All-Star Usasf Age Grid To Be Released Soon!

[Deleted member 382]

I agree, and that is why most will probably go medium. 6 boys means you have 3 tumblers 3 stunters (ish). 18 boys means large is gonna look kinda like it does now in unlimited AND you will see a further surge in International Coed 5 (because of the 12 boy requirement).

Do you think the number of that gyms will make the jump to International Coed 5 will be still be hindered by the way the division is handled at Worlds? (Most competitions only give at large bids to International teams and only the top 3 teams advance to finals.) I wonder if the gyms with teams in semi limited would be more inclined to split their boys and form a Small Coed and a Medium Coed so they could still get paid bids and a shot at finals.

 

[CatsCoach113]

I thought they were making Junior age 15 & under!!! I was so upset when I saw 14 & under again!!

 

[King]

Do you think the number of that gyms will make the jump to International Coed 5 will be still be hindered by the way the division is handled at Worlds? (Most competitions only give at large bids to International teams and only the top 3 teams advance to finals.) I wonder if the gyms with teams in semi limited would be more inclined to split their boys and form a Small Coed and a Medium Coed so they could still get paid bids and a shot at finals.

I have sent my proposal about the 'emerging countries' idea once already and talked to a few people at the USASF. The idea by a couple people is LOVED. I have yet to talk to Steve Peterson, but I think this idea would be great for making everyone happy.

 

[Level5Mom]

I thought they were making Junior age 15 & under!!! I was so upset when I saw 14 & under again!!

I was personally relieved that they didn't pass this. It would be nice to be able to keep those few kids down a division who may not be ready yet to move up, but it only takes 1 powerhouse gym to stack their team with ALL the 15 year olds in the gym and dominate before the rest of the gyms in the country are forced to do the same. I don't know many 9th graders who want to stay on juniors, let alone 10th graders. Same goes for youth also. Mini's probably don't care so much as they are just happy to be cheering. Plus, at the junior 5 level that could limit an athlete to only 2 years attending Worlds (if the gym chose to keep them down).

 

[StarshipTrooper]

Only now there is an alternative to just having small, so we can finish the job. Hard to argue to keep a division with 3 teams in it. And how long can that argument be made until it just seems silly?

I could be completely wrong on this, of course. But isn't the whole reason this discussion is happening is because large has lost so many people? And I don't just mean large all girl, large coed as well.

You may be right, and you may be wrong, but to allow the market to promote change and evolution is better than mandating from above with absolute rules and regs. For instance, IF SS, F5, SE and others choose to remain Large All Girl and a couple of more gyms, say Cali joins in and CA comes back due to demographics, I think it continues to be a high profile division in spite of how many other teams go to that division. It appears the consensus is let it play out. BUT, if those 3 teams and others stay in the division and IF it remains a Worlds Division, it will thrive with just a few teams. OR, you can kill the division from above right now. I glad that option was not chosen. IF it dies, it dies a natural death.

 

[King]

You may be right, and you may be wrong, but to allow the market to promote change and evolution is better than mandating from above with absolute rules and regs. For instance, IF SS, F5, SE and others choose to remain Large All Girl and a couple of more gyms, say Cali joins in and CA comes back due to demographics, I think it continues to be a high profile division in spite of how many other teams go to that division. It appears the consensus is let it play out. BUT, if those 3 teams and others stay in the division and IF it remains a Worlds Division, it will thrive with just a few teams. OR, you can kill the division from above right now. I glad that option was not chosen. IF it dies, it dies a natural death.

I agree it will be a more natural death. I think large senior with the option of medium with have a couple less teams than unlimited does this season.

And FINALLY seeing the new medium with 30 - 40 teams will be great! That division will absolutely explode.

 

[StarshipTrooper]

I agree it will be a more natural death. I think large senior with the option of medium with have a couple less teams than unlimited does this season.

And FINALLY seeing the new medium with 30 - 40 teams will be great! That division will absolutely explode.

It cannot hurt to have options.

 

[redsmom]

It will be interesting to see how the Medium vs Large SR AG plays out. I am wondering if some of the teams on the "bubble" may choose to stay large to compete against "the best" (e.g. the big 3). I think looking for a cap of 30 or 32 to make the large division more competitive is a different thing from pulling out of the large division and not competing against the likes of the big 3. I guess we will find out soon enough... Also wondering if some of the big 3 will choose to add a Medium AG, with it being so difficult to get boys in some areas and a lot of level 5 talent in their gyms and juniors no longer going to worlds... (just thoughts that are going through my mind haha)

 

[cheerinfo]

It cannot hurt to have options.

