Wow, Sacramento Royals went all the way down to Hollywood for competition that is hardly know or attended? Don't think I would have been happy about that as a parent.

Hello all - This is my first post as a member of the message board, so forgive any mistakes!

I am the program director & head coach for Rebels All Stars (Lincoln, CA).  Our Junior Co-Ed team attend the Hollywood Battle.  Let me see if I can shed some light, at least from my perspective...

We took only one of our 4 teams to this competition.  The reason for this is that when we began this season, only some of our parents wanted to travel out of northern California for comps.  We have been committed to attending this competition since May 2006.  Actually, earlier than that, though we registered our team in May.  As some of you probably know, we are a small gym, definitely less than 100 members, and we pride ourselves on planning a schedule and sticking with it.  We don't like to change things on our parents unless we have to.  We also do not have any teams looking to get bids to the Worlds, so we have a different perspective when it comes to the competitions we choose. 

That said, we had a great time at the Hollywood Battle.  Pacific is definitely all about the kids, and it was run like a big competition, even though it was smaller.  They did not skimp on the team gifts, program gifts, trophies, jackets, or banners.  Yes, we would have liked more teams to attend, but we hope that other teams will try Pacific & like the same things we like about them.  One of the things we find refreshing about Pacific is that, even though we were alone in our division, we were NOT guaranteed to win.  Pacific does not just give away first place.  Teams that compete alone are compared to other scores from like teams across the country & they must meet a certain standard to win first place.  This was announced over & over at the competition, as well as at the California Capital Competition the week before in Sacramento.  Our teams were told about this and you can believe our Juniors were nervous!  They knew it would not be an "easy win".  Though I cannot say for certain, but I do believe that someone did not take home first even thought they were alone in their division.  We will have to see the results posted to confirm.  I do know from looking at other posted results that Pacific sticks to their guns with this policy.  If you look for yourself, there are teams who only receive second, and teams that do not receive bids to their Nationals in Washington DC.

I enjoyed the format for the day.  It was a long day, & my feet hurt, but performing twice & having a chance to better our scores really made the difference.  Our Juniors know that I believe they would not have received first based on their first performance.  They were a totally different squad the second time around! 

Someone asked about the venue...I was not thrilled with it, and it would be my biggest complaint to Pacific.  This was because the food, warm-ups, spirit sales, and video ordering were downstairs, while all the parent seating was upstairs.  The down escalator was the only one working, so we had to walk up a very long ramp to return to our parents.  I did say that my feet hurt!  However, I do not entirely fault Pacific with this.  They changed the venue at the last minute...they claim due to scheduling conflicts.  I beleive they had to find a less expensive venue for the number of teams attending.  To me, even though I didn't care for the LA Sports Arena, it was a reasonable change for the situation. 

My favorite part was seeing the teams that were there.  RC Club Cheer was AWESOME & I simply could not get over how talented California Quake/Blaze were.  Of course, the Royals are always entertaining to watch, too!  Everyone who attended was so friendly!

Anyway, that is my persepctive...Hope that helps!
Nancy

Thanks for taking the time to give us your perspective. It is always valued.

Is Pacific a new competition company or have them been around? I haven't heard of them and haven't attended any of their competitions. I think the biggest problem we have today is too many companies. Thats why you end up going to so many competitions with no one in your divisions. It is hard for a gym/coach to know this up front, but they can base their competition selections on previous years attendance and have a good idea what to expect.

I miss the days of regional competitions where there were lots of teams! It was much more exciting to watch and you felt like your money was well spent for all that training for your kid.

Pacific just posted the results.....

http://www.thecoastalcorporation.com/competitions/results

Why THANK YOU Danny - We feel the same about Cheergyms!  And we are looking forward to seeing LOTS of our friends at the Spirit Spectacular!

At this point the best I can tell you is this.  We're hoping to get things started by 10am on Sunday the 4th.  There are approximatley 75 performances and 1200 cheerleaders attending.  If everything goes well we can be done with awards by 4-4:30pm.  Don't quote me on any of that.

We're working on having a Superbowl room with a TV so those who want to can watch the pregame show and the start of the game.  Cross your fingers.

We would start the comp earlier but our hands are tied by UOP.  We're doing the best we can.  I'm looking forward to reading what you all think of this competition.  We're really trying to take into consideration all of the complaints and comments on this board regarding past comps. 

Danny

-- Edited by Danny at 18:28, 2007-01-24

Wow, that would be fantastic.   Thanks for the info Danny.  And even if it doesn't work out (to have a tv for superbowl fans) just the fact that you're considering it is awesome.   Thanks for thinking of us football fans, and for taking the comments/suggestions/complaints on this message board into consideration.  I'm sure it will be a great competition, looking forward to it!

cheerwatcher wrote:

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special1 wrote:

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Well, I have to honestly say it REALLY wasn't worth the trip.  The USC campus is somehting to see..  But even so, this is been our story all season.  We have been to so many competitions with really no competition, that I have to wonder if our coaches are doing this on purpose.  We've been in the dark all season. 

Our teams placed in this order:

Mini's - 4
Youth - 1 no competition
Juniors - 2
Senior Co-ed - 1 no competition
College team - 2 no competition (they needed a minimum score to get the title.)

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Thats unfortunate. Thats what the girls all look forward to is actually competiting against someone and WORKING for 1st place.  Perhaps expressing your dismay to the coaches/owner calmy as to the competitions you've attended thus far will be an eye opener to attend better comps next season. just a thought. I bet parents are going to be getting so frustrated and leave their organization, Its kind of a waste of money. Well, good luck! I hope you guys do great the rest of the season!!!!

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I agree with CheerWatcher.  You need to talk about why your organization keeps selecting the unknown competitions.  Is this something your organization has always done?  Or is this something that developed this season?  Do you have other parents that feel the same way?  Maybe, there is strength in numbers?  The parents just need to get together and ask those hard questions.  This is a tough one.  Good luck.  Like the old saying goes:  "There's other fish in the sea."  There's other cheer clubs out there and you may be happier else where.

It's next to impossible for directors and coaches to be able to predict how many will be going to a certain competition.  Here's why:

1.  When many select their schedule it is still in the April/May months.  We have no idea what competitions many will go to.

2.  Competition companies entice us to go offering or promising certain things.  Sometimes they ask us to help establish themselves. 

3.  Many times no one has much of an idea of what teams they are going to field until the end of summer after we have selected our competitions, so we won't know if our teams will face any local competition until we actually get the schedule. 

4.  There are so many levels and divisions to compete in that unless you're in a competition with 800 teams (Atlanta) you're pretty much guaranteed to not have much competition.  Even in cases like Atlanta with 800 teams (average in the West Coast for "big" competitions is 100) most divisions don't even come close to breaking 10 teams in one division.

5.  For their own reasons quite a few All Star programs don't like to share what competitions they are going to. 

6.  In the All Star community, generally coaches don't get together and discuss what competitions they are going to go to.  


  I know many of you hate USA but if you take a look at their High School competitions, there is actually competition.  They have Novice, Intermediate and Advanced divisions but won't break down Large and Small unless there are a certain number competing.  As a coach I'd like to go back to Novice, Intermediate and Advanced and adopt the same minimum registration requirement for a break in Large and Small.  I for one would love to have 3rd place mean something again.