Jackets are given to each division. I'm pretty sure grand champs get rings.
Only thing we saw was the general schedule on the US finals website earlier in the week, our gym hasn't posted/told us anything yet, just us nosy moms keep checking the finals site.
Oh wow we don't perform until 8:06 and awards at 10 pm I hope they aren't really far behind by then!
The team I coach had warm ups at 630 AM and performed at 7 AM, so we didn't have any problem with over crowding and had plenty of attention at warm ups (insert sarcasm here ). One of the pros of competing at the crack of dawn! Didn't seem too crowded when I left, but I only stayed for the first session.
It was actually much better run than last year. Last year they had awards in the same room as the competition and it was running about an hour to an hour an a half behind practically from the early morning session. Nothing like watching a video montage of the session knowing how far behind it was. I haven't been to the one in VB for about 4 years but back then I found it to be a huge $hit show, between the poor seating and the overcrowded award sessions . At least this one is finished all in one day rather than spreading a one day comp over two days. I get that VB is a much bigger comp but at this point in the season I'm very happy traveling to Providence rather than VB for US Finals.
The US finals website posted that Providence was maxed out at 225 teams, but I know when we competed last session it looked like a ghost town. Empty stands and a lot of the vendors gone. There were no event tees listing teams left. The parents wanted to go to VB but in prior years the gym has always come to RI. There were only 2 teams in my CP's division, unfortunately she was injured during warmups and we were in the hospital during her team's performance and awards. I was told many of the girls were crying for her during the performance and the coach yelled to do it for her. They hit a perfect routine and won, it was really like a movie script lol and I would like to think with that performance they would have succeeded at VB too. I guess we will see when they re-judge the winning routines and list the final standings.
US Finals is also not what it used to be since they started giving out bids for teams finishing 1-5th places. It used to be only for the top 3 teams in each division, and the 1st place team had free registration, not just the grand champs for that division (or whomever the EP at the bid comp felt like awarding the full paid bid to).
I hope they really do rejudge & not just say they are and just end up taking the highest score. they already picked the ones to move on from each location. and they combine large and small. my small junior 3 team won in Prov. but they are not moving on because the large junior 3 team had a higher score. Kind of seems unfair to me. We had different judging panels & the panel my team had scored lower across the board. Not saying that the other team wasn't better than my team - just saying it doesn't seem right.
