What do you like/dislike about NCA Dallas?

[Level5Mom]

Now that we have the 3 'biggies' over with for the year, I'm curious to hear everyone's opinions on NCA, Cheersport and Indy. What did you like about it? What did you dislike about it, or would like to see changed? Let's use this thread for NCA Dallas only.

 

[King]

This is great! I am gonna make these announcements to keep them at the top for a while.

As for likes / dislikes.

NCA Likes -
Best scoresheet and use of it in the business. I have heard the 'least' complaints about it (not meaning there arent any, but in general people think it is the fairest)
Best presentation of competition ever. Nothing feels grander.
Best Venue - the arena!


NCA Dislikes -
Legalities are more strict at Nationals than Classics. Make it all strict all the time.
The event always gets a little backed up. It is nothing awful, and they have breaks to catch back up, but still hard to catch all teams that you want when their times might be 15 minutes off.
Not enough chicken fingers... there I said it.

That is all I can think of for now.

 

[Level5Mom]

Parent perspective -

Likes:
-Arena! There is nothing like it!! This is the best venue ever.
-Awards - I love how Justin Carrier has the top 2 teams shake hands before announcing who won.
-Prizes are the best!! Nothing compares to an NCA jacket.
-Awards - loved how Justin spoke of the youth and junior 5's as all being winners for reaching that level at such a young age.
-The whole production is so well done!! It runs so smoothly!!
-I would like to applaud NCA for stopping the music so quickly when an athlete was injured on the floor. I've never seen it done so fast. Kudos!!
-I loved how the teams line up to watch on the floor after they are done competing day 2!
-The champions circle - I love every part of it! No other competition makes it so special to win.
-I love how NCA announces scores when they come in. Then I know instead of hounding the coaches for our results.

Dislikes:
-My cp says the mile walk from warm ups makes the time in between warm ups and competing too long.
-I'd like to be able to video tape.
-I didn't like the early compete time for level 5. I feel that considering the difficulty of skills thrown in level 5 it affected the performances of the first 10 teams at least. You could tell that many busts were "tired" busts.
-I felt like it was particularly unfair for the west coast teams due to the 2 hour time change (however I did love having all level 5 in the arena....I know, you can't have everything you want).
-I'd like to see more shopping vendors and food vendors.
-I'd like to be able to pre-purchase my admission online.
-I'd like a parent packet dowloadable from the Varsity website to help me navagate NCA, like Cheersport does.

 

[King]

oh, another like! Pretty instant posting of scores online (though if they took too long i just checked our twitter feed)

 

[scflips]

Like the scoresheet, dislike 20/80

 

[JUSTICE]

Like the scoresheet, dislike 20/80

Agree 100%! I think that for Nationals of this caliber, it should be 50/50!

 

[King]

the reason they do 20/80 is to help get the placement correct in large divisions. In theory on day 1 the placement is random. You might have this amazing team A... 5 ok teams... then amazing team B. Amazing team A & B are very similar, but because team B went after 5 ok teams their score might be higher (just because of the context of their skills).

Day 2 B is winning, but now the top teams are all lined up in a row. If team A is better it will be easier to tell sitting next to eachother. If team B is truly the best it will be easier. That is why they do it AND why I think their scoresheet ends up being the fairest.

 

[Mclovin]

Like: How quickly the awards ceremony is done. No giant mascots dancing for 5 minutes (although I do love Jammy! lol), no Spongebob songs and throwing of beach balls, just get on the floor, sit down, and here are your results! LOVE IT!!!

Like: How the top 2 teams congratulate each other and the coaches shake hands!!!

Like: The scoresheet and the 20/80 split.

Like: The arena and the feeling of "grandness" it emulates.

Dislike: That the practice room was 5 miles from the competition halls.

Dislike: That bobbles and hands down on tumbling don't count as deductions.

Dislike: That level 5's went on so early in the morning. Some kids just don't do mornings, and asking them to throw extremely hard skills when they had to wake up at 5:00 a.m. is a bit much. I know, I know, stop whining. I know some teams have to do it at worlds, too, but I don't like it. I think level 5 teams should start no earlier than 10:00 a.m. Let the exhibition teams and the level 1 teams go that early. They don't have to be nearly as "awake" to do their routines. However, I really did like all the level 5's in the arena! Just start them an hour and a half later and I'll be happy. :)

 

[ShoWStoppeR]

like:
the arena. such a big event deserves a big arena. (hey worlds, take the hint. lol)
the sportsmanship that is displayed/encouraged by/through the staff
the posting of scores throughout the day on day 1
all the teams being on the floor after day 2 performances. as a competitor, it was nice to have all those kids cheering for us even though they didn't know us, my team definitely fed off the energy


dislike:

how far away the warm up room was
waiting backstage for about a half hour before going on the floor
the scoresheet. maybe it isn't so much a dislike as a misunderstanding, but regardless, not sure i'm a fan
as much as i'd like to say i dislike level 5s so early, if you're going to have all the level 5s in the arena, someone is going to have to go that early because there are just too many level 5 teams that attend.

