All-Star Cheer World...ctd

[steveteal]

Ha. So no need to read anything. All I can say is that I hope she hasn't made herself to look like she's been this perfect little princess.
We're all bitter about that injury/ 5 hour warm-up. We literally crawled to the stage from warm-ups while we were in line to try and save energy...


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She definitely does not make herself out to be a perfect little princess.

 

[GreenStormLucy]

In the introduction she writes "We find ourselves continuously trying to prove that cheerleading is a sport." I read the book, she knows it is a "sport". Another misleading review.

I know, and i didn´t want to turn it into a misleading review. I just would have written it in other words, but that´s just me.
I just read the preview, so i can´t judge if the rest of the book turns out to be better.
But just from the preview, there´s not so much about the love to cheerleading or the hard work.
Throwing a sentence in here and there, about how intense the practises were is not helpfull if you want give your readers an inside look into real cheerleading.
I ended with the impression that she is more the innocent, naiv girl that never drank or smoked before and here comes the guys and do all this and she couldn´t resist.
You always have a choice.
But please, that´s just my impression, i don´t know anyone of the people in this book and probably i´m misunderstanding what she´s trying to say.

 

[CoachTamara]

She definitely does not make herself out to be a perfect little princess.

Do you by chance know the author personally?


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[njallday]

oh look... another random came out of the woodwork to defend her. :rolleyes:

 

[Hi-Phlyer21]

.

 

[steveteal]

Do you by chance know the author personally?


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I do know the author. As I had mentioned earlier my child cheered with her on two of the teams talked about in the book. I did not know about this book prior to it being released. I am NOT defending her or her actions by using names in the book but I do know for a fact that her claims were accurate about certain people and the gyms we were at. I also know some of the people she was talking about and what she was claiming about them "seemed" to be accurate too. I've only come on here to say that some people are misleading what she is saying. That is it. Nothing more nothing less. I am not a random "coming out of the woodwork" defending her. I read the book and made some comments based on the entirety of the book and not just the sample of the book. My child is now on highschool cheer and wants to get back into all-star. We lost money at two gyms because of the situations the author spoke of.

 

[rosebud]

I know a few people in the book she is talking about, 1 from the 1st chapter and others from one of our old gyms and from what I it seems like, if the person was under the age of 18 at the time of the book being published she didn't state their name. The others mentioned by name I believe are 18 or older? I don't agree with her pointing out that her mom paid for 2 other teammates to go to Worlds (because of her great paying job and bonuses...that's great but why point it out in her book?) and 'calling out' one of those same teammates for buying her a drink and then buying himself a drink without asking her and therefore using her money (another case of her pointing out that alcohol was purchased for under age athletes also). She made him sound like a mooch which I don't believe he is. She had a fine idea to tell her story of her experiences but I don't think she thought it all through and thought about the repercussions of her story.

 

[ACEDAD]

Since this is not supposed to be a work of fiction and she uses real names, can the police arrest anyone for all the illegal acts she cites?

And I'm just going off the preview.

 

[ufomom]

I thought it was pathetic she named a junior high aged kid by her full name because she didn't care for her mother. Please tell me why it was necessary to add that to "her" experience. That just reinforced to me that intent of her book was to stick it to anyone she had a beef with. I suspect she probably intended to take out the kid's full name and missed it in her editing hack job.

 

[wiscogirl]

I thought it was pathetic she named a junior high aged kid by her full name because she didn't care for her mother. Please tell me why it was necessary to add that to "her" experience. That just reinforced to me that intent of her book was to stick it to anyone she had a beef with. I suspect she probably intended to take out the kid's full name and missed it in her editing hack job.

I find it hard to believe it was edited at all by anyone. It's sad. The 'author' was all over Facebook posting "I love my team" and this is how she writes about the experience? So, what was the lie? Facebook or the book?

 

[Emily]

I read the preview and i have to admit, i wanted to read more. But i don´t have a kindle and buying the book plus shipping is not worth it.

You can download a kindle app for your pc/phone/ipad and read it there if you really want to.

You state in your review: "Hopefully it was not the intention of the author to make others believe that this is what it's like in the world of cheer (in IL or otherwise), because while it is in some places, it's not like that everywhere." The title of the book is Cheer World - MY life as an Illinois All-Star Cheerleader. Sounds to me that this was HER story. And in the author's note at the end of the book it says "This memoir is strictly MY experience that I've had with all-star cheerleading in the past few years. I'm NOT sure whether or not this applies to every area in the United States," Again, reading the entire book and comprehending what she is saying is key. I found the "Notes from the Author" the most informative about all-star cheerleading. For instance, she writes "I feel like cheerleaders and coaches are constantly trying to prove to the world that cheer is a sport." That pretty much sums up one of the most talked about subject in all-star cheer. There are several paragraphs in the Author's Notes that explains the reasoning behind the book.

Even though the author states that she isn't sure that this applies to every area in the United States, she implies that this is happening everywhere in Illinois and that is already not true. Even though it might be hard to imagine for some, but there are gyms in Illinois where the things mentioned in this book don't happen!

