All-Star Allstar to Highschool

[Cheermom1979]

How should an Allstar cheerleader prepare for highschool cheer?

Daughter is currently in 8th grade hasn’t done sideline cheer since 4th grade. She wants to cheer football in HS and continue with Allstar as well.

Allstar is a huge time commitment- concerned about the flexibility of HS - only really and issue Aug- October.

Any advise on the transition?

 

[ct_dad]

As an all-star dad and high school coach I could write you a book on this one.

Preparation: very dependent on the HS program and how they place athletes. Do they take everyone, are freshman only allowed on JV, do they teach the tryout material or have clinics, etc. So that's honestly a very fluid question to answer.

To the question of commitment and flexibility....my advice is to talk to the heads of both programs before committing to either. At the school level I'm very flexible for all of our kids other activities with some exceptions. Friday nights (or Mondays for JV kids) are never going to be excused for anything other than illness/family emergency/etc. not for all star, other sports, school plays, whatevers. Additionally, Thursday practices are our "tune up" days. All stunts, tosses, pyramids, tumbling that will be used in that week's game will be practiced that day. If you can't be at that practice you can't be in those elements. Just like how it is in all-star where you can't miss a practice, especially on a comp week, without repercussions like being pulled from the mat.
So make sure there is a clear understanding of what the heads of both programs will allow or not allow when it comes to missing a practice or event. Most high school coaches know the local all star owners well and they're all comfortable sharing schedules and finding ways to make things work. There are exceptions to every rule though. I know high schools who do not allow their kids to cheer all star during the high school season, through nationals.

I'll pause there since that's what you asked....but feel free to throw specific questions and I'm happy to keep answering (from my perspective)

 

[SthrnCheerMom]

ct_dad is pretty spot on. At least from our experience.

My daughter cheered sideline all 4 years. JV and then 3 on V. When she was on JV, I knew games were on Thurs afternoons. So when she had evals for AS that previous spring, I put on her form she as on JV. That way the coaches were aware. When she made V, same thing. Our school only practiced 1 day for sideline, both JV and V. Practice was always out by 5:30pm, so it didn't impact her AS schedule. Some years she was pushing it but still made it.

Most coaches are understanding and work with you on calendars for like camps and summer practices.

The beauty is by the time football is winding down, AS is kicking into high gear. There might be about a month or so where it gets to be a little taxing due to practices, games and school load. My daughter handled it all well.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

Another mom actually just asked this in the high school forum!

High School - Allstar to Highschool

fierceboard.com

 

[NJ Coach]

Another mom actually just asked this in the high school forum!

High School - Allstar to Highschool

fierceboard.com

it's the same mom

 

[Cheermom1979]

Thank you! So helpful.
What skill prep should she work on. HS is UCA style.
think her tumble should be fine- just needs to practice on deadmat- which we can do in the spring.

Another mom actually just asked this in the high school forum!

High School - Allstar to Highschool

fierceboard.com

it was me! I was trying to get both perspectives- from the high school coach / parent and Allstar side as well!!

 

[cheermomforever]

My daughter does All Star cheer and coaches HS….hardest thing practice times and competitions. She has county HS cheer this Saturday AM and then has to go compete AS. Luckily this year she or her other girls have no conflict with times!

 

[Nothanks]

As an all-star dad and high school coach I could write you a book on this one.

Preparation: very dependent on the HS program and how they place athletes. Do they take everyone, are freshman only allowed on JV, do they teach the tryout material or have clinics, etc. So that's honestly a very fluid question to answer.

To the question of commitment and flexibility....my advice is to talk to the heads of both programs before committing to either. At the school level I'm very flexible for all of our kids other activities with some exceptions. Friday nights (or Mondays for JV kids) are never going to be excused for anything other than illness/family emergency/etc. not for all star, other sports, school plays, whatevers. Additionally, Thursday practices are our "tune up" days. All stunts, tosses, pyramids, tumbling that will be used in that week's game will be practiced that day. If you can't be at that practice you can't be in those elements. Just like how it is in all-star where you can't miss a practice, especially on a comp week, without repercussions like being pulled from the mat.
So make sure there is a clear understanding of what the heads of both programs will allow or not allow when it comes to missing a practice or event. Most high school coaches know the local all star owners well and they're all comfortable sharing schedules and finding ways to make things work. There are exceptions to every rule though. I know high schools who do not allow their kids to cheer all star during the high school season, through nationals.

I'll pause there since that's what you asked....but feel free to throw specific questions and I'm happy to keep answering (from my perspective)

Replying to you, but more of a general question-- this obviously seems very geared towards the football season. How do you mitigate basketball season? That's where we seem to have the biggest struggle. Basketball schedules are WAY different than a pretty standard, set football schedule. And when games are cancelled and moved to different dates for "make ups" it really throws a wrench in our allstar schedules. The school coach views games as their performances so they're mandatory for them (her only exception is when it's a comp week for us, because she knows that means they can't compete if they miss practice that week).

