In our town, this question has been debated YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR! At first, the high school said all girls who make the team must compete and stated you could not do all star cheer. Parents complained and said that wasn't right or legal as how can a school tell you what you can and cannot do in your free time, so the rule was changed that you could do all stars as long as it didn't interfere with cheer. Cheer receives PE credit and a grade, so if you didn't show up to a practice or game, you could technically fail the class. Then a few years ago, California passed a law (or something) stating that any student could participate on any sport/team and could not be kicked off if the parents didn't pay for the uniform and any fees. Since the school receives no money for cheer (all funded by parents), a girl could therefore be on cheer, compete and not pay a dime--thus the difference would need to be paid for by other parents. Well, that didn't go over well, so they changed the rule yet again and said competitions are optional, hoping that parents who really couldn't afford competitions would just let their daughters cheer at the games and not compete. So, this opened the path for all star girls to cheer at games but not do high school comps. Right now, we have 3 level 5 girls on varsity, but none will compete. All have stated the coaches are not properly trained and girls are not motivated or want to train hard to compete at their best. Coaches want them to do skills they can do on a spring floor, but the girls don't want to risk injury doing the skill on the hard floor. So, my suggestion, if possible I would cheer at games but not do comps.