High School Transportation To Away Games

[cheerKT]

Our school pays for transportation to all away games. They also pay for transportation to all competitions with the exception of our flights for nationals(they do provide a bus to and from the airport). They also pay all fees for competitions except for nationals. I can't believe other schools don't provide busses for games! Maybe this is why our taxes are so high in my town...lol.

Same, except SC schools do not compete at nationals. But they payed to bus us to all games, home and away and competitions on Saturday all across the state, there and back. Competition fees come out of our budget, which we fundraised for. No competition fee or travel money ever came out of pocket

 

[Pebbles49]

I read through many of the posts and realized we are talking about school cheerleading
But this is my little funny anecdote about AS cheerleading and transportation-
When my daughter first started AS cheerleading and I received her competition schedule I was "wow" all these places and all of them were far from our house and the gym... Mind you, my daughter had practice the whole Summer, Cheer camp and the gym provided buses for the athletes to go away to Cheer camp. So, just before the 1st competition I go to one of the veteran Mom, who was involved with collecting money for buses for Cheer camp and asked how much is the bus to take the athletes to this competition, which was in Philadelphia and this Mom looked at me as if I had 3 heads and was like, What buses, and to where these buses are going? I said, still confident about buses, I am still asking what time I need my daughter to be at the gym for the buses and can the parents ride on the buses- This Mom informed me at that moment that I had to drive my daughter to all these competitions and make sure I am not late! I was like whaaat! I was a new driver and only driven 10 miles at the most away from my house and was scare to death of driving outside of the state, I had a minor heart attack and breakdown and Tbh, I was ready to quit the sport before we even got started because I was afraid to drive too far away from the house.

Side note: These little details need to be explain upfront to us newbies - Transportation

PS: I inadvertently placed this stupid story in the wrong thread -- I thought this was AS Cheerleading and Transportation-Oops! Carryon--

 

[SarahS]

Have any of your scool districts imposed a limit on how much parents can pay out of pocket? Ours just passed one and we max out a 300, everything else has to be fundraised or "donated." I understand that the sport needs to be affordable but 300 is just not reasonable for this sport.

$300 is completely reasonable if you have a school set of uniforms and don't go to camp or pay for a professional choreographer. Those things really aren't necessary for high school sports.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Have any of your scool districts imposed a limit on how much parents can pay out of pocket? Ours just passed one and we max out a 300, everything else has to be fundraised or "donated." I understand that the sport needs to be affordable but 300 is just not reasonable for this sport.

I (meaning my parents) paid about $800 out of pocket each year for high school cheer.

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[FamousxMindset]

$300 is completely reasonable if you have a school set of uniforms and don't go to camp or pay for a professional choreographer. Those things really aren't necessary for high school sports.

Choreography is extremely necessary for our district, and when you include warmups, bows, practice wear, and shoes 300 doesnt stretch that far.

 

[SarahS]

Choreography is extremely necessary for our district, and when you include warmups, bows, practice wear, and shoes 300 doesnt stretch that far.

I just wanted to point out that it can be done. Shoes, necessary, $60-80. Bows, necessary, but you can have a mom make practice bows and your comp bows can easily be less than $20. Schools can have a school set of warm ups - you'll have to fundraise initially but then you're set. Practice wear - unnecessary. White t-shirt, black shorts, every kid has something that will work already, bam, done. So you're looking at right around $100. That leaves $200 for transportation and things like choreo/music/whatever else is deemed "necessary."

You're right - $300 wouldn't go far in an all star world. For high school, though, if you have a different mindset, one that recognizes that student athletes should be able to participate even if their families are not very wealthy, $300 is more than enough. The bells and whistles that we often associate with cheer are not really necessary for the success of the athlete.

OP - it is crazy that your kids can't get a bus, even if the parents are willing to pay for it. That's just nonsense.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Honestly, as a coach I would feel safer fundraising for our stuff on our own, schools nowadays have a tendency to pull the rug out from underneath cheerleaders and take away the funding for something that the program isn't ready to pay for.

