High School Uca Nationals 2018

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Wow Lo Sal in first is super interesting. I am now excited to see them this year!

Yeah that’s VERY interesting. Slso has A LOT to lose on both coasts.

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Use this thread to discuss regionals, teams to watch out for, and of course nationals when it rolls around. Videos can also be posted in here and in the video thread.

Good luck to everyone competing at regionals! (I'll edit this when nationals comes.)

Regional events for this
year: https://varsity.com/uploads/editor/...itions/UCA_NHSCC_CompListings_Online_2018.pdf

Performance orders/regional results (orders and results are usually posted a week before and after the event respectively.
Varsity Portal

Bluegrass and Northeast regional will also be streamed through varsity services and if it's like other events you'll be able to view the videos for free a week later.

I’m itching for videos of Westlake and United in super large D1. I saw a tidbit of Westlake’s routine on their IG and was impressed. If the rest of the routine holds up to those six seconds I saw, they are out to take their title back. Hopefully they learned their lesson from Houston taking first place out of nowhere last year: work smarter, not harder.

Seriously, I don’t even think Houston thought they’d knock out both United and Westlake for the win in a single competition. My jaw fell to the floor when I heard the results. And also, can someone tell me where HarBer came from? Two years ago they were nothing and now they’re shoving their way into that super large D1 top five echelon pretty quick.

 

[jscoach210]

I’m itching for videos of Westlake and United in super large D1. I saw a tidbit of Westlake’s routine on their IG and was impressed. If the rest of the routine holds up to those six seconds I saw, they are out to take their title back. Hopefully they learned their lesson from Houston taking first place out of nowhere last year: work smarter, not harder.

Seriously, I don’t even think Houston thought they’d knock out both United and Westlake for the win in a single competition. My jaw fell to the floor when I heard the results. And also, can someone tell me where HarBer came from? Two years ago they were nothing and now they’re shoving their way into that super large D1 top five echelon pretty quick.

Well I personally know one of the coaches from Houston, great coach!
Worked with my team for a few years.. we miss him :)

Where is Harber from ?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sterling von Shimmer]

Well I personally know one of the coaches from Houston, great coach!
Worked with my team for a few years.. we miss him :)

Where is Harber from ?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My high school team looked up to Houston a lot in the early aughts. They have a strong history but I think everyone — including me — was expecting first place to go to United or Westlake as had been the trend for the last four years. What an upset!

Har-Ber I think is from AK and finaled in their debut year two years ago, then took second last year. Which must sting for schools like Vestavia that have been stuck in that mid-place limbo for years now.

 

[jscoach210]

My high school team looked up to Houston a lot in the early aughts. They have a strong history but I think everyone — including me — was expecting first place to go to United or Westlake as had been the trend for the last four years. What an upset!

Har-Ber I think is from AK and finaled in their debut year two years ago, then took second last year. Which must sting for schools like Vestavia that have been stuck in that mid-place limbo for years now.

Ohh ok I love United ... kinda a cheer crush lol
Honestly there are so many amazing teams to watch... but those deductions are gonna be brutal !! [emoji51]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dhubbz]

My high school team looked up to Houston a lot in the early aughts. They have a strong history but I think everyone — including me — was expecting first place to go to United or Westlake as had been the trend for the last four years. What an upset!

Har-Ber I think is from AK and finaled in their debut year two years ago, then took second last year. Which must sting for schools like Vestavia that have been stuck in that mid-place limbo for years now.

Do you mean Har-Ber from Arkansas? They were Super Varsity last year, but not at State this year.

 

[dhubbz]

 

[txcheercoachshania]

Anyone have any thoughts on the new Game Day rubrics and requirements? I have always liked that teams got points for difficulty of skills in the past and now that's gone. I'm from TX and now the rubies match TX UIL State Competition. So, feels like Game Day is catering to TX Teams...Honestly, TX UIL limits so much that the routines all start looking the same. One thing I liked about NHSCC Game Day was that schools were challenged to do more Two Man and Advanced stunts without too many limitations so things were just more exciting and not just extensions and libs.

Thoughts from others?

 

[ScottyB]

Anyone have any thoughts on the new Game Day rubrics and requirements? I have always liked that teams got points for difficulty of skills in the past and now that's gone. I'm from TX and now the rubies match TX UIL State Competition. So, feels like Game Day is catering to TX Teams...Honestly, TX UIL limits so much that the routines all start looking the same. One thing I liked about NHSCC Game Day was that schools were challenged to do more Two Man and Advanced stunts without too many limitations so things were just more exciting and not just extensions and libs.