Actually, I think in this instance, it does hurt. We are always talking about wanting more teams to compete against....this decreases the amount most likely. So does having two youth 5 divisions. Sorry, but in this case, options are not a positive. But that is JMO, not hating on teams with 36 kid on it or anything, I just hate small divisions. And large senior has been getting smaller and smaller each year anyway, this will most likely minimize it even more.

 

[cheererinIL]

I thought they were making Junior age 15 & under!!! I was so upset when I saw 14 & under again!

Obviously the age grid is already out, however.. I agree that would make sense. In Illinois, a junior varsity team for a high school can consist of juniors in high school & under (usually age 16 and under). It gives the opportunity for those not ready to "move up" another year or 2 to grow and mature. This was what popped into my head when thinking about the ages for junior level teams.

 

[StarshipTrooper]

Actually, I think in this instance, it does hurt. We are always talking about wanting more teams to compete against....this decreases the amount most likely. So does having two youth 5 divisions. Sorry, but in this case, options are not a positive. But that is JMO, not hating on teams with 36 kid on it or anything, I just hate small divisions. And large senior has been getting smaller and smaller each year anyway, this will most likely minimize it even more.

Well, that is the other way to look at the changes, and you may be right. We'll see, but it is better than writing the division off with a rule and canceling it as a Worlds Division. Again, change is unpredictable, and the best laid plans will sometimes have the very opposite effect predicted. I just think choice and options will ulitimately lead to the best result.

 

[hiyoe6]

I'm LOVING the Coed division changes. HATING the All Girl division changes BUT this is pretty much the same thing they did with the coed divisions the past few years. It seems like the coed divisions are a cycle ahead of the all girl divisions. We went from Small Coed (up to 36 people and 4 males) and Large Coed (up to 36 people, unlimited males) to Limited Coeds (up to 36 with 4 males), Semi-Limited (up to 36 with limit of 12 males), and Unlimited (up to 36 with limit no male limit) to these new coed divisions of Small (20 max with 4 males), Medium (30 max with 6 males), and Large (36 max with 18 males). I feel like the SAME thing will happen with the evolution of All Girl. They said they will revisit this next year to determine if the All Girl splits were working or if they need to be redone. I have hope that after watching the past few years change the coed divisions that after next season the all girl divisions will change.

 

[hiyoe6]

I also HOPE that this is somewhat of a way for teams to feel like they can jump up to large and be competitive without competing with the big dogs their first year and then the year after reduce the large all girl category completely so teams have a year to build their large team to be competitive in the large division.

 

[bobbi]

I agree that is the path we are on, but I think it is better to rip the bandaid off instead of leaving it dangling half way off for a year or more.

I also thought that we were trying to more to more consistency by only changing things every 2 years, but now we have a few "lets see how this turns out items that will be up for change next season" things going on.

We have also complicated the organization of teams- We voted for a change to 30 by over 10% but instead we got this:
1-4 can have up to 32, but 5 can have 36 or 30 or 24 or 20 but if you have boys you can have 4 if you have 20, 6 if you have 30 kids, or 18 if you have 36 kids or 12 guys if you have 24 but no one under 14. or you can have 18 guys and no girls and still be large coed despite having no girls and less than 20 on the team or if your in 3 or 4 you can have all the boys you want. and we wonder why outsiders are confused.

We also voted by a fairly clear margin to change the ages to 6,9,12,15 and 18 but they decided to go against the vote on that one stating that it "would as a result restrict the advancement of large populations of athletes from advancing a level for the 2011-12 season"
If a kid is not moved up to a higher level it is because that kid is not ready for it. The 6,9,12 or 15 that could have stayed down will now either be on a team that they are not ready for or cause a gym to make a lower level higher aged team to accommodate those kids.

Shimmy times a million. This REALLY bothered me. I feel this was a bit of a slap in the face to voters. This would have benefited the younger squads emmensily. And for growing programs would have been a very positive change. Very annoyed by this decision.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I was personally relieved that they didn't pass this. It would be nice to be able to keep those few kids down a division who may not be ready yet to move up, but it only takes 1 powerhouse gym to stack their team with ALL the 15 year olds in the gym and dominate before the rest of the gyms in the country are forced to do the same. I don't know many 9th graders who want to stay on juniors, let alone 10th graders. Same goes for youth also. Mini's probably don't care so much as they are just happy to be cheering. Plus, at the junior 5 level that could limit an athlete to only 2 years attending Worlds (if the gym chose to keep them down).

My Mini sure cared! She's turning 9 in May and is so glad to be moving up to Youth. Hopefully skill wise she would have moved up anyway, but now we know for sure. Believe it or not 6 year olds can be very...um..."trying" for a 9-year-old. I would have been OK if they had changed it, because I agree with what most are saying that if you're not ready skill-wise then you shouldn't move up. But just wanted to point out that Mini's DO care what team they're placed on. At least on the higher end of the Mini age range they do.