 

[cathaley]

LIKE;
-I thought the venue and the overall set up was stellar. The music was loud enough, and the backdrop with the flashing lights (with team colors!) beating to the music was hot!
-Great with timing/organization overall.
-Love the awards, especially for first place. I thought it was very classy howthe coaches would shake hands, both teams (most of the time) would sit together in a circle. Loved the winning team name in the backdrop. The suspenseful music was great too, lol.
- Clothing seemed to keep in stock. My friend wanted a sweatshirt, and he never got one because he was too late, but as far as other clothing, they didn't seem to run out.
-The Arena overall was great, I thought.
-Never a lot of down time between who was on deck/in the hole. SO happy I didn't have to wait 5 minutes between each teams.

Dislike;
-Agree with King. Not enough chicken fingers lol. They didn't have a lot of food to choose from. I am a super health junky, and I didn't really enjoy having to eat a pretzel with chips.
-LOTS OF INJURIES. Didn't seem like anyone was prepared for them. You can't blame the people who got injured, it happens. But seemed to take a lot of time before those injuries were taken care of and got off the mat.
- I didn't compete<--yes I disliked this lol (thanks mom for letting me go watch!), but I heard that walk from warmups to compete was BRUTAL.

 

[Ariel]

Just wanted to say--& I know that any of y'all who said this didn't really mean anything negatively by it, but saying it's not fair or you don't like that the level 5's had to go on early because they throw hard skills, isn't really fair--the skills that level 3 athletes are throwing are as hard to them as the skills the level 5 kids are throwing. And if you're going to have all the level 5 teams in one arena, someone has to go eary.--On that note, at first I didn't like that the arena was all level 5 both days, but it was nice to be able to just sit back & relax after competing in the arena & not have to run back & forth to watch all of the level 5 teams I wanted to see compete.

 

[ACEDAD]

JOn that note, at first I didn't like that the arena was all level 5 both days, but it was nice to be able to just sit back & relax after competing in the arena & not have to run back & forth to watch all of the level 5 teams I wanted to see compete.

I'm curious if there were any complaints from any of the lower level teams that got no chance to compete in the Arena this year?

 

[KB_Legend]

I was going to say the same thing... I know I might as well be talking to the wall here but level 5 teams are a VERY small percentage of the over all industry and DO NOT diserve special treatment! A backhandpring for a level 2 cheerleader is difficult, if it was easy they would be on a higher level team, AND these kids are all in school so competing at 8 or 9 am shouldn't be that huge of a deal...

Also the bobbles and touch downs thing is a varsity score sheet thing not an NCA thing isn't it??? I know this isn't the point of this thread so sorry for going down a side street ...

NCA is great, the taquitos were gone by the time I had a break Sunday so that was bad, the walk is far but still better than cheersports...

 

[Ariel]

JOn that note, at first I didn't like that the arena was all level 5 both days, but it was nice to be able to just sit back & relax after competing in the arena & not have to run back & forth to watch all of the level 5 teams I wanted to see compete.

I'm curious if there were any complaints from any of the lower level teams that got no chance to compete in the Arena this year?

(On a level 4 team) At first I was a little ticked, I've competed in that arena many times & there's nothing else like it, so I was sad I didn't get to BUT personally I enjoyed:
A.) Not almost dying both days when Top Gun went on, TG Unlimited + A Hall + Crazy Cheer Fans = No bueno.

B.) Like I said earlier, not having to run around to watch all the level 5 teams, just found a seat in the arena & didn't have to move at all. In years past whenever the "big dog level 5 teams" would compete in the halls it was just a mess & half the time you couldn't find a good place to sit. Didn't have to worry about that with all of them being in the arena, with plenty of good seating.

So, for me, the pros of level 5 being in the arena all day both days, outweighed my dissapointment of not being able to compete in there, plus it add a little extra spark to keep workin for that level 5 spot so I can be sure to compete in the arena again next year :)

I do think that competing in the arena is something that ALL cheerleaders who go to NCA should be able to experience, whether they are level 1 or 6, but I guess you can't really have the best of both worlds, even if Miley Cirus says so...

 

[Deleted member 15]

Also the bobbles and touch downs thing is a varsity score sheet thing not an NCA thing isn't it??? I know this isn't the point of this thread so sorry for going down a side street ...

It is a Varsity thing.