High School 7th/8th Grade Competitive Cheer Teams?

[kewpiekid]

I am in a small town that has a recreational town cheer program for grades 3/4, 5/6 and adding 7th for the 2019-2020 season. Once the season is over in November, that's it- there is no other opportunity to cheer in town or in school for the rest of the year. My CP does both town and All Star and one of the smaller AS comps we went to last Spring had a whole division of middle school teams that competed. She asked why we don;t have that and I am curious if your town's middle schools/junior high schools have competitive teams that do football in the Fall and basketball and competitions in the Winter and Spring? If so, how long have they been running? Another mom I know is interested in starting a new team for the 7/8 grade girls. Curious about the budget considerations, pay for coahing, etc.

 

[coacha]

I've lived in 2 different states - in towns less than 30 miles apart. In my current state (Pa), it is pretty typical for schools to have 7/8th grade sports - our school district has middle school football, cheerleading, basketball, wrestling and track teams. I coach the high school team, and I have 2 staff members that coach our middle school cheerleading team. They cheer for football, basketball, wrestling and do 2ish competitions a year. Some of our surrounding schools have similar teams that compete more/longer season.

Across the Delaware River in NJ, it is pretty rare (at least 10 years ago) to have school sponsored sports in the middle school years. You play recreation everything until 9th grade. So when I lived/coached there, I actually coached a 7/8 recreation cheerleading team that cheered for the recreation football team and competed. (We did compete longer than the football season.)

In my experience, rec coaching is usually volunteer (i.e. unpaid). My middle school coaches get a stipend from the school district but it's even smaller than my small stipend.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

I coached middle school cheer at a private school for several years and we always cheered basketball and competed at one to two all star competitions. I will say, here in MD, public schools do not have middle school sports.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Feeder MS to the HS program I coached was a 6th-8th team. They cheer both football and basketball and have two comps in the spring. Tumbling and stunting are optional as part of tryouts but most kids coming in lately have a BHS and some basics from rec/youth football cheer (ex: extensions to cradle, prep level extensions, etc.)

 

[JerseyGirl112]

Across the Delaware River in NJ, it is pretty rare (at least 10 years ago) to have school sponsored sports in the middle school years. You play recreation everything until 9th grade. So when I lived/coached there, I actually coached a 7/8 recreation cheerleading team that cheered for the recreation football team and competed. (We did compete longer than the football season.)
[/QUOTE]

Just gonna echo that. Grew up in Northern Jersey with no AS programs within a 30 mile radius. My middle school had a 6/7/8 grade cheer team but it was generally a joke. The feeder for our hs program was the rec cheer program which was formed by grade level and cheered for the same grade levels rec football team. There was an "AS style" competition team run through that program as well made up of kids grades 5-8.

 

[SthrnCheerMom]

Our MS has a comp team for 6-8th. They compete during the same season our HS competes, normally right after Labor Day thru early Nov. All comps are at other schools, not AS comps. We do have a football and b-ball cheer team. They are not able to do comp and football at the same time.

 

[AScheer]

Middle school competition teams here are no joke. Usually 6th - 8th grade. Many attend UCA nationals. Very competitive division. The teams go year round. Some cheer football/basketball and some don't actually cheer for any sports at the school.