Thoughts from others?

Your thoughts are close to the money. Not necessarily catering to TX due to the removal of difficulty, moreso catering to teams that are not typical competition teams or programs that normally do not focus on skill development for competition. Varsity stands to make more money from their existing competitions by inviting teams that normally do not compete at NHSCC due to them not being prepared or not wanting to go there just to lose in competition.

I think that the Game Day portion will have a shared affect too where teams that come for Game Day will be motivated to improve and join the competition side. While I worry that this takes the focus off the traditional competitive side and we could see it diminish over time, I know that Varsity and Disney like money so they will want to keep their attendance numbers high and actually not hurt their existing products.

But you are right, the difficulty for Game Day is disappearing and will continue.

 

[txcheercoachshania]

Your thoughts are close to the money. Not necessarily catering to TX due to the removal of difficulty, moreso catering to teams that are not typical competition teams or programs that normally do not focus on skill development for competition. Varsity stands to make more money from their existing competitions by inviting teams that normally do not compete at NHSCC due to them not being prepared or not wanting to go there just to lose in competition.

I think that the Game Day portion will have a shared affect too where teams that come for Game Day will be motivated to improve and join the competition side. While I worry that this takes the focus off the traditional competitive side and we could see it diminish over time, I know that Varsity and Disney like money so they will want to keep their attendance numbers high and actually not hurt their existing products.

But you are right, the difficulty for Game Day is disappearing and will continue.

Yes to everything you have said. I have to admit that one of my teams has competed in Game Day since it's beginning and having that difficulty element challenged us to step up the game and improve, but I fear that by taking that out it will be just like in Texas where groups that are doing extensions are overtaking two man libs and full ups. I'm all about clean and spirit and the game day experience, but I'm a firm believer that solid and more advanced should outscore solid and simple any day, but without that on the rubric it won't happen. So, why would anyone want to up their skills? Interested to see what this does to the sport.


Also, another thing we have see in Texas is that schools are getting Bids in Game Day competing in the Small/Medium Game Day, but are now registering as Super Varsity at Nationals. I have a huge problem with that since the rule books says you must qualify in the division you compete in. But when questioned, UCA says that isn't so in Game Day.


It's sadly becoming more a money maker than a talent source.

 

[ScottyB]

Yes to everything you have said. I have to admit that one of my teams has competed in Game Day since it's beginning and having that difficulty element challenged us to step up the game and improve, but I fear that by taking that out it will be just like in Texas where groups that are doing extensions are overtaking two man libs and full ups. I'm all about clean and spirit and the game day experience, but I'm a firm believer that solid and more advanced should outscore solid and simple any day, but without that on the rubric it won't happen. So, why would anyone want to up their skills? Interested to see what this does to the sport.


Also, another thing we have see in Texas is that schools are getting Bids in Game Day competing in the Small/Medium Game Day, but are now registering as Super Varsity at Nationals. I have a huge problem with that since the rule books says you must qualify in the division you compete in. But when questioned, UCA says that isn't so in Game Day.


It's sadly becoming more a money maker than a talent source.

Kills me too. If I am watching two teams cheer and they do similar volume/spirit and cheers but one does a straight up and one does a full up, the full up should get rewarded as long as the full up didn't lessen the volume/spirit of the overall cheer.

UCA almost had issues with the division swappers not even involving game day when people were trying to slip the JV/Varsity thing. So silly

 

[Official OWECheer]

Your thoughts are close to the money. Not necessarily catering to TX due to the removal of difficulty, moreso catering to teams that are not typical competition teams or programs that normally do not focus on skill development for competition. Varsity stands to make more money from their existing competitions by inviting teams that normally do not compete at NHSCC due to them not being prepared or not wanting to go there just to lose in competition.

I think that the Game Day portion will have a shared affect too where teams that come for Game Day will be motivated to improve and join the competition side. While I worry that this takes the focus off the traditional competitive side and we could see it diminish over time, I know that Varsity and Disney like money so they will want to keep their attendance numbers high and actually not hurt their existing products.

But you are right, the difficulty for Game Day is disappearing and will continue.

And with it, some of the prestige of winning a national title.

