All-Star Illegal Athlete

[CEAisstronger]

ACEDAD kindly pointed me to speterson@usasf.net
He is really good at getting back to you quickly. He replied to my first email I sent today in a few hours.



Yes. She is a sweet girl, but if she was underage in 2011 then herself and her team shouldn't have been at worlds in 2012.

Megan is turning 17 in 3 days and there season is still going on so its not illegal

 

[Emily]

Megan is turning 17 in 3 days and there season is still going on so its not illegal

The point where it gets illegal is: she was underage last year and her team was disqualified. When you get disqualified, you're not allowed to earn a bid for worlds the following year (which was 2012). But: they earned a bid and competed again.
The illegal thing that happened was them getting a bid again and competing this year at worlds.

 

[worldsring09]

Nope...a few board members were involved in a situation this year where the parties involved were able to provide an event producer with:

Facebook proof (posts and messages which admit to the cheating and both parties having knowledge of it)
copy of a drivers license
apology from the cheating gyms staff about how ashamed they were

At the end of the day the gym was able to obtain 3 forms of valid identification and was cleared of all wrong doing and was allowed to keep all their titles (they competed the athlete before and after the situation blew up and kept her after it was "cleared").

I can see where the EP says their hands were tied b/c they provided three forms of ID but there's got to be a better way of following through on claims like this. If not than Top Gun competed and Intl Open Coed Hip Hop, Open 4, Intl Open Coed 5 and Intl Open Coed 6 last season...Why shouldn't we falsify documents and put them all on senior teams if no one is going to question us?

Side note...the girl was in our program a few years back and inquired about my college team...I know she was illegal.

This takes me back to the concept of suing them for fraud, where they will be forced to produced authentic documents (not just copies) and testimony, get a ruling from a court judge in your favor and then take the information back to the USASF.

 

[ztaprincess]

Megan is turning 17 in 3 days and there season is still going on so its not illegal

I know she was not an illegal athlete during the 2012 worlds, but she was an illegal athlete during the 2011 worlds which lead them to be disqualified. If a team is disqualified, by USASF/IASF rules they should not have been allowed a bid for the following year.

 

[worldsring09]

I know she was not an illegal athlete during the 2012 worlds, but she was an illegal athlete during the 2011 worlds which lead them to be disqualified. If a team is disqualified, by USASF/IASF rules they should not have been allowed a bid for the following year.

I am not sure we have always agreed on subject matter in the past, but I just wanted to say that I admire your desire (and others) to help create change by pushing to stop cheaters. As a former allstar parent who spent a jazillion dollars over the years on something I thought to be good for my child, and someone who truly enjoys the athleticism of the SPORT of all star cheerleading without cheating rules, I would like to clone your cow to create a non-cheating cow army :)

 

[ztaprincess]

I am not sure we have always agreed on subject matter in the past, but I just wanted to say that I admire your desire (and others) to help create change by pushing to stop cheaters. As a former allstar parent who spent a jazillion dollars over the years on something I thought to be good for my child, and someone who truly enjoys the athleticism of the SPORT of all star cheerleading without cheating rules, I would like to clone your cow to create a non-cheating cow army :)

Thank you!
I just know that people often will say that "well it happens all the time so that is nothing new" all without doing anything to stop it. I don't care who does it and how big their gym is, if it is against the rules then they need to be penalized for it. I don't have a child in this sport, I don't even participate anymore, but this is a sport that I have loved most of my life and hate to see people take advantange of it like this. I want to do all that I can do to help make this sport better so that more athletes can enjoy it.

 

[Emily]

Got back a first e-mail from the EP who gave out the bids - the person replying wants me to give them background information about my involvement with this case before giving out detailed information... :confused:

 

[CheerBank]

Got back a first e-mail from the EP who gave out the bids - the person replying wants me to give them background information about my involvement with this case before giving out detailed information... :confused:

What does that mean and why do they need that information? Are they taking it so they can then go to the gym with that athlete/team and say "so and so claims this about you"? When I contacted USASF about reporting a gym with an illegal athlete at Worlds they told me they do not keep it confidential from that gym who reported them.

 

[Emily]

What does that mean and why do they need that information? Are they taking it so they can then go to the gym with that athlete/team and say "so and so claims this about you"? When I contacted USASF about reporting a gym with an illegal athlete at Worlds they told me they do not keep it confidential from that gym who reported them.

I have no idea why they need that information. And I would guess that the team(FTG Bullets) is completely unaware of any mistakes they made and the event producer was probably unaware of their bid-giving mistake until they received my e-mail...
And I guess that they don't want more people than already aware of this, to know about this, since next week will be their bid-giving competition... and any kind of this information being released before that, would make their job next week much harder!

 

[ztaprincess]

What does that mean and why do they need that information? Are they taking it so they can then go to the gym with that athlete/team and say "so and so claims this about you"? When I contacted USASF about reporting a gym with an illegal athlete at Worlds they told me they do not keep it confidential from that gym who reported them.

They told you that? The two people that I have talked to thus far did not say anything about that. The first email I got actually had a note at the bottom that said it was confidential and was intended to be seen by the receipent only.
They can know who I am all they want though because I don't belong to any gym.

I have emailed Jim Chadwick about the situation and will wait to see what he says. I have a feeling I am not going to get anything done about this at all, which is sad and so wrong.

 

[wcdad]

How does USASF make sure that the athletes competing are submitting valid birth certificates or are even using their own birth certificates? Do the coaches actually need to produce the original ones when they sign in their teams or are they sending in copies when they send in their rosters? Do the athletes' passes have their names on them or are they just lanyards that say "Competitor" on them? I know of two instances where a gym had a kid on their World's team who turned the correct age just a month prior to Worlds yet they somehow managed to compete (two different kids, two years in a row.) Do we blame the coach for cheating or USASF for not catching it?

I blame both. If a coach is a member of the USASF for cheating as they must follow the rules, And The USASF for not having a registration system in place yet

 

[Kelli Nicole]

I have no idea why they need that information. And I would guess that the team(FTG Bullets) is completely unaware of any mistakes they made and the event producer was probably unaware of their bid-giving mistake until they received my e-mail...
And I guess that they don't want more people than already aware of this, to know about this, since next week will be their bid-giving competition... and any kind of this information being released before that, would make their job next week much harder!

The FTG coach is an employee of the EP.

 

[hihocheerio]

The FTG coach is an employee of the EP.

And you just came full circle to cheerleading politics at its finest.

 

[Drkilluzionz]

I like the dialog and questions being asked here don't you luvhim381 ? lol

 

[ztaprincess]

Maybe we should merge the two threads about this, but for those who are only keeping up with 1 thread. I have offically e-mailed 3 USASF "officals" and have gotten absolutely nowhere except for the USASF is "forgiving" of International teams when rules are broken (yes that was said in an e-mail). I have e-mailed Steve Peterson, Casey Winn, and Jim Chadwick to receive absolutely no answers or even a "we were wrong I am sorry". I just keep getting pushed in a circle. Oh and harassment towards people questioning this situation has started, classy.

Not sure who to go to next, anyone got and suggestions? I really don't want to give up on this because I feel if I push hard enough maybe it can cause some change that is needed. I am thinking Les may be the next on my list. Any other suggestions?