All-Star Random Cheerleading Questions

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U17 and U19 are the IASF equivalents of junior and senior. So they are international divisions. I wish USASF would switch to numeric age groups like every other sport uses too.

Are you saying you'd prefer calling divisions U17 and U19 instead of Junior/Senior? What other sports actually do that? I can think of soccer. But other sports like gymnastics, figure skating, a lot of the Olympic sports, have Junior and Senior divisions. I haven't heard of U17 much.

I think "Youth/Junior/Senior" rolls off the tongue a little better than "U 19". And given that announcers at competitions have to introduce hundreds of teams, I'm guessing they'd prefer saying Sr/Jr over numbers.

It would be nice if USASF and IASF divisions were one-and-the-same at some point though. I know there are reasons why they aren't, but when you see a Jr 2 team and a U17 team and it's literally the same type of team, it's kind of funny to have them in different divisions. It's also funny to see divisions considered "International" when there are never any international competitors. Really, having so many divisions has watered down the competition here in the US, especially at small competitions where there might be only one U19 Level 2 team and one Sr Level 2 team competing.
 
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What if you get a bid in both divisions? Can you?

With IASF, if you have a bid in 1 division, and decide to change divisions and go for a bid in the new division, you have to first give up your original bid. It happened here a few years ago, where a team got a bid and then lost and gained a fair number of new people and ended up changing divisions based on the skill and ages of the new people joining. I also remember Viqueens (in 2019, I think) competed all season as level 7 in Europe, but dropped to NT6 for their bid and Worlds. I heard it was because they had girls not old enough for level 7 at Worlds, but old enough to compete that division in Europe, but I can't confirm that for sure
 
Are you saying you'd prefer calling divisions U17 and U19 instead of Junior/Senior? What other sports actually do that? I can think of soccer. But other sports like gymnastics, figure skating, a lot of the Olympic sports, have Junior and Senior divisions. I haven't heard of U17 much.

I think "Youth/Junior/Senior" rolls off the tongue a little better than "U 19". And given that announcers at competitions have to introduce hundreds of teams, I'm guessing they'd prefer saying Sr/Jr over numbers.

It would be nice if USASF and IASF divisions were one-and-the-same at some point though. I know there are reasons why they aren't, but when you see a Jr 2 team and a U17 team and it's literally the same type of team, it's kind of funny to have them in different divisions. It's also funny to see divisions considered "International" when there are never any international competitors. Really, having so many divisions has watered down the competition here in the US, especially at small competitions where there might be only one U19 Level 2 team and one Sr Level 2 team competing.
Pretty much every sport around here does. Basketball, baseball, softball, lacrosse, volleyball, soccer, and several others. It makes it way easier IMO for those outside and new to the sport to understand the age groups better. For me it makes more sense for more team-based sports than more individual sports like gymnastics and figure skating (yes, I am well aware that they compete in teams as well, but it's not the same team format).
There are differences between the USASF and IASF divisions besides just the name, making each division a better fit for certain teams opposed to the other, similarly named division. The "international" refers more to the international scoresheet/rules, rather than actually competing against teams from other countries. Though at competitions like Summit, this is where a majority (though not always all) of the non-US teams compete, like Worlds.
 
I don't believe there is a standard way to describe age groups in sports - I hear many variations in US sports at least.

I wish I could give rational reasons for the way we divide up teams. We separate teams by: Overall skills allowed, team size, age, gender mix, whether specific skill categories are allowed at all (NT), whether specific skill categories are changed from rest of the skill levels (4.2), whether the are "prep, novice, or elite", and enrollment and/or franchise status of the business they belong to. Many of those categories even have variations within them. The cutoff dates are different for some divisions (Jan 1) than others (July 1). I have probably left out some ways we divide teams.

I can somewhat understand the justification for them individually. (It isn't fair that a team with ____ situation has to compete against someone with a different situation). However, looking at is as a whole, it is abject insanity. No sport I know of has remotely the number and complexity of divisions as cheer.
 
We competed this weekend. My daughter is Junior 1 there were 3 teams in her division and 1 team in u17.
U17 walked away with a 1st place just for showing up.
The gym is 8 miles away from our gym and all their other teams are not international. I don’t get it.
 
We competed this weekend. My daughter is Junior 1 there were 3 teams in her division and 1 team in u17.
U17 walked away with a 1st place just for showing up.
The gym is 8 miles away from our gym and all their other teams are not international. I don’t get it.

Last season it felt like there were so many International teams, less so this season with the new U17/U19 designations. I clearly remember a few competitions last year where we had no competitions in our regular division but the Int'l divisions had 5 or 6 teams.
 
