I totally agree with your post,,, I might be called a softy because I have not experience firsthand athletes being moved down a level, but I heard of athletes, who were moved down a level in order to be competitive on the floor... Believe me, those athletes did not seemed to be very happy about it and were not screaming about jackets, they were upset, disappointed and most of those kids felt embarrassed... So sometimes, like what someone mentioned in a prior post... we have athletes, who worked hard before tryouts to make a team and take all kind of privates, open gym and tumbling classes -- but once they make the sought after dream team stopped working or do not consistently work the skills that got them placed on the team... The coaches, who put these teams together are going by the athletes they selected after tryouts and overshoot their expectations and hope that this team can get even better during the summer months and sadly it does not happened...Btw, If only 25% of team can consistently perform the skills requirements for that level, should they remained in that level because the coaches over estimated during the summer months their team potential, I think not!
Beware- However, coaches and gym owners, who allow such a travesty by putting level 5 athletes on level 2 teams should be shamed out of business, when this knowledge had been revealed and be banned from competing at Worlds. NCAs, UCAs, Cheersport and any reputable competitions for 2 seasons and given the Milli-Vanilli style treatment :mad:- publicly stripped and forced to publicly give up those jackets gained by their cheating, better yet, I also take a 3 page essay from each athletes and the organization on the topic - 'What lesson I learned by cheating' and placed these letters as testimonials on the team's website... (We need to be harsher on these cheaters, so they will learn their lesson and stop, NOW!) Just Saying!;)