We had an instance the practice before "comp week" had technically started where the school changed a game time, causing some of our athletes to miss their practice, and it was actually the first practice we were going to have all of our kids back because we had several out quarantining and it was right after christmas break, so we were more than a little stressed. lol But the game time changed literally the morning of the game and we ended up missing three kids from one team and two from another.

 

[twincheermom]

My daughters cheered all-star and high school. Their gym's rule was they would work around high school competition schedules in the fall but once Thanksgiving was over, no more high school cheer was allowed. It was too difficult for their gym to work around 100+ high school schedules. Just really not practical. And "work-around" meant many times, they competed at a high school competition and then left right away to go to all-star practice. They were not allowed to stay for awards, even at States. If their team qualified to compete at Nationals, they were not allowed to go. For that reason, they chose not to compete all-stars junior year and went to NCA with their high school team. In hindsight, it was the right choice since the cheer world shut down a few weeks later due to Covid.

As others stated, just be clear with the coaches of both programs right from the get go. Hopefully they can work with you.

Skill wise--if she is in all-star now, she will have more than enough skills needed if her high school is more UCA style than NCA style. My daughters cheer college and their college is UCA. Their team just won game day at UCA Nationals and there is literally no jumping or tumbling in their routine at all.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Replying to you, but more of a general question-- this obviously seems very geared towards the football season. How do you mitigate basketball season? That's where we seem to have the biggest struggle. Basketball schedules are WAY different than a pretty standard, set football schedule. And when games are cancelled and moved to different dates for "make ups" it really throws a wrench in our allstar schedules. The school coach views games as their performances so they're mandatory for them (her only exception is when it's a comp week for us, because she knows that means they can't compete if they miss practice that week).

We had an instance the practice before "comp week" had technically started where the school changed a game time, causing some of our athletes to miss their practice, and it was actually the first practice we were going to have all of our kids back because we had several out quarantining and it was right after christmas break, so we were more than a little stressed. lol But the game time changed literally the morning of the game and we ended up missing three kids from one team and two from another.

In our area, football and basketball are two separate seasons. Most athletes choose to cheer football season and skip basketball season.

 

[SthrnCheerMom]

Replying to you, but more of a general question-- this obviously seems very geared towards the football season. How do you mitigate basketball season?

She only cheered her 9th grade for JV bball. Those games were early enough that she didn't miss practice. The bball coach was well aware of her all-star commitments at that time and if there was a comp, she wasn't at the game. 10th - 12th grade she was on V and only did football. Her 10th grade year, due to rules, she had to cheer V Football and V Comp (they couldn't do just a spirit team) due to bball interferring with all-stars. 11th-12th the rules changed and she could do just V Football.

My daughters cheered all-star and high school. Their gym's rule was they would work around high school competition schedules in the fall but once Thanksgiving was over, no more high school cheer was allowed. It was too difficult for their gym to work around 100+ high school schedules. Just really not practical. And "work-around" meant many times, they competed at a high school competition and then left right away to go to all-star practice. They were not allowed to stay for awards, even at States. If their team qualified to compete at Nationals, they were not allowed to go. For that reason, they chose not to compete all-stars junior year and went to NCA with their high school team. In hindsight, it was the right choice since the cheer world shut down a few weeks later due to Covid.

As others stated, just be clear with the coaches of both programs right from the get go. Hopefully they can work with you.

Skill wise--if she is in all-star now, she will have more than enough skills needed if her high school is more UCA style than NCA style. My daughters cheer college and their college is UCA. Their team just won game day at UCA Nationals and there is literally no jumping or tumbling in their routine at all.

In our state, school teams aren't allowed to travel out of state for comps. So no Nationals or anything like that.

Last season when Covid was really messing things up, our State got moved until February (normally before Thanksgiving). It was originally scheduled Cheersport weekend. And that's actually a local comp for us. They ended up having to move State until I think that Monday.

 

[ct_dad]

How do you mitigate basketball season? That's where we seem to have the biggest struggle. Basketball schedules are WAY different than a pretty standard, set football schedule. And when games are cancelled and moved to different dates for "make ups" it really throws a wrench in our allstar schedules.

Honestly it's a relationship between the high school coaches and the all star coaches that lets us all survive that silliness. It happens a decent amount, and game schedules are all over the place. We will 100% excuse an AS cheerleader for practices during a comp week, with the understanding that there won't be the same flexibility outside of a comp week. If the AS practice falls on a game day, then ask to have the priority. It's also very helpful to have the parents be on board with it. Too often we have parents that want to put all the priority to AS and then we struggle to get the kid to ever show up for practice. It's frustrating at that point.

But at our school cheer is essentially 1 season. Making the team means cheering football and basketball. A lot of other schools have cheer in multiple seasons or the ability to only cheer the sports you're interested in. So my answer may not apply to how your school functions.

 

[Cheermom1979]

Thanks all this was super helpful. Since we are only doing football season I hope we can make it work with little drama…