All-Star High School/allstar Question

[cheer mom]

I have a question, my daughters are allstar cheerleaders in a community with several all-star gyms and some of the gyms have Worlds level teams while others do not. At most of our gyms with world level teams they request that girls only cheer for football, since basketball is more time consuming and is during all stars busiest competition period. At one of our local high schools the cheer coach is affilated with one the of all star teams that do not have world level teams and she is requiring that all cheerleaders cheer for both football and basketball, which this basically eliminates anyone that cheers at a gym another than hers, which does not have this policy or she can work practices scheduels around both. She is also holding tryouts, clinics and some practices at her own gym and requiring tumbling there (knowing again that if a girl is at another allstar gym, it is frowned upon to tumble anywhere but your own gym), not the school. Also since they will be practicing off school grounds, the girls will have to find thier own transportation to her gym to practice I was just wondering what your opinion is on this and if you think this is common nowadays. I would not have a problem with the high school team tumbling at another local gym, but it just seems to me that this is just a way for her to profit on her own business and elimintate anyone that does not cheer for her program.

 

[lisa G]

i would speak to the athletic director about this. In my experience they probably know nothing about it. She should NOT be able to require them to pay for tumbling at her gym. if she requires it you should be able to take it where ever you want. I am a high school cheer coach and my daughter is also an All star cheerleader. You might also want to read the rules for the high school team to see if if specifically says you must cheer for basketball. Some schools in our area require you to cheer for basketball where ours does not. I can tell you it is very difficult from a coaching standpoint to not have the majority of your team cheer for basketball because that leave the 4-6 that do without the ability to do much. Do some investigating because you go too far because if the coach is a power tripper she may try to find a way to keep your daughters off the team. As for practice that is again something that you should check into because unless you are paying for the gym usage it could be a liability issue.

 

[Tosh]

This seems like a huge conflict of interest; however, it may not be unfair.
1st. Many HS that tumble/practice at a gym do it as a team. If it is as a team, then the school should provide transportation to and from....If it is not as a "team" then she can not make it mandatory that the tumble at her gym
2. Since this seems to be an issue for the parents and cheerleaders, do some homework. Find out what the cost is for tumbling at the other near by gyms and compare the cost for tumbling at her gym. If the other gyms are cheaper, or even the same, then you have an issue and you can bring your "fact sheet" to the AD's attention.
3. If her cost is more reasonable, then maybe she is just trying to do a favor for the girls.....When it's all said and done, know your facts before taking any action.

I personally, as a business owner and coach, do not recommend doing anything for the girls. We have a board and I present information on my product(s) like any other vendor and the board makes the decision.....I usually get their business, because I give them a break because this is my home! I do not have any kids in the program anymore, 2 are in college and my baby is in HS; but all three of them came up in the program since 1st grade, so this will always be home. The same thing goes for our HS squad. I try to keep things very professional and the two completely separate.
Hope this info is helpful. Good luck

 

[TitanCoach]

I have a question, my daughters are allstar cheerleaders in a community with several all-star gyms and some of the gyms have Worlds level teams while others do not. At most of our gyms with world level teams they request that girls only cheer for football, since basketball is more time consuming and is during all stars busiest competition period. At one of our local high schools the cheer coach is affilated with one the of all star teams that do not have world level teams and she is requiring that all cheerleaders cheer for both football and basketball, which this basically eliminates anyone that cheers at a gym another than hers, which does not have this policy or she can work practices scheduels around both. She is also holding tryouts, clinics and some practices at her own gym and requiring tumbling there (knowing again that if a girl is at another allstar gym, it is frowned upon to tumble anywhere but your own gym), not the school. Also since they will be practicing off school grounds, the girls will have to find thier own transportation to her gym to practice I was just wondering what your opinion is on this and if you think this is common nowadays. I would not have a problem with the high school team tumbling at another local gym, but it just seems to me that this is just a way for her to profit on her own business and elimintate anyone that does not cheer for her program.

As a high school coach here are my thoughts.
1. The coach, along with the AD, set the rules for the teams. If the team is required to cheer for both basketball and football then those are the rules. You stated that the gyms "request" that the girls not cheer for basketball, but as long as it doesn't interfere with their practices this doesn't seem like a problem to me. There must be a compromise to this between the gyms and the school. We make exceptions for our practices for other sports except in the two weeks prior to a competition.
2. I can see clinics, tryouts, and especially practices being held at a gym. As long as she is not profiting directly from this it should be allowed. If she is profiting directly from this then it is a conflict of interest and needs to be declared to the school and then only either the AD or the admin team from the school should decide where they should practice.
3. I don't believe that tumbling classes should be required at a specific location. Each athlete needs to find their style of coach and forcing them to only use the one gym sounds detrimental to the girls regardless if they are affiliated with another gym or not.
4. Having practice at another location and the girls finding their own way to those practices is the norm where I live. I have practices at another location once a week and my girls have to provide their own way to and from. The alternative for our school would be to charge a higher fee for our sport in order to pay for that transportation so for parents it's cheaper to arrange rides with other girls.

 

[CheerMomNTx]

When my oldest was in HS, they were required to cheer at all football and basketball games and any other function/event that the HS cheerleaders had to attend. Fortunately our AS gym tries to work with school cheerleaders schedules but will sometimes request that a school cheerleader get demerits to leave a game early or miss an event, if a big national is coming up and they need everyone at practice.

As far as tumbling outside of the school: before tryouts, there is a mandatory meeting going over all of the details and what's expected of the cheerleading candidate and the parent(s). Financial obligations were covered as well and if any candidate couldn't meet any of the requirements, then they need not tryout. So with that said, the squad practiced once a week at a tumbling facility. Transportation was not provided however parent volunteers were asked to provide carpools to the gym. Parents were responsible for picking up their cheerleader after practice.

Not only was tumbling taught, choreography for dances that were going to be used for shows or pep rally's was taught. Here in my area, this is a norm as well.

Since the coach is using her own gym, I would hope they are getting a great deal.

 

[crazeecheermom]

Where we live, what is being described by the o.p. is the norm. As of now, because of the level of commitment required for both school cheer and all star, we just feel its best to stay at all star alone. cp has done both and it was crazy and exhausting. She does miss cheering at the football games. Our school only jas one cheer team and it is competive and sideline together. There is no other option at the moment. All or nothing, so she's picked all star, she lives for it.

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[Lazydaisytoo]

Our HS coach does not allow her cheerleaders to do AS at all. Period. Seems like the easiest path to me.

I do think having a coach affiliated with an AS gym may generate some hard feelings. As long as the requirements are made clear before tryouts, though, it seems kosher to me.

 

[cheermomforever]

In our area it is the HS coaches choice whether or not you can also do AS. Most allow it. A lot of the teams around us come to our AS coach once a week to tumble and stunt. We have a handful of kids who do both. Most HS do not have the talent that AS do and personally my cp has never had an interest in doing it with her school.


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