All-Star Showcase Questions

[canz]

We are a small gym and do two showffs a year-one before each of your major championships. Last year we had 7 panel strips which we trucked to the auditorium on the door and rolled out on the stage. Using an auditorium was great as we had proper stage lighting and sound system as well as comfortable tiered seating. Because we are smaller we get away with having all the teams come one-two hours before performance to do a "dress rehearsal" run through of all the teams, individuals, stunt groups as they will run in the performance. The parents run a kitchen for fundraising and organise raffles. As well as the teams performing we run a jump challenge, flexibility challenge and tumble challenge and award 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes in each. Last year this was medals, certificates, a small bunch of flowers and a $20 mall voucher for all placings. This year we also awarded category prizes to the teams overall based on their performances eg best stunt, best tumble, best pyramid, best overall performance- this was judged purely based on execution and number of deductions. Our judges are the coaches and some special guests. Hope that helps.

 

[mommadonna]

Mom2Cheergirls...I think it is $50 per athlete comp fee.

 

[CheerBank]

Our gym is having it's showcase at the end of the season. It's our first year at this gym so I'm not sure how exactly how they do things but I know it's at a different location than our gym, and will includes all full year, half year teams and the special needs team. It's being held 2 weeks after the last comp and I guess is the official finale of the season.

 

[alexamarysouza]

my gym rents out a high school that's literally 5 minutes from the gym (which happens to be my school's rival lol :rolleyes:), and we just transport the panels. We use it as a dead mat and water down tumbling past handsprings unless people are comfortable doing it on the dead mat. It used to just kinda be a CSA family type day, but this year 6 different Pop Warner teams brought several of their squads, and another gym actually came too. We had between 400-500 athletes! We also had judges there with varsity scoring sheets to review our routines. Our teams got to go twice. It lasted about 3.5 hours this year. showcases are DEFINITELY very beneficial!

 

[alexamarysouza]

We've been having Showcases in Oct years and years and years. We started out using a local high school gym and then we outgrew that space. Moved a little further away to a bigger high school facility for 2 years and now we have it at the coliseum in Winston Salem. During all those year's we did transport our spring floor to the facilities and set them up. We also use the floor from a 2nd CEA location for the warm up area and tumbling strips. Our showcases are patterned after competitions and the warm up area is set up accordingly.

Having a Showcase is time intensive. It takes A LOT of man hours. Luckily we have a lot of teams to spread the work around. For example.....1 team might be in charge of Admission...(manning the tables all day and collecting spectator fee's from everyone. ) 1 team might be in charge of canned food collection. 1 team might be in charge of judges hospitality room. (Keeping it stocked with snacks, food and drinks) 1 team might be in charge of "security". (Checking wristbands at the doors leading into the gymnasium to make sure everyone has paid) There have been years that we've had parents grilling food to sell and drinks popcorn candy that kind of stuff and we've had years where the schools booster club handled that stuff. 2 teams might make sure the floors are moved and set up on time and 2 other teams are in charge of staying after and breaking down the floor and cleaning up.

These are just a few things I thought of off the top of my head to get you started. Hope I helped a little bit!!

talk about cramped into a small space! I clearly remember those days.

 

[mstealtoyou]

talk about cramped into a small space! I clearly remember those days.

Glenn High School. Where it all began. LOL

 

[Underestimated]

One year my old gym did a combined showcase with another all star gym we are friends with and had our dads and their dads and team kids help with set up and breakdowns! It was quick!

 

[kristenthegreat]

We used to just do it at our gym, but now that we have 3 locations, we use a local high school. we rent a spring floor from a local company (saves us from having to bring our floor). we charge admission just to cover the high school & floor fees. we have 1 parent video all the teams & we try to get an outside judge just to give the teams a critique of their routines. It works great for us. It's very low maintenance & all our teams get to perform their routines before a big crowd & get the competition feel. We do ours a couple of weeks before our first comp.

I went last year. Very efficient, well run and you get a good feel for things!

 

[mstealtoyou]

Thanks everyone I went on a trip so was not able to see the responses and was dying to. mstealtoyou - Wow - thank you for telling me how you all progressed from small to large . We are definitely a small gym that is growing and probably would not unfortunately get the teams to run things on that scale - but certainly a smaller scale and having each team given a specific job is really an awesome idea that we could do even on a smaller scale. mommadonna I like the idea of an organizer do you know if that is pricey ??? I think if we can run it - we might keep costs down but I love options. Luckily we actually have some coaches who have a background judging as well - and they know people as well in fact they always do that in gym to all the gyms before comp to get some fresh eyes on what the teams looks like (just not a showcase done during practice). Everyone had such great ideas and support - I think we could pull it off. I don't think we could get one ready for this season but certainly could present this for next season as something we parents want to see. Did anyone have issues with their high school gyms being against the springboard coming in. Our school system is HUGE and they are very very protective of their spaces as they are a commodity for them - so I am little worried about that. I am going to send an email to our owner saying a group of us parents would like to work with them to make this something we do for next year (any advice from you all on how to spin it)- our owner is very nice so not concerned about that just think it might be something they find daunting (we have been growing quick with all the good and bad that comes with it - most good). Okay so if I get a go ahead - and they don't want to use our floor -for those who rent them how does one go about finding that. Did you call the competition companies??? I think I could find a space - and I am going to check our local gymnastic places and we do have a university near us as well to see if someplace may have a springboard where we could fit people but if I need to find a space and bring in a floor - I think moving our floor would be the one thing that would cause our owner to say no or not for a couple of years. I really get the feel from the parents that our gym needs something like this.....Sorry if this is disjointed just trying to work out my thoughts and coming to you all as I have found fierceboard to be just a great place to learn. Thanks for the support and advice!!! Sorry will go through and shimmy people later have to get the littlest off to school :)

Mom2Cheergirls I sent you a message. I would be happy to help you with a plan that would work for the number of kids/spectator's and team help that you have available to you.

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

Mom2Cheergirls I sent you a message. I would be happy to help you with a plan that would work for the number of kids/spectator's and team help that you have available to you.

Thanks I got it I just have been nonstop - this is my room mom busy week prepping for next weeks parties at my kids schools. I am trying to not step over my bounds at cheer so now I feel like I have enough info to at least present the concept to our owner. Seriously thinking this will be a next year event - LOVE our gym but some changes and ideas take time to occur - I don't see this being one that they will jump to organize right away. But like I said we love our coaches and plan to stay there so hoping if I start the idea now and understand what is involved a bit that I can encourage this to happen for next season. Hope the offer for advice and planning will still be there when we get to really doing this because I think you give great advice and ideas and I will certainly be needing some when we get there. I am a firm believer of why reinvent the wheel when it is already turning.

 

[coach12]

I went last year. Very efficient, well run and you get a good feel for things!

Thanks!! Are you coming this year??

 

[kristenthegreat]

Thanks!! Are you coming this year??

Depending on my availability I would love to! Living in the city full-time makes things difficult lol

 

[coach12]

Depending on my availability I would love to! Living in the city full-time makes things difficult lol

would love for you to come. if you are available, it's at the same place - Crosby H.S. on Sunday, Nov. 18. still not sure of the exact start time yet.

 

[alexamarysouza]

Glenn High School. Where it all began. LOL

haha and then to northern guilford...home of a space the same exact size ;)