 

[FamousxMindset]

I just wanted to point out that it can be done. Shoes, necessary, $60-80. Bows, necessary, but you can have a mom make practice bows and your comp bows can easily be less than $20. Schools can have a school set of warm ups - you'll have to fundraise initially but then you're set. Practice wear - unnecessary. White t-shirt, black shorts, every kid has something that will work already, bam, done. So you're looking at right around $100. That leaves $200 for transportation and things like choreo/music/whatever else is deemed "necessary."

You're right - $300 wouldn't go far in an all star world. For high school, though, if you have a different mindset, one that recognizes that student athletes should be able to participate even if their families are not very wealthy, $300 is more than enough. The bells and whistles that we often associate with cheer are not really necessary for the success of the athlete.

OP - it is crazy that your kids can't get a bus, even if the parents are willing to pay for it. That's just nonsense.

All moms can't make bows. All of parents work time consuming demanding jobs. Practice wear also doubles and travel wear so it is completley necessary. I understand that mindset completley we are getting three custom bows for under 20. We cut every corner this year.

 

[cheerKT]

$300 per person can be done for a school team. I never paid that much out of pocket and we were a competitive varsity squad with choreography, camp, uniforms, the works. Fundraise, fundraise, fundraise. Then it gets easier annually as you develop a good sum of money in an account that you can roll over to the next season. Don't feel like you need to wipe out all funds each year just because you are there. Purchase what is needed and save the rest for the following year.

 

[Onfire381]

I (meaning my parents) paid about $800 out of pocket each year for high school cheer.

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That's about what I spend for HS school cheer also. The $800 is for summer program (2 days a week 2 1/2 hrs a day at a local All Star gym for stunting and tumbling end of June to mid-August). Bows, briefs, new warm up, sneakers and then $40 per month Sept to March for gym fees. I don't pay comp fees, or transportation fees for football games or comps. On top of HS cheer, she also does All Star so basically I work to pay for cheer.

 

[FamousxMindset]

$300 per person can be done for a school team. I never paid that much out of pocket and we were a competitive varsity squad with choreography, camp, uniforms, the works. Fundraise, fundraise, fundraise. Then it gets easier annually as you develop a good sum of money in an account that you can roll over to the next season. Don't feel like you need to wipe out all funds each year just because you are there. Purchase what is needed and save the rest for the following year.

This is my first year coaching the program, the previous coaches have wiped out the account entirely, and left us with choreographers and Varsity accounts that we still owe. I was hired in July, you have to work with the AD to establish fundraisers. He just got back from a one month vacation. Summer is prime time for fundraisers, so we didn't have a bunch of time to fund raise for anything. 300 is not a lot of money when everything has to be re ordered because the administration was not pleased with the look of the cheerleaders last year. However, they are barely offering us funding.

 

[Official OWECheer]

This is my first year coaching the program, the previous coaches have wiped out the account entirely, and left us with choreographers and Varsity accounts that we still owe. I was hired in July, you have to work with the AD to establish fundraisers. He just got back from a one month vacation. Summer is prime time for fundraisers, so we didn't have a bunch of time to fund raise for anything. 300 is not a lot of money when everything has to be re ordered because the administration was not pleased with the look of the cheerleaders last year. However, they are barely offering us funding.

Not pleased? Can you explain?

 

[FamousxMindset]

Not pleased? Can you explain?

They didn't care for the warmups that were purchased, they weren't in the schools colors. Girls had noticeably mismatched bows, and shoes. A lot of foolishness due to previous coach, who drove the program into the ground.

 

[Official OWECheer]

They didn't care for the warmups that were purchased, they weren't in the schools colors. Girls had noticeably mismatched bows, and shoes. A lot of foolishness due to previous coach, who drove the program into the ground.

And left you with a huge tab.. smh.

 

[Twinklestars]

They didn't care for the warmups that were purchased, they weren't in the schools colors. Girls had noticeably mismatched bows, and shoes. A lot of foolishness due to previous coach, who drove the program into the ground.

I would do plain, grosgrain bows and not care about shoes as long as they were all white cheer shoes. For warm-ups, do they need waterproof? If not, matching hoodies and yoga pants or warm-up pants.

It is hard to order uniforms or anything when you still owe money! Was there money put into the fund from fees or fundraising? Books need to be kept well to protect yourself with all the previous issues.

That all is horrible, but all too common occurence these days.

Good luck!