- Nov 10, 2015
- 1,285
- 1,849
No, I'm not a softball player. Softball is for girls. However, I was sitting at dinner Thursday evening with family friends at a local pizza place. The couple has two daughters. One is 12-ish and is an all star cheerleader. The other is soon-to-be 15 and a freshman softball player at the school where I coach cheer. The kid is phenomenal. She's competitive. She plays the game the right way. She plays for a travel ball team in the summer, and with the exception of the fact that she's a little on the small side for a D1 school, I firmly believe she will move on to play softball at the next level. She started on the varsity team last year as an 8th grader, and is the most natural shortstop I've seen in our region. Our softball team will compete for a regional championship at the end of the season.
Why all this talk about softball on a cheer board?
Because this young lady made a statement about a recent tournament that caught my attention. The softball team had traveled to a nearby town for a couple days to play against several teams, "round robin" style. The second day of the tournament they were to play in what would have been a championship game. Due to the fact that our team is pushing the limit of games the state will allow them to play in a season, and the fact that they had completely annihilated this team in the first round, a mutual decision was made to not play the championship game. The tournament ended amicably.
The young shortstop's take on the event? An event in which her team had run-ruled the opposition at every occurrence? An event that saw her team hit homeruns off opposing pitching in every game? "It was boring," she said.
How many cheerleaders, cheer coaches, cheer parents, etc would consider such dominance on the part of their team as boring? Zero. We would have been on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter blasting the prowess of our team to any who would listen. Some would have brought Myspace out of the social media morgue just to make sure they left no stone unturned in their drive to flaunt the accomplishments of their team, without regard for the fact that the team had not really earned anything. Anyone can beat up on a lesser opponent. In our quest to create "level playing fields," we've taken away "real competition." Even at the flagship school cheer event of the season, how many "varsity" competitive divisions do you really need? Small, medium, large, super large, small coed, medium coed, large coed, not to mention the non-tumbling and non-building divisions exist, but are they really necessary? There were only 8 teams in large coed this year. If you won 8th place, yea you were top 10; but what did you really accomplish? Don't get me started on the number of "national championships" given out in the all star industry. In how many divisions do we need to declare a world champion before people begin to devalue that award? What's next...."Champion of the Universe?"
In every instance the pattern holds true. What was once a prestigious event has become so watered down, with so many competitors, that the trophy itself holds a fraction of it's previous worth. I am not so naïve as to not realize that it's all driven by $$$, but it seems that at some level, the cheerleading world would want to hang on to some hint of legitimacy.
Why all this talk about softball on a cheer board?
Because this young lady made a statement about a recent tournament that caught my attention. The softball team had traveled to a nearby town for a couple days to play against several teams, "round robin" style. The second day of the tournament they were to play in what would have been a championship game. Due to the fact that our team is pushing the limit of games the state will allow them to play in a season, and the fact that they had completely annihilated this team in the first round, a mutual decision was made to not play the championship game. The tournament ended amicably.
The young shortstop's take on the event? An event in which her team had run-ruled the opposition at every occurrence? An event that saw her team hit homeruns off opposing pitching in every game? "It was boring," she said.
How many cheerleaders, cheer coaches, cheer parents, etc would consider such dominance on the part of their team as boring? Zero. We would have been on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter blasting the prowess of our team to any who would listen. Some would have brought Myspace out of the social media morgue just to make sure they left no stone unturned in their drive to flaunt the accomplishments of their team, without regard for the fact that the team had not really earned anything. Anyone can beat up on a lesser opponent. In our quest to create "level playing fields," we've taken away "real competition." Even at the flagship school cheer event of the season, how many "varsity" competitive divisions do you really need? Small, medium, large, super large, small coed, medium coed, large coed, not to mention the non-tumbling and non-building divisions exist, but are they really necessary? There were only 8 teams in large coed this year. If you won 8th place, yea you were top 10; but what did you really accomplish? Don't get me started on the number of "national championships" given out in the all star industry. In how many divisions do we need to declare a world champion before people begin to devalue that award? What's next...."Champion of the Universe?"
In every instance the pattern holds true. What was once a prestigious event has become so watered down, with so many competitors, that the trophy itself holds a fraction of it's previous worth. I am not so naïve as to not realize that it's all driven by $$$, but it seems that at some level, the cheerleading world would want to hang on to some hint of legitimacy.