All-Star Robert Scianna Arrest For Soliciting Minor.

[AndyT_T]

Of course, but being on the same team would surely make it easier. Either way, there is zero reason for the open age grid to be what it currently is.

I'm 27 and last season I was on a team with a 13 year old. She turned 13 while I was on the team. When I started in open divisions I was on teams with people who were all 18+. Hell at worlds one year almost everyone on my team was old enough to go "drink around the world" at epcot!

My first season on an open 4 everyone was 18+ and almost everyone was in college with a handful of us being older than that and in grad school or the work force. The next year they changed the age grid and suddenly the majority of the team was middle school or high school age. Literally from one season to the next I went from being on a team with a guy who was a gym teacher, to being on a team with girls who could be in his gym class!

I decided to try out for an open 6 assuming it would be like the open team I was on in college where we would all practice and then go bar hopping together. Or the open team I practiced with in France where everyone was in their mid 20s. Instead to my surprise the majority of the team was in high school with only a few college freshman/sophomores. Only 4 of us were old enough to drink. Less than a quarter of us were over 18.

Don't get me wrong I am not bad talking the team or the gym I was at they were and are amazing! It was just a very noticeable representation of the changing demographic of open teams in the past few years. A demographic change I do not think has been for the better. I still love cheer and would love to continue competing but it's a lot less fun to be on a team as an adult with a bunch of kids. I would kill to compete on a level 7 team if only because everyone on the team would be an adult. I miss being able to go out dancing with my team on saturday, practicing on sunday, and working on monday.

 

[luv2cheer92]

I'm 27 and last season I was on a team with a 13 year old. She turned 13 while I was on the team. When I started in open divisions I was on teams with people who were all 18+. Hell at worlds one year almost everyone on my team was old enough to go "drink around the world" at epcot!

My first season on an open 4 everyone was 18+ and almost everyone was in college with a handful of us being older than that and in grad school or the work force. The next year they changed the age grid and suddenly the majority of the team was middle school or high school age. Literally from one season to the next I went from being on a team with a guy who was a gym teacher, to being on a team with girls who could be in his gym class!

I decided to try out for an open 6 assuming it would be like the open team I was on in college where we would all practice and then go bar hopping together. Or the open team I practiced with in France where everyone was in their mid 20s. Instead to my surprise the majority of the team was in high school with only a few college freshman/sophomores. Only 4 of us were old enough to drink. Less than a quarter of us were over 18.

Don't get me wrong I am not bad talking the team or the gym I was at they were and are amazing! It was just a very noticeable representation of the changing demographic of open teams in the past few years. A demographic change I do not think has been for the better. I still love cheer and would love to continue competing but it's a lot less fun to be on a team as an adult with a bunch of kids. I would kill to compete on a level 7 team if only because everyone on the team would be an adult. I miss being able to go out dancing with my team on saturday, practicing on sunday, and working on monday.

Completely agree. Even when I was on an Open 4 team at 24 it just felt weird being on a team with girls in high school (17+), and that wasn't as big of an age difference.

 

[luv2cheer92]

As parents, coaches, and gym owners, we are saddened by recent news involving allegations of sexual misconduct by several individuals in the cheer industry. Cheer Athletics does not tolerate this behavior and we remain steadfast in our commitment to protect athletes and children.

To that end, when allegations against former CA Plano coach Mitch Ryan were first brought to our attention last year, we immediately terminated his employment, filed a report with the appropriate legal authorities, and filed an additional report with USASF’s SafeSport program. To the best of our knowledge, the alleged victim was not affiliated with CA.

With respect to the arrest of Robert Scianna, we first learned of the allegations made against him through media reports yesterday. While he was previously featured on our website as a result of his position as a model for our uniform vendor, his image was removed a few weeks ago as part of a website update.

Both of these individuals had passed background checks.

Today, as always, we stand ready to cooperate with all law enforcement and will continue to take proactive measures to ensure the safety of our athletes.

I appreciate this. And I also feel like it highlights why it is so important for anyone to come forward who experiences anything. And why I feel like the gyms are largely not to blame for any of this. Many times, nobody knows until the abusers are reported.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

I'm 27 and last season I was on a team with a 13 year old. She turned 13 while I was on the team. When I started in open divisions I was on teams with people who were all 18+. Hell at worlds one year almost everyone on my team was old enough to go "drink around the world" at epcot!

My first season on an open 4 everyone was 18+ and almost everyone was in college with a handful of us being older than that and in grad school or the work force. The next year they changed the age grid and suddenly the majority of the team was middle school or high school age. Literally from one season to the next I went from being on a team with a guy who was a gym teacher, to being on a team with girls who could be in his gym class!

I decided to try out for an open 6 assuming it would be like the open team I was on in college where we would all practice and then go bar hopping together. Or the open team I practiced with in France where everyone was in their mid 20s. Instead to my surprise the majority of the team was in high school with only a few college freshman/sophomores. Only 4 of us were old enough to drink. Less than a quarter of us were over 18.

Don't get me wrong I am not bad talking the team or the gym I was at they were and are amazing! It was just a very noticeable representation of the changing demographic of open teams in the past few years. A demographic change I do not think has been for the better. I still love cheer and would love to continue competing but it's a lot less fun to be on a team as an adult with a bunch of kids. I would kill to compete on a level 7 team if only because everyone on the team would be an adult. I miss being able to go out dancing with my team on saturday, practicing on sunday, and working on monday.

That's interesting.

Opinion:

Adding divisions/senior teams going open has changed the composition of open teams.

A lot of regular senior teams have gone open, so the more traditional older open teams have to compete with that.

Example: An open team composed of women in their 20s may not be able to compete with say, SSX deciding to go IOpen Small All Girl 6 while being heavy on younger athletes.

