All-Star You Get A Trophy, I Get A Trophy, We All Get A Trophy! Good Or Bad

[megsmom]

My other favorite thing is from the pageant world (my nieces were natural pageant girls before cheer.)

There are parents who WILL NOT ENTER THEIR DAUGHTER BECAUSE THEIR AGE GROUP HAS TOO MANY KIDS IN IT AND SHE MAY NOT WIN ANYTHING.

Or they'll PULL their kid from a pageant because there are TOO MANY KIDS REGISTERING IN HER AGE RANGE.

Like, they were okay when there were TWO girls in their age group, but now there are five and that is WAY too many.

They will also GLADLY take a crown that their kid won because they were the ONLY kid in the age group.

WHAT.

This makes me LOL because little red is a pageant girl and we have had parents pull out of pageants because she (or other specific girls) are in their princess' age group. If she wins, I want to know it is because she is the best, not the best of the ones who weren't afraid to enter!

 

[Eyes On The Prize]

This makes me LOL because little red is a pageant girl and we have had parents pull out of pageants because she (or other specific girls) are in their princess' age group. If she wins, I want to know it is because she is the best, not the best of the ones who weren't afraid to enter!

That sounds like the biggest compliment in the world.

 

[caitlyn_the_camille]

I was in competitive dance before I started cheer, but at the 'provincial level' competitions they definitely didn't use the "Trophies and certificates for everyone!" mentality. We were told many times that even if we were the only group in the division, that we could end up getting 3rd or not placing if the judge didn't think we performed at a 1st place level. That just made us work harder, 'cause who wants to admit that they came in 3rd or didn't place when they were the only ones in the division?

Hahaha... So I was in a club in my school and we were pretty active and well-run. We always qualified and often placed at state conference competitive events, etc. On top of that, our state chapter has always been fairly active at the national level, so when I qualified for nationals (in Chicago!) this summer I was stoked. Well, we had a guy from my state running for our national region VP and found out when we got there he was uncontested. However, he still had to campaign and give a speech, because our regional delegation had the option to vote no if we wanted (which has only actually happened twice in like 70 years, lol). Anyway, on the plane ride home, we all got a tweet saying they were accepting applications for Southern region VP because he hadn't met majority to be voted in! He ran against nobody and still lost! I felt bad for the kid but it was hilarious!

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

This makes me LOL because little red is a pageant girl and we have had parents pull out of pageants because she (or other specific girls) are in their princess' age group. If she wins, I want to know it is because she is the best, not the best of the ones who weren't afraid to enter!

Oh yes. That's the name of the game. No one has ever done it (to my knowledge) because of my nieces, but I have definitely had people ask if certain kids were competing (which I never knew because I didn't stalk registrations/Facebook groups/etc.)

The biggest WHAT moment of pageants was seeing a 20something year old woman (she was in the adult division) smile as big as could be winning Miss Young Adult Whatever The Pageant Was Called against NO ONE.

 

[Mndl]

The day my son gave up baseball we put him in lax and never looked back. Baseball was like watching paint dry.
Speaking of lax, they always have an end of the year ice cream party with participation trophies handed out. This year dh and my son were about halfway home when they realized they forgot his trophy. They kept driving home and cp said he really wanted to get rid of all the trophies he had that were "given out for no good reason".
I watched the Bryant Gumbel special this morning. It's amazing what a multi-billion dollar business trophy making has become in the last 5-10 years.

Our lacrosse league used to give out trophies at the end of season picnic, this year each team got their team picture taken at our shoot-out tournament plus the stats of everyone on that team for the season(at least for the fifth grade teams and older). I have to say all the kids really enjoyed seeing how they did throughout the season-and were also quick to notice if a goal or assist had not been given credit-lol

 

[Pebbles49]

Oh yes. That's the name of the game. No one has ever done it (to my knowledge) because of my nieces, but I have definitely had people ask if certain kids were competing (which I never knew because I didn't stalk registrations/Facebook groups/etc.)

The biggest WHAT moment of pageants was seeing a 20something year old woman (she was in the adult division) smile as big as could be winning Miss Young Adult Whatever The Pageant Was Called against NO ONE.

