3 divisions then some of these teams used to recieve a bid. I am not blaming the kids, who are working their butt off to get a bid, but what lessons are you teaching them. It is ok if you finish last, you will be rewarded anyway because everyone else already won. Their is a reason why most teams practice 6-9 months before having an opportunity to earn a bid, so they don't finish at the bottom of their division when doing it.

2 words: March Madness.

68 teams. Some "at large bids", some not. Some teams ranked 16th going in. So...to answer your question, NCAA Basketball.

 

[Cheer Cougar]

Well put... Just - a - Mom! March Madness!

 

[ztaprincess]

I really would not compare this to the NCAA tourney because there is a certain number of teams allowed in and that is it. While they all had difference schedules and belong to different conferences, they are all judged by playing a game that can be one by following a SINGLE scoresheet and and a SINGLE set of rules. There is only 1 way to play the game.

These competitions have different scoresheets so a team can go to a competition that prides on being clean and get a bid or a competition where they pride on difficulty and get one. The NCAA teams are all judged by the same game. To me comparing cheer to any sport right now that goes by a single scoresheet and set of rules doesn't make sense because cheer does not have that. Also these competitions are not judging these teams by the worlds scoresheet that they will use in Orlando, the NCAA uses to the same scoresheet the entire season and at the tourney.

 

[newcheerdad]

2 words: March Madness.

68 teams. Some "at large bids", some not. Some teams ranked 16th going in. So...to answer your question, NCAA Basketball.

The only thing I will say with regards to that (being devil's advocate) refers to my previous post about the *number* of teams that get bids as opposed to the number of teams that actually compete in a division. If there are 100 programs that have a small senior 5 teams and 70 of them go to Worlds, that would be like the NCAA Division I basketball tournament having 200 teams instead of 68.

(Note: I do not know how many programs have fielded a small senior 5 team this year, but when the 10th place team at a competition is getting an at-large bid, it's at least suggestive of that.)

Now let me make this perfectly clear - this doesn't diminish the accomplishment of any team that get a bid. Just like it takes a special athlete to play Division I basketball (regardless of how good or bad the team is), it takes a special athlete to compete on a level 5 cheerleading squad.

What I'm not sure about is whether this is good or bad. On the one hand, I see the point that it dilutes the "specialness" of getting a bid. One the other, I can certainly see the argument that just having a Worlds' team is a big deal, regardless of placement, because there are plenty of gyms out there that will never field one. I certainly think there could be a "better way" to hand out bids than the current system, but I'm not sure it's so broken it needs to be fixed.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I knew there weren't really enough teams in the NCAA tournament, but she just said give an example of a sport where low placing teams get to go to the championship event.

I guess my biggest point is I don't get what the big deal is. WHY do people care soooooo much if these teams go? It all just sounds like sour grapes to me. And I definitely don't get why people need to call out particular teams on here and blast them.

As for the article I definitely did not see how that was in any way exploitative or fabricated. I thought it sounded more like a gym that was excited about an opportunity. And proud of their kids.

 

[Deleted member 1556]

I knew there weren't really enough teams in the NCAA tournament, but she just said give an example of a sport where low placing teams get to go to the championship event.

I guess my biggest point is I don't get what the big deal is. WHY do people care soooooo much if these teams go? It all just sounds like sour grapes to me. And I definitely don't get why people need to call out particular teams on here and blast them.

As for the article I definitely did not see how that was in any way exploitative or fabricated. I thought it sounded more like a gym that was excited about an opportunity. And proud of their kids.

Because Worlds is losing it's prestige. A few years ago, you really had to earn it to get there- it was really the best of the best, which is what it was designed to be. Now if you can get there doing subpar level 4/5 skills, your not really the best, and it takes away from what worlds should be about

 

[CheerCoach84]

Because Worlds is losing it's prestige. A few years ago, you really had to earn it to get there- it was really the best of the best, which is what it was designed to be. Now if you can get there doing subpar level 4/5 skills, your not really the best, and it takes away from what worlds should be about

How do we fix this???? I don't believe that Worlds can survive, and Thrive for that matter if only 100, or less teams show up, I would imagine... Maybe there needs to be some scoresheet regulations, with the teams in the Worlds divisions being judged with the scoresheet from Worlds at every National that they attend, maybe this would level the playing field. I can't imagine this happening, but one can hope that there will be some advances with the scoring for these teams. IMO, if you get a bid, at large, partial, or paid, and you can afford to attend, and really want to be there, then you should go if that is what your gym desires to do. I really don't think there is anything that any of us can do, unless we are on the panels of the usasf where these rules are voted on, or discussed. Every Coach or Gym Owner who is certified thru the governing body should be able to bring things like this up, and have it discussed, if it has become an issue, which based on many of the posts on here maybe it should be? Cheers Ya'll!!