All-Star Bad Sportsmanship

[minbat4ever]

I also saw a lot of great sportmanship--I was surrounded by fans from all the different teams in one of the hotly contested divisions and everyone was being really nice to each other.

 

[cheerstorm]

I did not call out any gym so please dont start anything. I stated what. I saw and how I felt I purposely did not call anyone out.

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM CALLING OUT GYMS!! Thank you!!

 

[CheerMomNTx]

I did not call out any gym so please dont start anything. I stated what. I saw and how I felt I purposely did not call anyone out.

Excuse me but I did not call you out specifically. I made a general statement in this thread to all who are posting and actually posting team names. You might want to re-read what I posted.

 

[F!ERCE]

Sometimes I get all hot under the collar about stuff I see from teams, but then I step back and remember...the very oldest girls involved in "Senior" cheer are my age. Everyone else is younger. Heck, a lot of the kids are probably in middle school!

I feel confident in saying that a lot of the trouble we experience in "bad sportsmanship" practice is caused by middle schoolers or early high school students. They're very, very young and likely immature, which is generally what we are seeing when we talk about bad sportsmanship: immaturity. It's unrealistic to expect that these young kids would act like professional or college athletes do. This is not to say that bad sportsmanship is acceptable, but rather we should try to handle ourselves in an age-mindful manner when we come across situations of "bad sportsmanship". If your parent has taught you better manners than you see others exhibit, good! But keep in mind that not all parents do.

We should applaud those who have great sportsmanship practices, which we don't do enough. For behaviors we find inappropriate, perhaps a better medium for expressing our thoughts on the matter would be a call or e-mail to the respective coach. Chances are the coach doesn't know about the behavior and would want to correct it if the child's parents did not.

 

[CharlotteASMom]

Sometimes I get all hot under the collar about stuff I see from teams, but then I step back and remember...the very oldest girls involved in "Senior" cheer are my age. Everyone else is younger. Heck, a lot of the kids are probably in middle school!

I feel confident in saying that a lot of the trouble we experience in "bad sportsmanship" practice is caused by middle schoolers or early high school students. They're very, very young and likely immature, which is generally what we are seeing when we talk about bad sportsmanship: immaturity. It's unrealistic to expect that these young kids would act like professional or college athletes do.

I don't think you give Middle Schoolers enough credit. There are plenty of 12, 13, and 14 year olds that know how to be good sports and act appropriately in public including my own daughter. It starts at home and then must ALWAYS be reinforced at the gym.

 

[ronnoc0522]

DRAMA!! lol but i thought most people had positive attitudes this weekend..not everyone is going to be happy with the results and you have to respect that to. you have to take everything with a grain of glitter (i know that sounds dumb)

 

[F!ERCE]

I don't think you give Middle Schoolers enough credit. There are plenty of 12, 13, and 14 year olds that know how to be good sports and act appropriately in public including my own daughter. It starts at home and then must ALWAYS be reinforced at the gym.

I agree whole-heartedly that there are lots of kids that age who act maturely. In my experience though, poor sportsmanship seems to occur most often in the younger ones who have not always had practice in how to act in difficult situations yet. There will always be exceptions - like your CP - of course. I certainly wasn't saying that all 12 year olds run around like team-hating, name-calling, insult-throwing wild people.

Middle school/early high school was just a general time frame (I know plenty of kids my age and older who I have seen acting poorly, too).

 

[kisscheer18]

DRAMA!! lol but i thought most people had positive attitudes this weekend..not everyone is going to be happy with the results and you have to respect that to. you have to take everything with a grain of glitter (i know that sounds dumb)

WITH A GRAIN OF GLITTER <3 ahh loveee

 

[minniee]

i've seen the worst sportsmanship this season out of my 10 years with the all star industry! Even where COACHES get involved posting nasty things about other gyms on there facebook statuses and laughing as their girls blatantly THREATEN girls from different teams!! IMO if the coaches don't show class then the athletes don't feel the need to either, some role models they are...

 

[DJ]

I actually saw more good sportsmanship this weekend than bad.

Weezy, it was so nice to meet you and your daughter. Yes, saw alot of good sportsmanship - but, when it was bad.. man was it bad :) I think you know who we're talking about specifically!

 

[gymncheercoach]

This isn't related to World's sportsmanship specifically, but I have had more than my fill of encounters with bad sportsmanship. My team would do a random draw and do a gift basket or goody bag for 3 teams every competition in hopes of spreading good sportsmanship and bonding with other teams in the industry. We would fill it with candy and every squad member had to make a spirit filled good luck card in that squad's colors. Some of my kids would make HUGE cards and some small and everything was in the team's colors we were giving it to. They LOVED doing it.

We have had mixed reactions to it. Most team's just politely said "thank you". Some team's didn't say anything and just stared at us like we were idiots.

One team (who lived in the city closest to us) their coaches gave it back to us and said they didn't wish to accept it. Then they went back over to their team and they kept laughing at us and giving us nasty looks. That same team won the Sportsmanship award at that competition (Cheer Power Northeast Nationals), which was absurd!

Despite this occurring, it still didn't damper our Spirits because at that same competition we were approached by a coach who was in tears because she was so touched by our gift for the squad. She made each squad member thank us individually. She then went on to say that they are a fairly new squad and don't really know any other teams and haven't been treated very well by some competitors. It really made their day that we did that. They even sat on the side and cheered us on during our performance, and we did the same for them.

We continued the tradition every year until I closed, but we never received another reaction such as we did from that team that was so appreciative. I wish more coaches would make Good Sportsmanship a priority and not gossip or add to the problem. I guess some people never grow up and will always turn their nose up at others. I feel sad for them. What a pathetic life they must lead.

 

[Ashay]

I sat with many different groups of people this past weekend and I saw great sportsmanship most of time! Majority of the Milk House or Hp whatever it is was cheering for everyone on the floor. Win or lose be proud of who you are and what you have become!

 

[j3r4h]

Oh . .. I don't know about y'all
But the FierceChat sure did encounter a lot of dramas and bitterness. . .
We were stalking from a lot of twitter pages and facebook statuses. . .and a lot of us reported some . . .they weren't really that nice to read . . . We're not sure tho, if those people were actually them . . or just fake accounts . . .but this happened after Large Senior awards were announced. . . . I don't know . . . but if they were true. . . it would definitely change my opinion about these girls . . . [girls from this specific team] . . .

 

[gymncheercoach]

^Yikes! I wasn't on during Worlds, so I didn't see.

 

[cheermommaRN]

I think it really falls on the teams "leaders" aka coaches to set the standard for the younger ones. With most of our coaches on IOC5 the kids get to see how they handle losing and winning and tend to pattern themselves after that....
If you have coaches that teach that first place is the only place and build up kids that they "can't lose" when they do it gets ugly.