All-Star Legitimate Nationals

[addicted2cheer]

I really wish each comp company is only allowed to host one event per season that they can name "national champions" and the rest be called a "regional champion" much like usasf companies can only award Worlds bids at one competition per year.

 

[Chayse Alexandria]

I think for small local programs that don't attend the big Nationals, the smaller Nationals are just as important to them as NCA is to us. When we went to SC Nationals, the girls were coming off their NCA win and had slightly inflated egos. I had to shut my cp down because she kept saying how this comp wasn't important. I reminded her that to some of the other gyms THIS was their NCA and to be respectful of that.

Thank you for this. My gym is very small. Just over 100 kids, 9 teams including 2 expo's. We are finishing out our second year at US Finals Virgina Beach in May. Obviously, our dream is to attend NCA and Cheersport in the upcoming years. But to a program as small as ours, MACC, RTB, Spirit Unlimited, and US Finals are our "Nationals." Of course, as years go by and as our gym grows, NCA and Cheersport will be seeing our faces. But for right now, they are just not an option.

 

[WCMAN]

Funny, my CPs NCA jacket and title reads National champions and the UCA jacket and title reads International Champions....LOL

 

[kristenthegreat]

In some capacity it bothers me, when I had to explain to my friends I was going to nationals and they would ask 'But didn't you have nationals last weekend?!!' I do think there are tiers of nationals, and I do think based on gym size that some nationals like BATC or BUTBT can be major ones while for others it's cheersport/NCA. That being said, I do think we should have a prestige 'ranking system' and go from there. I'd definitely rank NCA/Cheersport/UCA/Jamfest as 5 star, RTB/BATC/BUTBT etc as 4 Star..

Actually it might help with competition costs. 5 star nationals are a bit more expensive but everything is 'bigger', 4 star is slightly smaller but cheaper, etc, and so forth. Companies could only have 1 5 star per season, but by offering a 5-star they could have more lower-star nationals? I dunno, just a thought. Incentive for companies to offer a bigger reward and incentives for gyms to attend..just throwing some ideas out there.

 

[MyKidzCheer]

My CP just finished her first season in cheer. We came into a big gym with hundreds of national titles advertised. It definitely motivated our selection but we got clear on the reality very quickly. I think most parents and athletes realize that there are different levels of nationals and actually as someone else mentioned it depends somewhat on where you live. Here in Texas it is not difficult to find competitions with excellent teams in attendance. I can definitely say that if my kiddo won a title at NCA I would definitely feel better about calling it an actual national championship. That's just me though. I always find myself explaining to outsiders how my CP " won a national championship, but it's really more of a regional thing". Realistically, the only way this ever changes is if a true unaffiliated governing body leads all star cheer and guides it in that direction. Alternately, I'm sure varsity would be happy to give us less nationals or tiered competitions if we would all just agree not to use anyone else :) interesting that almost all of the competitions considered "legit" happen to be varsity brands or founders of usasf.




Dad to CP: " cheer to have fun honey"
CP to Dad: " I will Dad, winning Is lots of fun"

 

[12stepCheermom]

Cheersport has been larger than NCA the past few years. I haven't done the number for this season, but last year Cheersport had more total teams and more all star cheer teams.

Cheersport has 927 teams this year which beat last years "largest nationals ever" record by two teams. Theyd posted it on their Facebook when the schedule came out.

 

[12stepCheermom]

I really wish each comp company is only allowed to host one event per season that they can name "national champions" and the rest be called a "regional champion" much like usasf companies can only award Worlds bids at one competition per year.

It's really in their best interest if you ask me. Cheersport does it this way and I think that's why it's so huge, they only have 1. We open with a cheersport regional every year to get a feel for our routines and scoring, then go to nationals in February, they're one of the only EPs we go to twice.

 

[nvecchioni89]

I guess another thing to take into consideration is the fact that these other companies do advertise as having nationals, so if you attend those events then sure, its no NCA, but it is technically a "national" says whichever company hosting it. Cant really take a crack at gyms for attending if its there, some teams possibly cannot afford those bigger nationals. To me it goes back to the problems within our industry of competition structure and having 500 different "national" competitions.

 

[Deleted member 15]

Cheersport has 927 teams this year which beat last years "largest nationals ever" record by two teams. Theyd posted it on their Facebook when the schedule came out.

Counting All Star Cheer teams only, Cheersport had 720 and NCA had 708 or 709. I'll count NCA again to figure out which number is correct.

 

[yojaehs]

Funny, my CPs NCA jacket and title reads National champions and the UCA jacket and title reads International Champions....LOL

This was the first year they did that. I found it amusing as well ;)

 

[hopskipandjump]

This thread is upsetting me. I am seriously considering not renewing my membership in the USASF ( and am only waiting for the "etiquette" rules to be released) and so my teams will not be attending any "prestigious" events in the foreseeable future. I assume any wins in the future will not be legit in some people's eyes. How sad for all of us.

 

[GreatWhite92]

This thread is upsetting me. I am seriously considering not renewing my membership in the USASF ( and am only waiting for the "etiquette" rules to be released) and so my teams will not be attending any "prestigious" events in the foreseeable future. I assume any wins in the future will not be legit in some people's eyes. How sad for all of us.

I agree this thread seems very elitist. and I have won Cheersport before and other cheerleaders saying they are National Champions does not upset me one bit. I like placing a number of stars by the competition though.

 

[ACEDAD]

I really wish each comp company is only allowed to host one event per season that they can name "national champions" and the rest be called a "regional champion" much like usasf companies can only award Worlds bids at one competition per year.

This is the best idea and I've wanted this for a long time. I don't mind any event producer having a nationals and I don't mind any gym advertising that they won XYZ nationals. But each EP should only have one.

 

[dawgshow]

This thread is upsetting me. I am seriously considering not renewing my membership in the USASF ( and am only waiting for the "etiquette" rules to be released) and so my teams will not be attending any "prestigious" events in the foreseeable future. I assume any wins in the future will not be legit in some people's eyes. How sad for all of us.

Wins are one thing. Advertising that your gym brought home 26 titles when you know darn well that the teams only had competition for 6 of them is what irks me. That's the situation that I've seen locally and personally feel that it's deceptive marketing.

 

[12stepCheermom]

Wins are one thing. Advertising that your gym brought home 26 titles when you know darn well that the teams only had competition for 6 of them is what irks me. That's the situation that I've seen locally and personally feel that it's deceptive marketing.

Agreed. We've seen a gym screaming from the rooftops about how they "swept" a competition. They had NO competition in any division (consistently include their special needs team as one of the national champion winners...which is cool, those kids are awesome and I appreciate that they are recognized at any competition for what they're doing...but all special needs teams are recognized that way) and competed in a high school gym. It wasn't exactly NCA they swept but they surely sounded like they did. For people who are new to the scene, that's deceptive over other programs that don't trophy hunt and go to competitions where they HAVE competition, even if that means they don't win.