Lol, I actually took the stance that this young lady was happy because she so intimidated her competition that they dropped out, instead of competing against her... Furthermore, sometimes I think people are really asking about their competition for strategic reasons and the ones who drop out, may drop out knowing some contestants are winning because of HYPE and name recognition, instead of skills, especially in a subjective activity like pageant. If I were a parent in this predicament, I will wonder, why I would waste my hard earned money, if going in, you know the judges favor a certain type... jmo

 

[brennanez99]

Going along with participation trophies, another thing that drives me crazy is creating ridiculously small divisions at competitions. At a nationals event my team competed at, there were so many unnecessary divisions formed so that none of them had more than three teams (but most had far less). As a result, many teams with atrocious technique walked home with "national champion" medals and a banner. It was especially frustrating for my team, because it took away all the joy of saying "we won our division!" when we were the only team in it. Had the divisions been combined, we might have been able to win still, but even if we didn't, second out of 5 teams means more than first by default.

Many teams probably experience this same situation at some point. It lessens kids' drives to work hard when there are no visible signs of their progress.


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[MzLyn23]

Saw this and thought of this thread...

 

[MzLyn23]

Ok let me try this again...

Saw this and thought of this thread....

 

[AScheer]

I'm the opposite of most I guess. I'll ask competitions who is coming but not to pull out if good teams are there. I'll usually only go if big teams are there. I don't want to spend all that time and money to compete against no one, or to compete against the same teams we do all season. I want to know where the biggest and best competition is so that we can go and face it! I'll take a hard earned 8th place over a competed against no one "National Championship" any day!

 

[gofriars610]

haha, back in my speech and debate days nobody would register in the Student Congress Debate category because my school has won stuco for the past...8ish years.

 

[Pebbles49]

I'm the opposite of most I guess. I'll ask competitions who is coming but not to pull out if good teams are there. I'll usually only go if big teams are there. I don't want to spend all that time and money to compete against no one, or to compete against the same teams we do all season. I want to know where the biggest and best competition is so that we can go and face it! I'll take a hard earned 8th place over a competed against no one "National Championship" any day!

I definitely agree with your statements about competing against the best or go home. However, we created this climate that every athlete deserves something for competing, and what we got now are soft athletes, who are afraid of true competition. I remembered growing up and competing in a sport, sometimes winning was just not good enough and we primarily analyzed how we played, did we reached certain goals and this attitude came from our coaches.
I wondered have we, as parents and child psychologists or experts have diluted the power of the coaches and now these coaches are unable to effectively do their jobs...In essence, have we tied these coaches hands and that is why we have soft and entitled athletes.

 

[SarahS]

I'm the opposite of most I guess. I'll ask competitions who is coming but not to pull out if good teams are there. I'll usually only go if big teams are there. I don't want to spend all that time and money to compete against no one, or to compete against the same teams we do all season. I want to know where the biggest and best competition is so that we can go and face it! I'll take a hard earned 8th place over a competed against no one "National Championship" any day!

I bumped my rec kids up an age division at Battle at the Capitol (youth 1 to junior 1) because there were no other teams scheduled to compete in youth. When I told them I was doing it, one kid (the oldest on the team) said "but we'll take first place if we stay in youth!" The rest of the team jumped on her about how they would much rather compete and lose to older kids than go up on stage for two days, competing against no one.

They won the junior division. And man, was that victory so sweet - not even comparable to getting jackets just for showing up.

 

[SL&AM]

I definitely agree with your statements about competing against the best or go home. However, we created this climate that every athlete deserves something for competing, and what we got now are soft athletes, who are afraid of true competition. I remembered growing up and competing in a sport, sometimes winning was just not good enough and we primarily analyzed how we played, did we reached certain goals and this attitude came from our coaches.
I wondered have we, as parents and child psychologists or experts have diluted the power of the coaches and now these coaches are unable to effectively do their jobs...In essence, have we tied these coaches hands and that is why we have soft and entitled athletes.

Yes. That is exactly what society has done.

However, not all child psychologists like what they're seeing, nor do all parents; but the loudest often win, even when their way isn't necessarily what's right.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Yes. That is exactly what society has done.

However, not all child psychologists like what they're seeing, nor do all parents; but the loudest often win, even when their way isn't necessarily what's right.

Because the rest of us stay silent.