 

[txcheercoachshania]

And with it, some of the prestige of winning a national title.

YASSSSS! But I truly feel like the focus of Nationals has just shifted to making money and getting as many teams white jackets as possible. I remember when you went to the special event and it really was awesome to see the white jackets. Now, there are a billion of them. Still amazing to win one, but at the same time, with so many people getting them. And so many divisions don't have more than twenty teams in them.

 

[OldskoolKYcheercoach]

Your thoughts are close to the money. Not necessarily catering to TX due to the removal of difficulty, moreso catering to teams that are not typical competition teams or programs that normally do not focus on skill development for competition. Varsity stands to make more money from their existing competitions by inviting teams that normally do not compete at NHSCC due to them not being prepared or not wanting to go there just to lose in competition.

I think that the Game Day portion will have a shared affect too where teams that come for Game Day will be motivated to improve and join the competition side. While I worry that this takes the focus off the traditional competitive side and we could see it diminish over time, I know that Varsity and Disney like money so they will want to keep their attendance numbers high and actually not hurt their existing products.

But you are right, the difficulty for Game Day is disappearing and will continue.

I have a myriad of thoughts on this, and they're all over the place.

With the division being called GameDay, I think it's pretty accurate that there's no difficulty score. I preach to my athletes all the time that anything they do at games should be rock solid. This is the first year I've even allowed them to do something as simple as a full up. Consider who your audience is at a typical game. Ninety-plus percent of the people in that audience know absolutely NOTHING about cheer. Their focus when the cheer team takes the floor is usually trying to decide between hot dog, hamburger, or popcorn at the concession stand. They manage to look up and take notice when a stunt comes down. They give the obligatory "gasp" when a stunt looks unsteady, but they are otherwise oblivious to what the cheer team performed. In that way, I look at game cheering the same way I approached umpiring baseball back in the day: if I managed to make it through the game without being remembered for all the wrong reasons, it was a good game.

I don't have a problem with Gameday being used as a lure to attract teams who wouldn't normally compete because of a perceived inability to learn the current skill set. As I've posted on here before, Gameday was introduced in KY this year in an open-invitation style competition. I believe 86 teams registered, and the vast majority of them haven't been seen at state-level competition in a long time. To say that they had an "easy path" to winning because of the lack of a difficulty score would be fairly inaccurate. The top seven teams in one division and top five teams in the other (KHSAA's brilliant idea to split 86 teams into two 40+-team divisions) were all perennial nationals competitors. It became obvious that those teams who haven't competed in a while have also not spent the time working on those things that are rewarded in Gameday either. Their motions were not as clean, formation changes not as smooth, etc. Those are things that are easy to improve year over year, and they could make a legitimate run at being competitive within the state in the next 12 months. I've been working to build the athletic skill set with our team for four seasons, and we have pressed hard to do so. Many of the schools that I am thinking of who have the potential to dramatically improve their showing at Gameday in just one calendar year are schools that do not have the resources to improve their tumbling skills in the same time frame. They are in low-income or rural communities, and their kids who are lucky enough to take tumbling classes are few and far between. They may have no feeder program, which we all know is very important, and are starting every season from the ground up.

I feel the same way about giving those teams an opportunity to compete nationally. NHSCC holds a special place in my heart because as a teenager, we didn't have a lot of money. I would have never experienced Disney World without having the opportunity to fundraise for it and go with my high school cheer team. Every year, I have at least one or two athletes who are in the same boat. With GameDay being held only on Sunday, those teams have the opportunity of coming in on Friday, having a practice/park day on Saturday, competing on Sunday, and leaving late Sunday night or early Monday morning. I am not going to say that makes the whole thing "affordable," but it's certainly the least expensive way to attend.

I, personally, love the division. I've said we were going to compete in it for the past two seasons, but we haven't because we've been trying to spread 3 coaches across two teams. In retrospect, I wish I had put a team into Gameday and a team into the traditional 2 1/2 minute routines in '15-'16 and '16-'17. I may do that in the next two years. The younger kids coming through my program are coming from a competitive middle school, and while I have a lot of bad habits to break with their athletic skills, they're certainly teachable. In the mean time, they could use the two years as freshmen and sophomores competing game day to develop their crowd-leading skills which are typically completely ignored by their middle school coach.

 

[ScottyB]

UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship Partner Stunt Competition Results

^^ Released on Friday!