College The Pros And Cons Of Competing

[Kentucky Girl]

There are several colleges such as Kentucky, Alabama, Memphis, UCF, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, WKU, Mississippi State, Kansas, Morehead State, Delaware, West Georgia, Northwest Missouri State, and Hofstra who compete in UCA and Louisville, North Carolina State, Oklahoma State, SFA, and TVCC who compete in the NCA while others such as Florida, Auburn, Notre Dame, and Texas don't compete at all.

And so, there are the pros and cons of competing:

PROS
A chance of representing a school as well as being in the spotlight without being overshadowed by football and basketball.

CONS
Spending too much time practicing in the gym and not enough free time.

Those are the only ones that I can think of. Anything else?

 

[Cheercambree98]

Competing could be more expensive (:

 

[cheerforeverever]

Pro:
-Actually getting to put the skills required for tryouts to good use ( For non competition teams, who cares is someone has a standing two to double if the team just throws standing tucks every game?)

Con:
-Having to miss more school/tests/projects for competitions (in addition to those you miss while traveling for games/events/etc.). It can be difficult to catch up or schedule around all the events with certain professors

-You need a coach that can create a well scoring routine with high level skills. Not all schools have this. Just because someone is in charge of a sideline team does not necessarily mean that they know how to train a strong competitive team or effectively teach those creative top notch skills that push the envelope (as these skills aren't pushed to be learned/practiced as much, as they rarely get used on basketball courts, etc. in favor of quicker and cleaner basic skills). More pressure and stress gets put on those coaches, especially when they don't understand what they are doing in the competition circuit.

 

[Kentucky Girl]

Pro:
-Actually getting to put the skills required for tryouts to good use ( For non competition teams, who cares is someone has a standing two to double if the team just throws standing tucks every game?)

Con:
-Having to miss more school/tests/projects for competitions (in addition to those you miss while traveling for games/events/etc.). It can be difficult to catch up or schedule around all the events with certain professors

-You need a coach that can create a well scoring routine with high level skills. Not all schools have this. Just because someone is in charge of a sideline team does not necessarily mean that they know how to train a strong competitive team or effectively teach those creative top notch skills that push the envelope (as these skills aren't pushed to be learned/practiced as much, as they rarely get used on basketball courts, etc. in favor of quicker and cleaner basic skills). More pressure and stress gets put on those coaches, especially when they don't understand what they are doing in the competition circuit.

Good point. And another good thing about NCA teams is that the Nationals take place after basketball season is over as well. UCA teams on the other hand, compete during the middle of the basketball season in mid-January which means having to miss a basketball game.

 

[BuegeSmalls]

Good point. And another good thing about NCA teams is that the Nationals take place after basketball season is over as well. UCA teams on the other hand, compete during the middle of the basketball season in mid-January which means having to miss a basketball game.

My sister told me that she saw online (Facebook I believe) that Kansas wouldn't be competing at UCA this year because they have a basketball game and have to be there. :( I wonder how many other school have or have had this problem in the past.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

My sister told me that she saw online (Facebook I believe) that Kansas wouldn't be competing at UCA this year because they have a basketball game and have to be there. :( I wonder how many other school have or have had this problem in the past.

We've always sent the non-comp people to those games. Makes sense to carry an extra 10 cheerleaders for situations like those.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Con- while prepping for UCA, you sometimes have 2 practices + a basketball game.
Con- No Christmas break for UCA squad

 

[Kentucky Girl]

We've always sent the non-comp people to those games. Makes sense to carry an extra 10 cheerleaders for situations like those.

Kentucky also has a men's basketball game on January 18th as well (against Tennessee), but at least they have the white squad, which just so happens to be the junior varsity squad (they cheer for home football games, women's basketball games, volleyball games, and gymnastics). Having the white squad fill in certainly does make up for the blue squad being in Orlando!

 

[Kentucky Girl]

My sister told me that she saw online (Facebook I believe) that Kansas wouldn't be competing at UCA this year because they have a basketball game and have to be there. :( I wonder how many other school have or have had this problem in the past.

Definitely. I heard that Kansas has only one squad. Luckily, Kentucky has two (the blue squad and white squad) and like I posted earlier, when the blue squad has to compete, the white squad steps in!

 

[KU Cheer Coach]

We have enough people to cheer the game and compete nationals (which is what we've always done in the past, and will continue to do in the future), but unfortunately the game over nationals this year is vs. top-10-ranked Oklahoma State, with a hugely hyped Andrew Wiggins (our #1 bball recruit) vs OSU's Marcus Smart (a top-5 NBA pick who decided to return to school) on CBS, and we may need to win that game to win our 10th straight conference championship. We're hoping to find somewhere else to compete this year. I do sorta wish UCA would move college nationals to the weekend after NCA nationals!

 

[Ashley]

Con- while prepping for UCA, you sometimes have 2 practices + a basketball game.
Con- No Christmas break for UCA squad

This happens in NCA too though. Louisville was traveling all over for the NCAA tournament right before Daytona. And no spring break for NCA.

 

[Kentucky Girl]

This happens in NCA too though. Louisville was traveling all over for the NCAA tournament right before Daytona. And no spring break for NCA.

Oh, yeah. I forgot about spring break.

 

[Kentucky Girl]

We have enough people to cheer the game and compete nationals (which is what we've always done in the past, and will continue to do in the future), but unfortunately the game over nationals this year is vs. top-10-ranked Oklahoma State, with a hugely hyped Andrew Wiggins (our #1 bball recruit) vs OSU's Marcus Smart (a top-5 NBA pick who decided to return to school) on CBS, and we may need to win that game to win our 10th straight conference championship. We're hoping to find somewhere else to compete this year. I do sorta wish UCA would move college nationals to the weekend after NCA nationals!

Oh, I see. IMO, Kansas vs. Oklahoma State reminds me a lot like Kentucky vs. Louisville.