Ok, just to make sure my intent is clear on this subject...
I do not want to see large teams eliminated because I want to hurt the Big 3 in large senior. I LOVE to watch them, all of them, and I love the unending battle between those gyms every year. My "rejoicing" comes due to the belief I have that most gyms in our industry struggle to field a true team of 36 AT ANY LEVEL. I do not believe our industry standards should be based around several top named teams/gyms and THEIR ability to field large teams. I believe our standards should be set so that gyms of all sizes can compete legitimately against each other. I want to see large teams AT ALL LEVELS capped at 30. Creating a medium division is the "small victory" or stepping stone the USASF is using to get us there, IMO.
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ShutItDown said: "such as T&S and other large limited teams could add girls and be large all girl. now i feel like this medium division is taking away from something good that they have done to make this even." -- T&S NEVER starts their season with a team larger than 27-28 kids on it, ever. We are a medium sized gym with 150-180 athletes. This season we had the following (this is our main and biggest location):
Mini 2 - 12 kids
Youth 2 - started with 21, ended with like 28ish.
Youth 4 - 20 kids
Junior 3 - started with 20, dropped to like 16ish, then combined them with senior 2 to make a large junior 3 with 26 or so kids, then RIGHT before NCA we added more to have like 34-35.
Junior 5 - 20 kids
Senior 2 - 10ish kids, ended up combining them with junior 3 and putting the 1 senior aged kid on senior 4.
Senior 4 - 20 kids
Senior Coed 5 - started with 26-27 kids, filled the team later in the season when going for a bid.
As you can see, we only had 3 large teams and all of them would have been considered "medium" had there been a division for 21-30. Our gym struggles to fill a team of 36. And every other gym I have been affiliated with or know anything about has this exact same problem. So THAT'S why I am a fan of capping large at 30 (and for now, having a medium division so that the industry will hopefully lean in that direction next year).
So yes, I am celebrating this new division and praying it is so incredibly popular that large dies off, that 30 will be the standard across the board for ALL levels. My eyes don't just see level 5. I see all levels, all ages, across the board. Rules should not be made or eliminated based solely on one division or one level. But I believe as we have proven with numbers some months back, that 90-95% of teams across the country have less than 30 starting out.
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StarshipTrooper -- I personally hope CEA and F5 and SS all field a medium sized team and keep that division deep. I don't want to see any team win just because the division has no "big names" in it. But if that has to happen for a year or two to prove a point, then let it be so...