All-Star Substance Free Programs

[UCFKnights07]

They took the caffeine out. They still sell them and they're still alcoholic.

Oh ok couldn't remember which was taken out, I thought it was the alcohol. Don't drink em anymore anyways.

 

[Cheer Dad]

Those drinks are terrible for you anyway so not drinking them is good.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Those drinks are terrible for you anyway so not drinking them is good.

I will never understand the purpose behind mixing caffeine and alcohol... isn't one supposed to wake you up and the other supposed to relax you/induce drunkenness? Aren't those contradictory effects?

 

[njallday]

I will never understand the purpose behind mixing caffeine and alcohol... isn't one supposed to wake you up and the other supposed to relax you/induce drunkenness? Aren't those contradictory effects?

Not sure, but redbull and vodka is a very popular drink around here, so people obviously enjoy it. and before redull was a thing there was always irish coffee. it's not a new concept.

 

[SharkDad]

This thread has been a great discussion in general about a serious topic. A major point is being missed, though.

It's terrible for Dani's family and friends to have to live with the consequences of her actions, but there are programs that are well known for have cultures that accept this behavior. Multiple people people have mentioned them. It's not just this program, there are numerous other college programs, All Stars, coaches, and athletes.

What change can happen that will affect the bigger problem?

 

[Helen uk uni cheer]

This thread has been a great discussion in general about a serious topic. A major point is being missed, though.

It's terrible for Dani's family and friends to have to live with the consequences of her actions, but there are programs that are well known for have cultures that accept this behavior. Multiple people people have mentioned them. It's not just this program, there are numerous other college programs, All Stars, coaches, and athletes.

What change can happen that will affect the bigger problem?

On a UK cheer forum there was a post from a coach asking what should he do about under age drinkers because the coach was seeing them on the streets drinking at night but not drunk at practice and felt that it wasnt right and just cared about his athletes

There were many people who just said forget it but in the end I think the coach had a quiet word with the athletes and their parents

I just hate that people just blow things under the carpet.

There needs to be something written to usasf or petition

Another way may be to make people aware of some of these gyms where it is the worse.

The sooner some type of drug testing takes place the better it is an athletic activity and flipping dangerous to be under the influence of anything!

 

[HeatUniqueJ]

This thread has been a great discussion in general about a serious topic. A major point is being missed, though.

It's terrible for Dani's family and friends to have to live with the consequences of her actions, but there are programs that are well known for have cultures that accept this behavior. Multiple people people have mentioned them. It's not just this program, there are numerous other college programs, All Stars, coaches, and athletes.

What change can happen that will affect the bigger problem?

in my opinion the only possible way to change it is regular and unannounced drug testing as i've mentioned before. For Allstar this may be difficult but in College it should definitly be possible. And by regular i mean every few weeks, not only once a year. Also i think a drug test going along with trying out would be necessary. I doubt this will happen though

 

[HeatUniqueJ]

Double post

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

in my opinion the only possible way to change it is regular and unannounced drug testing as i've mentioned before. For Allstar this may be difficult but in College it should definitly be possible. And by regular i mean every few weeks, not only once a year. Also i think a drug test going along with trying out would be necessary. I doubt this will happen though

For all star, would there be an age bracket that's tested? Like say 12 and up? Or worlds eligible athletes? Idk if testing minis is appropriate, I don't see too many cracked out 6 year olds running around competitions :P unless these kids develop an addiction to pixie sticks. I could see this being a great thing. I love love love your idea of doing drug testing at tryouts. How much does drug testing cost? I'm assuming if this were to happen, the parents would be paying for it, right? Like it would be apart of the athletes monthly tuition/gym fees? In colleges, who pays for it?

I doubt the USASF would ever try to consider constant drug testing athletes, especially with how busy they are with more important things like behind the scenes world videos and seeing how many more people they can stuff into the Milk House, but I could see a lot of people getting behind this.

 

[cheerisloving]

This thread has been a great discussion in general about a serious topic. A major point is being missed, though.

It's terrible for Dani's family and friends to have to live with the consequences of her actions, but there are programs that are well known for have cultures that accept this behavior. Multiple people people have mentioned them. It's not just this program, there are numerous other college programs, All Stars, coaches, and athletes.