 

[wiscogirl]

Even though the author states that she isn't sure that this applies to every area in the United States, she implies that this is happening everywhere in Illinois and that is already not true. Even though it might be hard to imagine for some, but there are gyms in Illinois where the things mentioned in this book don't happen!

I don't think it applies to even the gyms she mentions. Maybe this is her experience or maybe it is a work of fiction or some combination of the two.

 

[Hi-Phlyer21]

You state in your review: "Hopefully it was not the intention of the author to make others believe that this is what it's like in the world of cheer (in IL or otherwise), because while it is in some places, it's not like that everywhere." The title of the book is Cheer World - MY life as an Illinois All-Star Cheerleader. Sounds to me that this was HER story. And in the author's note at the end of the book it says "This memoir is strictly MY experience that I've had with all-star cheerleading in the past few years. I'm NOT sure whether or not this applies to every area in the United States," Again, reading the entire book and comprehending what she is saying is key. I found the "Notes from the Author" the most informative about all-star cheerleading. For instance, she writes "I feel like cheerleaders and coaches are constantly trying to prove to the world that cheer is a sport." That pretty much sums up one of the most talked about subject in all-star cheer. There are several paragraphs in the Author's Notes that explains the reasoning behind the book.

Let me preface this by saying that not everything I'm about to say is directed at you.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I just defended her in my previous post. Without repeating anything I was a lot easier on her than could have been, especially given some of the things she said. I did not have to defend her or anything she said or her motives for writing that book AT ALL. I could have been outraged by what I read and let that be known to all, ripped her and this book to pieces....
Also, I am well aware this is a recounting of her personal experience from her memory of the last few years of her cheer career and she does make that evident. However that does my mean there were not ulterior motives.
I AM NOT SAYING THAT THERE WERE.
But it's just like that top girl who doesn't want to fly on a particular group when a change is made. Though she acts like its fine and she's gonna do what she has to do she intentionally falls/ makes mistakes while trying to play it off as if it isn't working so that the result is she gets a new group.
"Susie why isn't your stunt hitting?"
"Idk I'm trying my best"
"Well it looks like your just doing whatever you feel like and letting it happen"
"I swear I'm doing my best to stay in the air"
"Okay let's try switching you with susie2"
When all along she just wanted to be out in a different group.

In actuality I don't know why I'm defending myself right now because my post was extremely nice, considering, AND it was more in defense of her than anything!!

In REALITY this woman does misrepresent many of the people she mentioned in this book to an extent. In all honesty some of the things she said are flat out wrong. And the fact is many good, decent people are made to look like people you wouldn't want around your children, working with your program or even having around as an acquaintance. Whether or not it was her true intent one knows how things will be taken by others and she was not considerate of that.
Do not tell me after defending her on all of this that I am misrepresenting the author or her book.

Every time she talks about a stunt mistake she has no clue what happened. As if she went up and did everything she was supposed to perfectly. And by some feat her foot just never seemed to stay in her bases hands. Then it gets saved. She never directly places blame on anyone, but it can be inferred that it's being placed on the bases.
I DON'T like the way she talked about my team.
I don't like the way she spoke in regard to me at one point.
There's so much I could say, but...
I'm going to stop now.
She doesn't completely absolve herself of any wrong doing, but on the whole she does make it seem like all these bad things are going on around her and she is just left to sit there and judge everyone.
These are people that call her friend. People I'm sure she still calls, or would like to call friends or at least friendly acquaintances and this is how she talks about them.
I'm still in the process of reading this and even now I still do not have a problem with her. I can honestly say that if I saw her ten minutes from now I would still greet her the way I did when we were more involved in each others lives.
But at the same time when you've been through as many programs as she has in such a short time and each time has had many bridges burned you've got to wonder ,"why?". It is highly unlikely that everywhere she goes EVERYONE ELSE is the problem.
People don't see how other than the three girls she immediately clung to upon entering the gym, her boyfriends friends and myself were the only actual "friends" she had. They don't realize that very few people liked/ trusted her the entire time she was there. Now we ALL know why. You don't see how when she was at my gym, it was the best thing to ever happen to that family until seemingly out of nowhere she was at a different gym. Completely blindsided. All because we refused to disallow two other mentioned in the book from being present in our facilities. Oh and no surprise that the new gym was also the best thing that ever happened to her as well until she left there very shortly after..
May I ask what type of person posts a resignation as a Facebook status???
Making sure to talk about the owner by name in a way that makes them look spiteful....
That's all I have to say about this.
I like to think that I am a very insightful and open-minded individual especially for someone my age so maybe when I'm done with it my view point will have changed, but none of that really matters.
What's done is done and for her the sh!t hit the fan and this time all eyes are on her.
Time to own up.


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[CoachTamara]

Let's be real, I want her to write another book so I can stay on top of the shimmy list.

Hi, my name is Tamara. Long time poster, first time shimmy leader... :D

 

[NJ Coach]

Let's be real, I want her to write another book so I can stay on top of the shimmy list.

Hi, my name is Tamara. Long time poster, first time shimmy leader... :D

Hahaha...I only post for the shimmies