Last season it felt like there were so many International teams, less so this season with the new U17/U19 designations. I clearly remember a few competitions last year where we had no competitions in our regular division but the Int'l divisions had 5 or 6 teams.

I think that’s because they raised the normal Jr division top age as well. I really miss the old Jr with max age 14. The jr teams look more like sr teams now and there are so few Sr teams. I wonder if they’ll consider switching it back. They can stay with birth year but it needs to be lowered by one IMO.
 
I can somewhat understand the justification for them individually. (It isn't fair that a team with ____ situation has to compete against someone with a different situation). However, looking at is as a whole, it is abject insanity. No sport I know of has remotely the number and complexity of divisions as cheer.

Market experimentation? Customers are contradictive. Sometimes complaining is the demand for change, other times it's just venting. The corp I worked for would purposely experiment to see if the complaints were what the customer really wanted, or if it was just venting about the inconveniences of what they enjoyed. Example: Coupon days are too chaotic, just provide everyday value. Provides everyday value. Massive uproar, bring back coupon days. <<Also, this type of stuff varied greatly by geography. In cheer I see it as:

1) We need a gateway to full year. All Star is too expensive. I don't want full year commitment. ~ Provides Prep.
2) I don't like the intensity or commitment at young ages. ~Provides Novice.
3) Tumbling is preventing progression or causing burn out. ~Provides NT, 4.2, etc.

I have no idea, but I also tend to look at AS as being relatively new, so I always look at things such as Varsity owning a gym or providing a plethora of divisions as them trying to get a grasp on what the customers are actually buying/signing up/gravitating to, because that's what our corp did.
 
I think that’s because they raised the normal Jr division top age as well. I really miss the old Jr with max age 14. The jr teams look more like sr teams now and there are so few Sr teams. I wonder if they’ll consider switching it back. They can stay with birth year but it needs to be lowered by one IMO.
Agreed, the bottom age needs to be raised as well. 6 year olds already have tiny, mini, and youth. Junior would still have the largest age gap other than open if they made those changes.

It sucks for D2 gyms that just do not have a way to make a team then, but from what I've seen teams with 6yos and 15yos are not usually competitive anyway. Make an exhibition team so they can still get the fun of cheer.
 
Agreed, the bottom age needs to be raised as well. 6 year olds already have tiny, mini, and youth. Junior would still have the largest age gap other than open if they made those changes.

It sucks for D2 gyms that just do not have a way to make a team then, but from what I've seen teams with 6yos and 15yos are not usually competitive anyway. Make an exhibition team so they can still get the fun of cheer.

The low minimum age for youth and junior has essentially wiped away tiny and mini teams. My CP started as a tiny, they used to go against 9-10 other tiny teams at each competition. I don't even remember the last time I saw a tiny team around here. Minis are rare too. But back then you could be 3 on a tiny team and compete a full routine in a full season in a crop top :shaka:
 
The low minimum age for youth and junior has essentially wiped away tiny and mini teams. My CP started as a tiny, they used to go against 9-10 other tiny teams at each competition. I don't even remember the last time I saw a tiny team around here. Minis are rare too. But back then you could be 3 on a tiny team and compete a full routine in a full season in a crop top :shaka:
There are still some tiny and a lot of mini teams around here but we're in a pretty saturated area.

Talking about back then, CP had a teammate that was cheer age 2 on her first team. :D
 
Does anyone know what happened to Infinity Cheer? They were in the League City/Kemah area of Texas. Their unis were red, black and white iirc. I know they closed but does anyone know when/why? I've been googling them but can't really find anything except a few old pictures. I swear I saw a picture of one of their teams at worlds but now I can't find it (I'm pretty sure it was 2006 or 2007). I used to do tumbling classes at that building (a couple years ago, different owners/gym name and has since closed) but it still had banners and stuff from early and mid 2000s mostly smaller competitions and one NCA banner. Not sure why this all just hit me haha but I'm super curious. Or did they maybe go by a different name? Because I can't find any info on them and it's driving me nuts lol

When I first started cheering I remember seeing them at comps but I don't think I was ever on a team that competed against them.
 
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I think it was because there’s a lot of competition in that area. Many people are willing to drive to the bigger gyms like ASR, WE, Prodigy, etc. I am aware of multiple Houston area gyms that closed because they could not make it financially.
 
I think it was because there’s a lot of competition in that area. Many people are willing to drive to the bigger gyms like ASR, WE, Prodigy, etc. I am aware of multiple Houston area gyms that closed because they could not make it financially.
That makes sense, that building is only like 30ish minutes from ASR. Do you know when they closed? I wonder how long they were around for.
 
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