What change can happen that will affect the bigger problem?

I suggested earlier that the leading organization on all ends of cheer should be promoting wellness. How to spot athletes with eating disorders is already something that many coaches can do, but how to spot depression, addiction. Making ground rules for athletes on how long they can be out before game day, drug testing, and education. Fine programs that don't comply.

 

[njallday]

This thread has been a great discussion in general about a serious topic. A major point is being missed, though.

It's terrible for Dani's family and friends to have to live with the consequences of her actions, but there are programs that are well known for have cultures that accept this behavior. Multiple people people have mentioned them. It's not just this program, there are numerous other college programs, All Stars, coaches, and athletes.

What change can happen that will affect the bigger problem?

i said it before, but i think the only way to see gym owners/coaches take action is for the major competitions to take action. Worlds, NCA/UCA college nationals should pull random athletes when they check in for the competition and drug test them. there are plenty of labs/tests that get results back within 24 hours. (the EP has to randomly choose athletes - NOT the coaches who choose the athletes they know are clean) automatic disqualification if illicit drugs are found in their systems. with real consequences, coaches will take real action. otherwise it's too easy to turn a blind eye.

 

[CharlotteASMom]

Does anyone have any info/experience with testing of under 18 athletes? The legalities of doing that seem like they would be tough to get around.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Coaches are some of the biggest drug abusers in sports. Not just cheer, all sports. I doubt you'll get anywhere with the problems with athletes until that issue is addressed.

 

[Helen uk uni cheer]

For all star, would there be an age bracket that's tested? Like say 12 and up? Or worlds eligible athletes? Idk if testing minis is appropriate, I don't see too many cracked out 6 year olds running around competitions :p unless these kids develop an addiction to pixie sticks. I could see this being a great thing. I love love love your idea of doing drug testing at tryouts. How much does drug testing cost? I'm assuming if this were to happen, the parents would be paying for it, right? Like it would be apart of the athletes monthly tuition/gym fees? In colleges, who pays for it?

I doubt the USASF would ever try to consider constant drug testing athletes, especially with how busy they are with more important things like behind the scenes world videos and seeing how many more people they can stuff into the Milk House, but I could see a lot of people getting behind this.

I think 12 and up would be perfect because it tends to be sometimes quite sadly the age where some kids try stuff and with being a drug test with reprocussions it would hopefully discourage the younger ones to think before they try and know they are letting the whole team down because peer pressure in these type of thing works wonders

 

[HeatUniqueJ]

For all star, would there be an age bracket that's tested? Like say 12 and up? Or worlds eligible athletes? Idk if testing minis is appropriate, I don't see too many cracked out 6 year olds running around competitions :p unless these kids develop an addiction to pixie sticks. I could see this being a great thing. I love love love your idea of doing drug testing at tryouts. How much does drug testing cost? I'm assuming if this were to happen, the parents would be paying for it, right? Like it would be apart of the athletes monthly tuition/gym fees? In colleges, who pays for it?

I doubt the USASF would ever try to consider constant drug testing athletes, especially with how busy they are with more important things like behind the scenes world videos and seeing how many more people they can stuff into the Milk House, but I could see a lot of people getting behind this.

I think for Allstar it would on the one hand make sense if it happened at competitions, so if the event producers decided to do it, they'd have to raise the entry fees, but i think having clean athletes compete should be worth doing that. The only issue i have with that idea is that it would not be regularly and people knew they are going to get tested so it would not be unannounced. Normally, the Gym Owner should do it and include it in tuition fees, but as someone already said, you can never be sure none of them is doing drugs so there's the next problem. So basically the USASF would be the one who had to start sending people out to gyms and test the Senior Teams and especially the IO Teams. But to do that they'd have to skip their next ''AllGirl Worlds'' video

At college i think the athletes should be the ones paying for it , it should be included in the cost for cheering in college. Some might say ''who is going to pay for him/herself to get tested'' but that's the point. If you are addicted you will not do that, and then you can't cheer, even if it is very important you, so at least there are consequences