I know there are coaches and such on this website and I hope some of them reply. OC mom, please reply too as you always have such positive suggestions and/or thoughts.
At a recent competition, a fellow cheermom was in the midst of a group of fans from another organization because seating was very limited. I have high respect for this organization and their fans are extremely supportive. This fellow cheermom was sitting in front of some young girls who were supporting this other organization (they had no uniforms so probably friends or sisters of a team member). Anyways, they continued to purposely throw things at her, purposely bump her and even spill drinks on her as if it were all accidents. It was painfully obvious that they were intentionally doing this. They kept insisting seats were taken that were never used even at the end of the event. Unfortunately, this particular cheermom does not have the nerve and she put up with it for a good hour. If I had known, I would have asked them to stop!!
Anyways, as we all know....it is in our hopes that all fans will be supportive of others but with every large gym out there, always a few can ruin things for the rest of us. Now my question is, would you just let this go? Or do you think the organization would want to know they had fans behaving this way? If so, how would you notify them? I know there is not a lot they can do as they do not know who specifically did this, but do they care to know this behavior happened from their organization.
I think that with large gyms, its often hard to keep track of all the girls, parents, fans etc. Sometimes there ARE a few bad apples. The thing I would suggest is letting that gym owner know. Im sure they wouldn't want those people to represent their gym so horribly. Im sorry that this happened to your friend. NOBODY deserves that! We are all there for one reason--To support the kids and have fun. Just send the onwer an email as a heads up. They will appreciate that so they can talk to all their kids about sportsmenship and such. Hop that helps!
If I witnessed this type of behavior and saw that it had been going on for that length of time I personally would have spoken up. No one deserves to be treated like that. My daughter is in her fourth year of All Star Cheer and I've attended many competitions. I've witnessed good and bad sportsmanship along the way. I can honestly say that I seen more good then bad. What I don't understand is why someone from that organization didn't speak up especially a parent if it was that obvious what was going on. I agree that the best thing would be to send a letter informing the gym involved that this occurred, or you could inform your teams owner/coaches and let them address it. Any organization that we have been involved with would never tolerate that type of behavior.
Sometimes doing what you did, posting on this board and making many aware of it, is the best thing to do. You're right, as a coach it's virtually impossible to have control on what ALL the gym athletes, parents and fans do at competition. I preach sportsmanship and professional behavior from my athletes and hope that the fans do the same. In most cases they do, but as you mentioned, there will always be a few isolated incidents. This year we had a brother of on of our atheltes throw food over onto a lower seating section. Then my gym was reprimanded by the competition director. How embarrassing!
But, it happens. And the best that we can do as coaches is remind our kids to try and conduct themselves in a professional manner and hope that everyone follows suit.
Looking forward to giving everyone a detailed account from Atlanta in my Nelson's Thoughts!
-- Edited by Nelson at 11:18, 2007-02-02
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Nelson
"I have no time to converse with you, I must be first to register my disgust on the internet regarding the new McBane film" - Comic Book Guy
That's a tough one because no one wants to start a fight, especially at a competition. We ALLLLL know how that turns out! You could politely ask them to stop, but by the time the week is over, people were "throwing punches" and the "cops were called". It just gets worse as the story goes down the line.
My suggestion would be this. Write an email to the owner of the gym. State exactly what you saw. Describe the person/people doing this. Also describe where you were sitting. I would probably state it like, "I am so sorry to have to write to you about this, but it can't be fixed if no one knows about it." Kind of like you aren't trying to start anything and that you regret having to even say anything.
When something like this happens, it's embarassing for EVERYONE. Not just for your own gym, but for everyone else because it just shows the exact thing we all say that we hate. But NOT saying anything sometimes is even worse because people like this need to know that it won't be tolerated. It's just unsportsmanship at it's worst. And I would be heartbroken to know that someone thought negatively of ME because someone in my organization behaved this way. I go out of my way to be kind to every single person I come in contact with and would hope that others would do the same for me.
Even if it were OUR gym, PLEASE write to us. I know that it would be handled RIGHT AWAY. That is just not ok and it's embarassing for everyone. I dont' know about other gyms but if nothing is said, nothing is fixed.
But I would like to tell everyone this.... if you see something nice, let's pass that on too!!! For example: AT the ATC competition, SCV was performing. I was the photographer for the entire event. I was tired, hungry but didn't have much of a break in between each team. The kids were allowed to sit right up front and of course, were in my way. I can't look down while I am shooting, so I worried that I would be stepping on little hands and little legs....
I asked the kids to moved over and make me an isle. They smiled, said sorry and moved IMMEDIATELY. Their coach came up to me, asked if everything was ok and then told the kids to leave me room and move if I come by them cause I can't see them. EVERY SINGLE KID MOVED WITHOUT QUESTION, smiled at me, was polite, and I was in shock. Sad, but true. I was shocked at how polite they were to me. So I wrote a letter to the gym about what I had seen. At the competition in Long Beach, the owner came up to me and thanked me for my letter. She had remembered me and I thought to myself, what a great place SCV must be.
Sometimes it's easy for us to complain but we don't think about sending notes of praise. Of course, this situation NEEDS to be brought to light, but if we see something kind too, lets all pass that along as well!!!!!
-- Edited by OC Mom at 19:14, 2007-02-02
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OC Mom, Mom of 5 great kids! A cheerleader/softball player, a RETIRED cheerleader, a football/baseball player, 1 Airman and future Police Officer and one college student!
Thanks for everyone's wonderful input, and so prompt too! I will consider all your suggestions! One thing this did bring out: There are way more people that deomonstrate good sportsmanship at the events then there are who do not. Remember, this is for our children and we need to demonstrate good sportsmanship so they carry it on in the future! Thanks for everything!