 

[luv2cheer92]

That's interesting.

Opinion:

Adding divisions/senior teams going open has changed the composition of open teams.

A lot of regular senior teams have gone open, so the more traditional older open teams have to compete with that.

Example: An open team composed of women in their 20s may not be able to compete with say, SSX deciding to go IOpen Small All Girl 6 while being heavy on younger athletes.

That's not a division, but the point is still there. I think there needs to be a clearer distinction between senior and open so that doesn't continue to happen.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

That's not a division, but the point is still there. I think there needs to be a clearer distinction between senior and open so that doesn't continue to happen.

I noticed that after I posted. Long day but you get the idea.

It's like you being on an IO4AllGirl with all 20somethings and competing against an IO4 composed of say, all Sassycats.

 

[Nothanks]

That's not a division, but the point is still there. I think there needs to be a clearer distinction between senior and open so that doesn't continue to happen.

I noticed that after I posted. Long day but you get the idea.

It's like you being on an IO4AllGirl with all 20somethings and competing against an IO4 composed of say, all Sassycats.

This is obviously a way different direction than what the thread is about, but with the increase in junior age range, coupled with the lowering of open age, senior team divisions, at least in my demographic (all basically super small gyms), have dwindled a lot.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

This is obviously a way different direction than what the thread is about, but with the increase in junior age range, coupled with the lowering of open age, senior team divisions, at least in my demographic (all basically super small gyms), have dwindled a lot.

Oh for sure.

I feel like the addition of NT has contributed to that as well somewhat.

Think about it: Small Coed 6. Between open changes, NT, and the advent of XS, it's gotten so small!

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Well the completely unregulated Twitter source where I get my cheer updates has been shut down/suspended.

I’m not entirely kidding when I say we should start one to replace it where we can make sure everything that’s posted is productive and not just:

“ZYX IS SOOO UNDERATEDD LOOL”
“Your faves suck”
“I saw CSP slap a frontline worker”

 

[Thinkpositivethoughts]

Well the completely unregulated Twitter source where I get my cheer updates has been shut down/suspended.

I’m not entirely kidding when I say we should start one to replace it where we can make sure everything that’s posted is productive and not just:

“ZYX IS SOOO UNDERATEDD LOOL”
“Your faves suck”
“I saw CSP slap a frontline worker”

lol..it’s probably the sameone where I would see a lot of information from. Honestly though, if it is the same account it might be a good thing it was suspended.

 

[BlueCat]

I have no idea what happened to that twitter account. As far as I know, none of our staff had anything to do with it going away. We were fairly regularly blasted on there, but we have just tried to live with it. We have occasionally made mistakes, but the vast majority of what was said negatively about us was untrue or based on half-truths. Protesting or trying to defend yourself just fueled the anger even more and made it worse. It is hard for your life's work to be the brunt of so much hatred and falsehood, but after a while, you learn to just live with it.

I think there should be a place for people to report things, and for people to be called out for misdeeds - possibly even with anonymity. However, there needs to be at least some measure of vetting or accountability for spreading untrue statements.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

I have no idea what happened to that twitter account. As far as I know, none of our staff had anything to do with it going away. We were fairly regularly blasted on there, but we have just tried to live with it. We have occasionally made mistakes, but the vast majority of what was said negatively about us was untrue or based on half-truths. Protesting or trying to defend yourself just fueled the anger even more and made it worse. It is hard for your life's work to be the brunt of so much hatred and falsehood, but after a while, you learn to just live with it.

I think there should be a place for people to report things, and for people to be called out for misdeeds - possibly even with anonymity. However, there needs to be at least some measure of vetting or accountability for spreading untrue statements.

Yeah man. It’s a good thing it was shut down. It could’ve been a great resource to disseminate information, but instead it focused on promoting toxicity.

And honestly, most of the time it was boring as hell. 95% of the “confessions” were about how teams were “slept on.” Or my favorite kinds of confessions: the passive-aggressive ones that said a lot while saying nothing at all:

Cheer Confessions: “SOME coaches at SOME gyms seem to think it’s okay to bully SOME people and SOME of us are ready to go AWF.”
Me: “These are all nonsense words.”

I’m pretty sure it was probably reported and shut down for bullying. The confession alleging Gabi Butler must’ve known about the predatory behavior of Jerry, Robert, and Mitch because she knew all three of them at some point in her life was a pretty s****y thing to publish.

ETA: and yeah, the transparent half-truths about CA and CEA and Rays and whoever were really irresponsible to post. I can’t even count how many times I read:

CC: “I heard that (some popular cheerleb) said/did/posted (some terrible thing)!!!!”
Random commenter: “Oh really what happened?”
CC: .....

Such transparent ****-stirring. Because honestly if someone actually had some kind of dirt bomb, they’d be falling all over themselves to be the ones to post it first. And they certainly wouldn’t want anonymity to do it.

 

[Thinkpositivethoughts]

Totally off topic but I wish a lot of the other cheer anons account would get suspended. They all seem to focus on spreading toxicity instead of positivity.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Totally off topic but I wish a lot of the other cheer anons account would get suspended. They all seem to focus on spreading toxicity instead of positivity.

There are definitely a few mom accounts I could live without. In particular the ones that seem to love trolling as much as your average tween anon does. I would be so embarrassed if my mom ever got down in the dirt with freaking children as much as some moms do today. Do they think it’s a good look? Do they think this impresses people? Do they think anyone will ever look at their comments and think, “Wow that 40 y/o woman really owned that middle schooler. Let’s hire her.”

 

[luv2cheer92]

Good riddance. I occasionally commented to correct something when I saw something inaccurate quoted or retweeted by someone I follow, otherwise I stayed far, far away from that account. I was always surprised at how many people seemed to believe everything they read on there.