This response is to
@CLynn it won’t let let me fix the quote box.
The Jr age range is insane (babies with high schoolers), but the Open age range makes a lot of sense. The idea is to keep Open similar to Senior age range, just with a bit more flexibility so that kids who age out of Sr don’t have to quit the sport.
Most gyms, even the Mega ones, would find it virtually impossible to field good teams that are only 18+, especially given the level of stunting difficulty nowadays that favors tinier flyers. Only the rare Mega gym with a tie to university cheer (like GymTyme and University of Louisville) has 18+ athletes (especially flyers) growing on trees. Everyone else’s Open teams have a much broader age range, similar to Sr age range (Sr age can span from just out of elementary school to as old as college sophomore).
Back in the day, it didn’t matter if your 18+ Open/International team wasn’t competitive and mostly just for fun. You could go to a few local competitions and not take it seriously. But local comps died years ago and now every comp is on a serious track towards Worlds/end of season event. When the International division was first introduced at Worlds many years ago, it was more of a joke, but now it’s obviously as serious as any other division and it takes a lot to be competitive. And again, gyms can’t form competitive 18+ teams. Even 16+ might not be feasible (and wouldn’t be much different than 14+ anyway). Sometimes it’s plain safer to have a more prepubescent flyer.
So what do you do with the many kids who still want to cheer competitively and take it seriously and want to go to Worlds once they hit 18? This is why there are so many Open teams, as well as many “super senioring” 18 year olds-turning 19 on Senior teams. Allowing athletes over 18 to cheer makes Varsity/USASF more money of course, but it also makes cheer more of a “real” sport instead of being just a kiddie youth activity that age discriminates.
Sexual abuse almost always happens in secret, not at practice. Creeps who want to prey on children have easy access to them whether they’re on the same team or not, especially with the internet. Predators are more likely to prey on children when they have power and authority over them (ie. coaches).
Parents need to be parents and monitor where their kids go after practice and who they have relationships with online, etc. Varsity has issues, but they can’t parent everyone’s kids. If parents let their kids live with their coaches, or send them away to live with a host family, or let them have drinks with adults at competitions and parties, or let them date 21 year olds or don’t try to monitor their private online convos, that’s on them.
